Under the title “A human and sustainable economy is a feminist economy“, the Hypatia Cycle has been released. Under the organization of the Associació 50a50 Association and the Hypatia Forum, it is focused on pending issues to achieve effective and real equality between women and men. This first session was focused on work and the economy and on the impact of Covid-19 from a gender perspective.

The panel had the participation of Mar Gaya Quiñonero, vice president of the Associació 50a50 and founder of the Igualando consultancy; Esther Sánchez Torres, PhD in Labor Law and member of the Talent Commission of Women in Legal World, among other advisory councils; Roser Xalabarder Sagalés, president of the Observatory for Women, Business and Economy (ODEE) of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, and Laura Sales Gutiérrez, head of the Research Department of the Surt Foundation.

Mar Gaya recalled that women, despite having been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 during the pandemic, are also the most punished in this crisis, as it has happened in previous ones. “Do we want to learn from other crises at once, do we want to incorporate the gender perspective into the recovery?”, claimed the vice president of 50a50.

Esther Sánchez proposed some solutions related to equality plans. “Jurassic companies coexist, which still fire women for becoming pregnant, with other more modern companies. Abusive companies must receive exemplary sanctions and the most modern ones cannot limit themselves to meeting the minimum requirements required by equality plans”, she explained.

Roser Xalabarder gave voice to autonomous and entrepreneurial women: “Catalonia is the autonomous community where there are more autonomous women. We become autonomous to reconcile, to break the glass ceiling, to create a business opportunity, despite perceiving motherhood as an obstacle”. The president of the Observatory for Women, Business and the Economy (ODEE) of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce requested the help of the administration to prevent motherhood from being an obstacle and encouraged all women to occupy decision-making positions, “because this is how we can change the structure”.

Laura Sales presented the conclusions of the study “Gender impacts of the economic crisis generated by Covid”, from the precariousness of women in the workplace to the increase in the workload of care in homes. The head of the Research Department of the Surt Foundation valued the work of the associations in attending to the basic needs of women during the pandemic and denounced the shortcomings on the part of the administrations in this regard.

Fina Rubio, president of the Surt Foundation, has been in charge of summarizing and presenting the most important conclusions and proposals of this first session of the Hypatia Cycle. You can listen to it in the video of the session by clicking here.

The Hypatia Forum stages the union of feminist entities and associations of businesswomen, managers and professionals working for the same objective, the equitable presence of women in decision-making positions, in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda of Nations United.

The next session of the Hypatia Cycle will be held on Tuesday, July 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in an online format, and will focus on the impact of the pandemic on mental health from a gender perspective. You can register here.