minimum wage

It's women's day, you've got to pay: mind the gap

It's women's day, you've got to pay: mind the gap

It was German activist Clara Zetkin who first came up with the 'women’s day' event at an international socialist women’s conference in Copenhagen in 1910. On 8 March 1911, it was celebrated for the first time. It's the perfect opportunity to throw different angled hats into the woman-shaped ring. In 2008 cafebabel.com discussed the French philosophical idea of the 'European women's clause'. In 2010 we wondered whether the internet was an eldorado for women. In 2011 we asked why the best books were not by female writers. For the 101st anniversary of women's day, we return to one of the initial points of the day, which is also the official theme for 2012: equal pay for women. This point was supposedly established with the 1957 treaty founding the European union, over 50% of whose population are women. From an anti-feminist perspective of a proposed female journalist quota in Germany, to Europe's young female job-hunters, read our special edition on economic inequality (Image: (cc) TheeErin/ Flickr)

A whopping 79 million Europeans are 'poor'

A whopping 79 million Europeans are 'poor'

cafebabel discusses three main points for the '2010 European year for combating poverty and social exclusion'; and they all fit in with popular stereotypes. Those living in the east are poorer than those in the west, thanks to higher poverty thresholds. Women suffer more social exclusion than men, though groups like the divorced and separated fathers in Italy are fighting back. The most modern calamity in 2010 though comes in the form of an armada of graduates. The young unemployed are flooding the internship markets, keeping a more than beady eye on the average European minimum wage. The clock is striking, and dignity is no longer the chime; it remains a vain word for too many Europeans. Try that for a new stereotype

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