Roles are maintained, but changes are beginning to be perceived. Occupations related to the home, caring for children or the sick, and education are mostly occupied by women. On the other hand, the opposite occurs in those more related to transportation, construction, and energy or air conditioning. The gender perspective of labor confirmed in the latest census published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
A detailed analysis of the occupations where women and men are the most allows us to see that there is only one job where they are more than 95% of the employed. It’s about cleaning and housework.
At the opposite extreme, trades where at least 9 out of 10 professionals are men are those related to masonry, construction, mechanics or transportation. This can be seen in the following graph, where the size of each circle indicates the total number of employees.
These data come from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, which determined the number of workers in each occupation from SEPE, Muface and other census contract records, as well as statistical records covering more than 18 million worker occupations. Spain.
There are extremes and there are cases of practical parity, as in the hotel industry or real estate agents, accounting staff and the financial sector. And there are segments with a large number of affiliations and a traditional presence of female employees. This applies to the job category of shop and warehouse worker. Almost a million people are employed in this profession and almost 70% of them are women. A situation highlighted in recent months by wage and labor claims at Inditex stores. The disparity of criteria between the company and the union representatives led to an agreement on a base salary of 18,000 euros.
Overall, it is clear from this analysis that women hold jobs that are most closely related to caregiving. And no wonder. “It is not by chance that we are in these sectors,” explains Carolina Vidal, CCOO’s Confederate Secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions. “These are occupations that are given little importance, which are part of the personal sphere” because they are related to homes and families. “And they have low wages. I can say that if it was a men’s position, it wouldn’t be like this,” he says.
In addition, it emphasizes the weight that part-time work has in occupations that are mainly held by women. “If you’re looking for bias, you go into these jobs,” Vidal says. In addition, it emphasizes the educational component, which tends to choose one or another profession. “Women are predisposed from birth. It’s a priori discrimination, in our education in our homes, in the educational system, in gender roles,” she sums up.
This analysis of data published by INE also shows the distribution of men and women in each occupation by their age group. In this case, there are professions where women lead the way. A trade that until now has been predominantly male, but young professionals are performing at higher rates than the rest of their counterparts. This is true, as seen below, in medicine, engineering, higher and university education, architecture or journalism.
Young women also hold seats on some boards of directors. For example, in companies related to the technology sector or advertising and public relations. Both already have 50% of young women holding these positions with decision-making skills. Something that does not happen in other segments, such as commerce or services, where young female managers make up less than 40% of positions. And in the agricultural sector, at all ages, a maximum of 30% are women in management positions.
Just this Tuesday, the government approved the law on equal representation of women and men in decision-making bodies. Large companies – listed or with more than 250 employees – must ensure that their board of directors has a composition of at least 40% women, and they ensure that this composition is also consistent with the company’s senior management.
INE data also indicate that there is an increasing presence of women in the judiciary and the legal profession. Almost 30% of workers over the age of 60 are women. On the other hand, among the youngest professionals, under the age of 30, they occupy more than 65% of the positions. Which indicates the future trend.
On the contrary, the increasing presence of men among the youngest professionals is perceived in the cleaning staff of offices, hotels and similar establishments. Also in the work of cooks and kitchen assistants, where young people represent more than 50%. In contrast, those over 50 are less than 30%.
This transformation partly reflects the new levers associated with training, where a paradigm shift is being attempted. For example, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training launched the Steam Alliance, which includes everything from unions to companies, including women’s associations and educational, public and private organizations, to promote women’s careers in science, technology training and mathematics (Steam).
One of its components is to measure how many women are currently being trained. According to the data published by the above, the percentage of female students enrolled in face-to-face mechanical production courses in Basic Vocational Training (FP) is 2.99% and reaches 3.95% in the middle class and 9.46% in the higher classes. Ministry. On the other hand, in building and construction work, there are more than 33% female students in higher grades, although this percentage drops to 8.5% in basic vocational training. However, less than 5 out of 100 students are women at the top level of vehicle transport and maintenance training.
The graph below shows the gender gap in occupations in each age group.
The need to attract female talent to senior management and middle positions is taken into account by employers. The Executive Director indicates that three programs have been launched in recent years. Two of them focus on women who already have middle or managerial positions, but where companies need to step up and encourage them to reach higher positions. A third focuses on 16- and 17-year-olds, called “unstoppable girls,” to promote leadership careers at an age they say could lead them to decide on traditionally feminine careers.
The CCOO Federal Secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions deepens that the change and the promotion of a new model, in all positions and categories, must come from better wages, labor relations, paid leave and risk prevention crossed from a gender perspective.
This change in perspective is recognized by some sectors, such as construction, where they need women because they have hundreds of thousands of jobs they can fill and they remain vacant. By the end of 2022, only 11% of the sector’s total subsidiaries are women. There are more than 150,000, but their presence is increasing, 5.4% compared to 2021.
Efforts are also being made to attract women into the road transport sector. The Spanish Truck Transport Confederation (CETM), one of the associations in this field, suggests that “statistics show that only 2% of professional transport drivers in Spain are women. at the wheel, but, unfortunately, this percentage is still very low. The same applies to our European neighbors: Italy and Germany are the countries with the highest number of women behind the wheel, with 7% and 5% respectively,” he lists.
From this point of view, one of the changes introduced in the transport regulation last year is related to the fact that drivers are prohibited from unloading goods and creating rest areas with safety measures. But there are pending tasks. “It is necessary to promote and promote equality plans in companies, improve the employment and retention of women, eliminate the wage gap and promote access to managerial positions, along with measures to promote equal treatment,” this association concludes.
Source: El Diario
