&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/estonia-gender-pay-gap/&via=1.1 199.93.58.133:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
Women in Estonia suffer from EU’s worst gender pay gap
Published: 24 July, 2010, 08:02
Edited: 26 July, 2010, 16:28
TAGS: EU, Europe, Human rights
Gender stereotypes die hard in Estonia leaving women far behind their male counterparts when it comes to paychecks. And when it collides with the ethnic dimension, Russian women find themselves at the bottom of the list.
Estonia has one of Europe's worst pay gaps between men and women. EU studies say women get paid 17 percent less than men on average. But in Estonia, it's as much as 30 percent.
“People think that we don't have a problem. It's the awareness of the problem and the problem that people don't have the gender lenses to see when there is inequality going on,” Estonian political analyst Pirijo Turk told RT.
Yet it goes much further than wages. The so-called segregation in the economy means women often remain in lower paid jobs like healthcare and education while men dominate the more lucrative private sector.
Experts say that's not just unfair, it’s bad for business.
“If, for example, a woman feels that she can’t do the job or can't take up the career that she would like but she has a talent for that, then of course there's some human resource lost to the economy,” said Mari-Liis Sepper from the Gender Equality Commission.
There also appears to be an ethnic dimension, with Estonia's large Russian minority receiving lower pay than their Estonian counterparts. And ethnic Russian women come out bottom of the list.
“It's a structural issue in the labor market that Russian-speaking women are perhaps working in the sectors where the wages are especially low, and this, of course, will increase the pay gap even more,” said Sepper.
Single mother Olga Brackel works in a factory where she has to sweat it out just to bring in a meager paycheck to raise her son.
“It’s 33 degrees Celsius in our workshop, but our employers don’t care. If you try to stand up for your rights, they’ll point you to the door – if you don’t like it here, you’re free to leave. It’s very hard to find a job here in Estonia, therefore we put up with working in slave-like conditions,” she told RT.
Whether it’s over ethnicity or gender, it's stereotypes that have been identified as one of the root causes of inequality. Ingrained attitudes of what are seen as the proper roles men and women should perform are passed down though generations. The government says it’s trying to weed them out, but its going to take time.
“I would admit the problems. There is no point of hiding the problems that your country faces,” said Christian Veske from the Ministry of Social Affairs. “However, it is a lengthy process and these attitudes of people do not change overnight.”
For Brackel, though, it’s simply a case of double standards.
“I think if our prime minister was paid my salary, even if he didn’t have to pay the utilities, I don’t think it would last him a week,” she said.
24.07.2010, 03:59
Mine blast rocks Russia’s SiberiaA mine explosion has rocked Russian’s Kemerovo region in Siberia. One person is missing, and at least four have been taken to the hospital with burn injuries. |
24.07.2010, 15:18
12 comments
Putin joins biker festAn annual motorbike festival taking place in the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol has seen a surprise visitor. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has turned up, riding a Harley Davidson Trike in front of the participants. |
Thank you for your words of encouragement, Kihnu, but I’m not altogether sure how much rejoicing the arrival of yet another of my posts occasions amongst RT staff. But seriously, I do try to provide factual balance to articles appearing in RT that relate to the Baltics, because it is often really needed. Your comments about Narva remind me of an episode that is both humorous and praiseworthy that I encountered in a Tallinn hotel a couple of years ago. I wanted to send some of my clothes to the laundry, but somehow I had managed to misplace the laundry list that was provided in the room, and couldn’t find it. So I went to the desk downstairs and attempted to get a new laundry list. A young Russian man in his 20s was manning the desk who could speak passable Estonian, but he simply didn’t know what the Estonian term for a laundry list meant, nor could he speak any English. After trying for some time to help him understand, he reluctantly called the manager, who was an Estonian lady. I praised the young man to her and explained he had been very helpful, but that he just didn’t understand what a “laundry list” was. However, the young man knew enough Estonian to know exactly what I was saying, and at that point he interrupted and very proudly said, “Mjiina räägin Jeesti kjeelt vjääga hjäästi” (“I speak Estonian very well”, Russian accent supplied). I find a lot of Russians trying really hard to communicate in Estonian, and I can only praise them for this. It is an attitude that is streets ahead of the Soviet-era mind-set that seems to predominate in parts of the Kremlin and in Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that finds frequent expression amongst Russian officialdom in bitter criticism of Estonia’s effort to educate all its people to be able to communicate in the language of the land.
Kihnu, You said that "when a woman reaches the age of 40 in Estonia, she is most likely considered "old" and not desirable for employment". I think, that Estonia has progress with this matter, because, in Russia this "threshold" age is 35. And it is applicable not only to women, but for men as well. By the way, that was one of the reasons I left Russia. I was 36, when I suddenly realized that this was the "end of the road for me" -- "too old" to keep dreaming about big things and try to change something. In the US you feel relatively young, at least, until 50. Actually, as the generation of "baby boomers" getting older, this "active age" it moving even higher. Probably, to 55-60. I think, it mostly has to do with the attitude of people themselves, rather than the real capabilities of the "old" people. I strongly believe, that was the primary reason why today Russia is on the knees technologically -- the lack of "old" guys" who used to drive the Soviet high-tech. No wonder that Medvedev went to the US in his attempt to convince the "old" Russians to return back. Right move, though. And, I agree with Marzipan6. Russia, itself, has terrible problem with the "early aging". Probably, one of the worst in the world. Yet, it chooses to point out to somebody else.
Bogdanov & Marzipan6, Age discrimination is very insidious because it burns into one soul of a person when he or she is told "you are too old for our position, go and sweep a street somewhere". Age discrimination is worse than wage discrimination. I have been fortunate in my life, but I have acquaintances who have been deeply hurt by such rejections: "you are too old for our firm". I think age discrimination came to Estonian and Russia as a result of "westernization" which puts a premium on youth and good looks. Seems to me that few elderly even try to venture into Old Town Tallinn, unless they are part of a tour group. The streets are filled with reveling young people to an extent that even I feel out of place. I feel more at home on the streets of Narva among the old babushkas.