Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, Ministers and Minister for Equality,
For the first time ever, the Ministry for Equality is rewarding the work of four exemplary women; I repeat, four exemplary women. This has been yet another correct decision, Minister, from a long series of correct decisions. We have a brave Minister for Equality. She has withstood a lot to defend equality and progress, much of which was unjustly required of her, and I would like to underline this fact here today: she has put up with a lot, she is a brave woman.
However, I want to begin with the four exemplary women being rewarded today: Amelia, Carlota, María and Marisa. Congratulations! Congratulations to all four of you and thank you. Thank you for your work, for your perseverance and for your strength. Furthermore, we offer your our support and understanding of your cause, a cause we share with you as do many other people, thousands and thousands of people, thousands and thousands of men and women. So much from so many people has to be a good reward for women such as yourselves who have had to swim for so long against the tide, and alone on so many occasions.
María Telo, you were one of the four women who formed part of the General Commission given the responsibility of revising the Civil Code during a period in history (1971-1975) when the exercise of liberty was not an easy thing in Spain. It was far easier back then to exercise arbitrarity and discrimination; the natural consequence accepted and supported by the power of a fundamentalist vision that excluded human relationships; a fundamentalist and exclusive vision that our country and the generations of men and women who came before us suffered for decades, terrible decades, in many cases an entire lifetime of discrimination.
Your praiseworthy work helped leave behind several disgraceful institutions that included the marriage licence; the so-called licence to get married, something that unfortunately still existed in 1975. You ensured that the rightful legal status of women began to re-emerge; a strange dream for the Spain of today but not so such a short time ago. Whilst still under the grip of a dictatorship, you forged a path that the Constitution of 1978 and the Law in 1981 would travel down until recognising the complete legal equality of women and the complete equality of spouses in the eyes of the public authorities and the regulation of their assets.
Thank you, María. Thank you very much indeed, María, and thank you for the pleasure of seeing you, remembering you and rewarding you here today.
Carlota Bustelo, I remember your image, what it meant for a young socialist to know who the first speaker on issues of equality was in the Congreso del Partido Socialista [Socialist Party Congress] in 1975 and how that first public and committed appearance led you to Las Cortes [Parliament] in 1977 and to you stepping down in 1979 because you were unable to accept that the electoral lists included less women than the previous Legislature. Good for you. And your battle for equality led you to be the first Director-General of the Instituto de la Mujer [Women's Institute], from where you would continue the battle for equality for the rest of your life.
We owe you a lot; that needs to be said. What's more, Carlota, I want to stress how much you have meant for the Socialist Party because of that initial genuine push towards equality. Based on your strength and your position, the Socialist Party gradually became the great party for equality, a party with a profound feminist commitment in favour of women's rights.
Amelia Valcárcel, is a teacher: a teacher of sentiment, a teacher of values and a great teacher of equality. Inside and out of the classroom, in positions of institutional responsibility and in life, you have always shown determination and an unbeatable capacity to explain what is represented by the high value of equality and commitment.
You once said that nothing has ever been given to women free but rather that everything has had to be won. Those conquests are your conquests.
Furthermore, you know how especially significant, how especially heart-warming, it is for me to be here today recognising your work and giving you this prize. You are one of the people who I most admire, whose thinking has helped me the most. Reading everything you wrote about equality has formed many of my own thoughts and my attitudes in defence of a fairer and more integrating political project in a democracy that demands total equality. Thank you, Amelia.
And Marisa, your work is 'memory', your work is 'words'. If equality has a future, it is because the past has a memory and, if equality is a real and daily aspiration, it is because it has previously been manifested in words, in written conviction. As a tireless librarian and documentalist of equality, nobody knows that better than you. Through your work, we have all learned the value of the Biblioteca de Mujeres [Women's Library], which, of course, the Ministry of Equality is going to support. A Women's Library is a library of awareness. Thank you, Marisa.
Thanks to the four of you from the bottom of our hearts, and thanks also to those people who organised this event and to those of you here to share it with us.
I know what has brought you here this morning, on this late winter's morning; what has brought you here is your desire to maintain a commitment to equality. I know that because that is my reason for being here and I too will maintain that commitment, as President of the Government and as a member of the public; maintaining one of the noblest commitments in democratic history: real equality between men and women.
We are here to recognise the bravery of four exemplary women, exceptional women; but also to ensure that the essence of what is represented by the struggle for equality is not forgotten. Because this is an austere institutional event, as is the Ministry for Equality. Yes, it is the most austere Ministry in the history of Government in our country. The youngest Ministry and also, as you well know, the Ministry that some voices have continuously wished away, even before it was set up. They always have something to say about the Ministry of Equality but, come on, after so many decades, centuries, of such deep inequality towards women in this country, do we not deserve there to be a Ministry of Equality for women for a long time to come?
We are here to point out that the difficulties we are currently going through with the economic crisis cannot be used as an excuse, and there will always be someone who will want to do so, to allow ourselves to stop or slip backwards over ground we have already covered in favour of equality and the expansion of the human rights of the people of our country. Therefore, we do not stop claiming what is right and neither do we stop proclaiming the progress, the achievements, that are reached along the way.
So, for example, we can congratulate ourselves on the fact that, only a few days ago, the Senado [Upper House of Parliament] gave the green light for the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act; we can congratulate ourselves on being about to overcome a law that for a quarter of a century represented progress but that now presents problems in its application that only the hypocrisy or attempts to convert certain religious convictions into universal civic rules could ignore, problems that could undermine the dignity of women as well as the safety of professionals. This Law upholds that dignity and protects that safety; no woman will go to jail for interrupting her pregnancy, nor be intimidated for doing so. That is the change represented by this Law and this is what we have been working towards whenever we drafted a Bill or passed a vote in the Congreso or the Senado.
But friends, ladies and gentlemen, this last year has also seen other achievements on the path to implementing the Equality Act. I can tell you with great satisfaction that the Equality Act is one of the laws, perhaps the law, with the most widespread public support of all the legislation proposed by the Socialist Party since 2004 in this period of Government.
We can congratulate ourselves on have implemented an inspection plan to monitor effective equality between men and women in companies and on the fact that, right now, more than 65 per cent of the collective bargaining agreements published in the Official State Gazette already contain provisions regarding equality.
We can congratulate ourselves on, despite recent difficulties, the crisis, and serious job losses, how last year saw an increase in the percentage of women contributors to the Social Security system.
We can congratulate ourselves on there being more women in executive positions, above all in public companies, and that the number of women has also tripled on the Boards of Directors of large private companies. However, I should add that this is not enough and I call for faster compliance with the Equality Act in this regard. We are going to be more demanding so that the objectives of this Law are reached.
We can congratulate ourselves on having approved legislation that protects pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers in the working environment; on having added flexibility to the prior contribution requirements for the right to maternity benefits; on having increased paternity leave in certain cases; on having approved the regulation governing the concession and use of the "Equality in the workplace" slogan awarded that we hope will stimulate those companies that could stand out for their application of equality policies in the organisation, services, products or advertising; on having implemented, and this is the first time a Spanish Government has done so, a Comprehensive 2009-2011 Plan to combat the unacceptable blemish on society that is the treatment of human beings for sexual purposes, a plan containing more than sixty measures for providing services to victims, for more effectively combating the mafia and prostitution rings and for increasing awareness in society regarding what the abuse of women and girls means. We must continue moving onwards and upwards in this struggle against the abuse of human beings.
Ladies and gentlemen,
What we cannot celebrate, no matter how objective an improvement it is, is how the number of deaths from violence against women decreased by 30 per cent in 2009 compared with the previous year. The anger and sadness generated by the 55 women whose deaths we were unable to stop leaves no room for any other feeling. Those women are remembered here today.
But that anger and that sadness is excellent motivation to continue gritting our teeth and fighting the good fight on a daily basis for a new life for a woman in danger or to avoid the dignity of another being trampled on. That is the reason why, during the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, I have worked to achieve a European Protection Order for Victims, to create the Observatory on Violence against Women and for there to be a joint response from the European Union in favour of an active, constant and firm policy against the blight that is violence against women.
Here, I must tell you, with satisfaction and modesty, (who would have thought it possible when looking back to 1975 and the time the marriage licence was abolished?), that, when I presented the Agenda for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union in the European Parliament, without a doubt the most recognised policy of today's Spain, the most valued from the Government I lead, a policy in favour of equality between men and women, of support for abused women, combating violence against women and legislative progress on rights issues, that Spain would be recognised today as an advanced society, aware of the value of equality and that we would become a model in terms of equality policy.
I must say so here with modesty, but I say it with pride. And, thinking about what was thought of Spain in 1975 regarding discrimination, inequal Spain, the macho Spain, it is unquestionably good motivation to continue working on a great Ministry of Equality and, of course, to continue working on this commitment, year after year, that has brought us all here today. Thank you for that commitment.
However, social progress has never been without resistance; I know a little about that myself. Progress towards equality has never been easy because, as Amelia Valcárcel has shown us, there is a great fear of equality. It is no easier to keep moving forward now.
Behind every situation of inequality, there is always another of unbalanced privilege or, simply put, insensitivity towards the destiny of another. But we would not be what we already are if so many women had not said "no" at some moment in their lives, as a way of saying "onwards and upwards"; with the same courage and the same conviction as Amelia, Carlota, María and Marisa have said "no" and "onwards and upwards", in one way or another, in one place or another, and on so many occasions.
I can assure you, and I ask that through your capacity to make things happen that you keep working on it, that the Government of Spain will say a loud "no" to any discrimination that persists or re-emerges in our society, and will say "onwards and upwards" to new measures that ensure the effective equality between the men and women of our country and that put a stop to all discrimination.
We will do that, as we have made the laws that already govern our social lives and as we have changed the expectations of many people, of many women. But we can only do it with your support, we can only do it with the organisations and groups that defend women's rights and we can only do it with men that are committed to the value of equality, with all those that have no fear; with those who admire and value being equal and who recognise the rights of others, ending privileges and opening doors to those who have suffered extreme discrimination is what enriches us, what makes us freer and what will best demonstrate the authenticity of our character.
Ladies and gentlemen,
For another year, Minister, with all the women and men who wish to join us, we are going to continue conquering equality. We have no fear of it, quite the opposite, it is what we strive for.
Thank you.