Yesterday marked the 100th International Women’s Day. What does that mean? My husband came home with a string of imitation pearls; recognition of the sterling work that women do – a gift from the union, not from him. Great. Just what every woman needs to feel valued: cheap pearls. An inspired choice. It must have been a man that thought that one up…
A friend in London texted me to wish me happy IWD and told me she was off to the British Library for a women’s entrepreneurs event. She was looking for ideas and inspiration. I am always looking for inspiration, mainly about interesting ways to spend my time, other than walking the dog and taxiing the kids around. Get a job, I hear you say! It is not that easy actually. And if I had a job, I would be stuck here for 50 weeks a year and that would not be good for my mental health either!
Cyprus apparently has the worst record in the EU for women occupying the highest decision-making roles, which may go some way to explaining why the Cyprus problem is still no-where near a solution. Forget dynamic, highly paid, well-respected and challenging roles. What about getting a job at all? Any job? Marina Stavrinou-Koukou of the Cyprus Workers’ Federation said that working women face the same problems everywhere in the world. I’d just like to point out that they don’t. In a country where there is no real infrastructure, it is really quite difficult to work at all if you have kids.
First of all, it is difficult to imagine anyone paying you a salary worth working for, with enough left over to pay for appropriate childcare. I thought I was being exploited in London, with four times the salary I have been offered here for the same type of work. And let’s not pretend that the low salaries here can be justified because the cost of living is so low. It is probably cheaper to live in London than it is in Nicosia these days. In Cyprus the only obvious solution is to exploit some other woman from Sri Lanka or the Philippines, pay her a pittance and get her to do it all for you. The men certainly won’t. The question is, whatever happened to feminism?
Of all my female friends here hardly any have jobs, even though most of them are highly qualified. This country must have the most highly qualified taxi-drivers in Europe, earning the lowest salaries: unemployed mothers with nothing better to do than chauffeur their kids around town! To celebrate IWD, I took time out of the gruelling domestic schedule and went out for coffee with a friend. We discussed the progress women have made or the complete lack of it, from where I am sitting. I didn’t know then about my new pearl necklace I had to look forward to…
