Release from the PCP Press Office

PCP's commitment to women's rights: Combating and preventing discrimination, inequalities and violence - Equality at work and in life

For the PCP, signalling the day for the end of violence against women is not the evocation of an event, but rather expressing its support for the struggle of women against labour exploitation, inequalities, discrimination and violence, anchored in a vast heritage of reflection and proposal , embodied in the European Parliament and in the Assembly of the Republic regarding the various expressions of violence against women at work, in the family and in society, aimed at the reinforcement of legislation, but also a path towards its eradication.

On this day, the PCP affirms its commitment to women's rights based on an alternative policy that aims to combat and prevent discrimination, inequalities and violence against women. Objectives that require specific measures for their prevention and combat associated with the compliance of women's rights, ensuring equality at work and in life, strengthening the social and political participation of women at various levels, which in itself constitutes an important impetus to overcome prejudices and stereotypes as an expression of values based on the subordination of women.

The PCP's commitment to women's rights is based, in an articulated way, on an alternative policy, which assumes the following priorities:

Equality at work and in life

Combating the gap between legislation and women's lives, eliminating inequalities and discrimination at work, in the family and in society and situations of poverty, materialising the right to work with rights, professional evolution, equal pay, increasing wages and the National Minimum Wage to 850 euros; cutting weekly working time to 35 hours, ensuring the right to be a mother and worker without penalisations; ensuring the access of all women to public services and social functions of the State: providing public services aimed at promoting equality with financial, technical and human resources that allow them to intervene effectively in detecting and combating discrimination and enforce the legislation.

Prevent and combat all forms of violence with a view to its eradication

Violence against women takes on different expressions - domestic violence, violence during courtship, female genital mutilation, moral and sexual harassment, exploitation in prostitution, among others.

All of these must be recognised as extreme expressions of injustice, inequality and discrimination that end up in humiliation, disregard for the physical and psychological integrity of the women who are subjected to it, and that violate the dignity, social status and rights of all women.

The autonomous treatment of the various forms of violence against women must be ensured, creating instruments of intervention aimed at acknowledging what they represent in women's lives, prioritizing their prevention and combating them with a view to their eradication.
To this end, public policies must assume the following priorities:

Recognition of exploitation in prostitution as a serious form of violence against women, taking measures to prevent and combat it in compliance with the Constitution, featuring the adoption of a plan to combat exploitation in prostitution that ensures ways out for women in prostitution.

This implies combating the evil impacts of the proliferation of concepts based on the commodification of the woman's body as a sexual object and of concepts that subvert work and sexuality, subjacent to the false dichotomies between forced prostitution and prostitution by women's choice, as well as those that result from the commodification of the woman's body through “rented wombs”, which transforms a child into an object of contract and into a negotiable and tradable product, in a blatant violation of its fundamental rights and which feeds businesses on human reproduction.

Domestic violence calls for a widespread recognition of its more subtle and glaring facets - which lead to tragic outcomes with the death of women - so that they can identify and not tolerate it and feel confident that they have structures of proximity that can inform, explain and support them, even if they do not wish to file a complaint.

Likewise, it is essential to strengthen risk assessment mechanisms for the physical integrity and protection of victims; ensure follow-up and intervention with aggressors and victims, in parallel and regardless of whether there is a judicial case or progress report, and increase the instruments for preventing and combating the recurrence of domestic violence through the expansion of programmes for monitoring the aggressor.

It is essential to implement on the continent and in the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira a decentralised public network articulated with the authorities that intervene in this area, with articulation among them to ensure proximity and equal access for women to information, referral, signalling and protection of victims.

Expressions of violence in youth relationships require measures to prevent situations of violence during courtship, moral and sexual harassment of young women, paying particular attention to promoting the values of equality between women and men.

There has to be a real education on sexuality and on sexual and reproductive rights, with the full implementation of what is set down in law.

It is necessary to pay particular attention to the exposure of young people to pornography content on social networks or to the ease of using resources such as the Internet to stalk, threaten, control or humiliate, often in retaliation.

Public Schools, in their various levels, cannot fail to be a fundamental instrument for detecting and signalling violence between partners, exposing students to violent contexts, particularly in the family, and for providing new responses that contribute to the values of equality, of justice, of peace.

The women who live, work and study in our country can count on the PCP's commitment and determination in defence of their rights, in law and in life, as an integral part of a fairer, more humanised society of social progress.

  • Assuntos e Sectores Sociais
  • Central
  • Mulheres