A Gender Lens On Poverty

On Thursday, May 9th 2024, I was invited to give a speech to W7 in my role as President of the Equality Group of the European Economic and Social Commitee. This is my speech:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

You might find it strange that I begin a speech to the W7 by quoting Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities.

But the quote seems so fitting of these difficult times. The times are troubled. With wars, deaths of civilians, climate change and rising inequality. And maybe even worse, a loss of community, a feeling of facing all these things alone.

But there is also hope, brilliant young minds creating new solutions, people who come together for a cause and work for change and there are also areas where we see progress.

It is a time where actions are needed. The actions of each of you in this room and more than anything where our combined efforts are more important than ever.

But I should probably get around to introductions. My name is Sif Holst, I am the President of the Ad Hoc Group on Equality of the European Economic and Social Committee, And I would like to thank you for inviting the EESC to speak at this important meeting.

We, as the house of the European organized civil society, are here to express our commitment to achieving gender equality and to underline the importance of remembering the strength of civil society organisations in times such as these.

We celebrate the voices of women’s organisations, the actions of organisations who help those most in need and the organisations that help push for change, for climate action, for more women in STEM, for a focus on the situation of the carer and the value of care work. But also, to listen to these voices, including the voices of those too often overheard and to ensure an intersectional perspective in all our work.

The EESC works in a wide range of policy areas giving a voice to European civil society and working together with civil society from the rest of the world. And we have a long history of advocating for EU and global partners to advance gender equality and address the economic and social inequalities that women and girls struggle with today.

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Looking back at the past few years, tremendous achievements have been made on gender equality at the European level and we are glad that our Committee also contributed to directives such as gender balance on corporate boards, pay transparency, work-life balance as well as the European Care strategy, just to name a few.

In addition, we welcome the political agreement on a first legislative act to protect women against violence and domestic violence at the European level.

Violence committed against women increases women's risk of poverty and their ability to participate on an equal basis in the labour market, which results into higher likelihood of experiencing poverty.

Violence against women is also one of the causes for which women end up in homelessness situations. The pandemic has further increased the magnitude of the phenomenon in the EU, including among women.

This is only one element of poverty. We need to increase our understanding of the complexity of poverty and work to secure women's access to essential services, whether it is health care, water resources or energy.

Our studies show that there are specific factors contributing to women, girls and gender-diverse groups being more affected by energy poverty. The issue is especially true for aged women, single-parent households headed by women, women migrants, and gender-diverse persons on LGBTIQ+ population group.

But also the lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene (to "WASH") has a disproportionate impact on women in multiple ways. As stressed in one of our flagship initiatives on a Blue Deal, addressing water poverty is essential.

Our upcoming work on Water politics: Empowering Youth, Women, Indigenous and Local Communities, will focus on empowering women and youth as actors in water management and blue diplomacy and we urge you, to also ensure a focus on this critical subject.

As we see the effects of climate change, and of conflicts, we see an increased risk of both energy and water poverty, disproportionately affecting women and marginalized groups and we urge you to consider this area, to consider access to energy, to water, to our basic infrastructure as a priority in the years to come.

I want to just mention a few numbers from our recent work relating to water poverty, that shocked me.

In EU, approximately 9.4 million people, can only access basic drinking water services outside their premises.

And approximately 450.000 EU residents do not have access to even basic drinking water services

6.7 million people in the EU, live without sanitary facilities.

Furthermore 8 million people in Europe live in areas of high drought frequency or water stress, where there is a mismatch between the demand and supply of water. A situation expected to worsen due to climate change.

And lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene has a disproportionate impact on women in multiple ways, for example due to their disproportionate role in performing household chores, and due to issues associated with menstrual hygiene management. So, it might be an issue that ultimately keeps a girl from school.

I could also mention that more women than men live with a disability, with the costs and the economic disadvantage it entails. Not to mention the carer responsibility of many women, where a family member has a disability.

Even if the legislative landscape within the EU has embraced gender mainstreaming across different policies, the lack of understanding of gender inequality as a systemic and structural issue, for example not taken women as care providers at home into account or the gender pay gap make it difficult to fully adopt a gender lens on poverty.

One action point is to secure data. We have a critical gap when it comes to intersectional data, both quantitative and qualitative, that could be used to define targeted gender-responsive instruments for example to overcome energy poverty among women. Some interesting cases are being developed in Ireland and Spain, but further research supporting specific policy tools is needed.

An then we need to eliminate the barriers to access care, health and other essential services that are part of gender inequality.

When doing all of this, we are not only addressing the issue of poverty and social exclusion, we are truly paving the way for our vision of a more equitable and just society.

The final action point in this connection is to support civil society in their work. In too many countries there is a shrinking civic space. We need the voices of civil society. We need civil society to ensure action, both the ability to act fast when disaster strike, but also the long-haul efforts, holding fast, nurturing, and lifting us to new heights.

Poverty is not gender-neutral, so neither can our response to it be. But together we can make a difference and together with civil society and the social partners we can create solutions that increase the social resilience of our economies while aiming at minimum standards of protection and equal opportunities.

Part of working for change is also to look at ourselves. At EESC we recognize that our commitment starts within the walls of our institution! We need to encourage female leadership and the voices of underrepresented groups. We must consider how we can ensure a voice at the table of those we need to hear the most.

We have to look at the barriers that might hinder equality, we need to consider what we can achieve with kind curiosity and with tools such as the sunflower program that support people with hidden disabilities.

Another undertaking we have begun is to ensure a structured and meaningful youth involvement to better map and cater for the issues that are impacting the lives of young people and future generations. Setting up an EESC youth group and preparing an EU Youth Test, in close collaboration with the European Youth Forum, which is the largest platform of youth organizations in Europe.

We need an intersectional perspective – understanding the needs and particular struggles of young women, women with disabilities, indigenous women, women from ethnic groups, women migrants, and other women belonging to minorities and under protected groups.

And we need to integrate the intersectional perspectives into the economic and financial mechanisms at our disposal, and to empower women to gain cross-sectoral leadership representation that enables them to make their voices heard.

We need to begin with ourselves, consider which groups are excluded from the table today. Who can’t raise their voices in a gathering such as this. How do we ensure that their perspectives are also considered. If we work with equality without an intersectional perspective, we are doing it wrong.

We need for the G7 to be leaders in this process, ensuring that women have the same opportunity to lead as our male counterparts, that there is a diverse representation at all levels and that we insist on hearing the voices of those too often left behind.

And finally. We need to think about the future, and to give young girls the tools so that they can develop their skills and competences, including working with equal access to STEM and encouraging women to become entrepreneurs. Encouraging it from an early age, supporting networking and mentorship opportunities, and striving for equal access to financing.

We face the worst of times, an age of foolishness, a season of darkness.

We feel lost, alone, with too many battles to fight, there is too much destruction going on, we are even destroying our beautiful earth, bit by bit, by our inaction and by our overproduction.

We need to come together, work for change and support girls and women to rise up and become part of the solution.

We need brilliant young minds developing solutions for the climate crisis. We need engaged people working for change, striving for a better world with more equality, we need a strong civil society.

We need the spring of hope, a season of light, an epoch in belief in what we can achieve when we work together.

Thank you for your attention.