“There are no women,” says the Minister for Women and Integration, Susanne Raab (ÖVP), on the morning of the service at the Federal Chancellery. The realities in which women move to assume a uniform situation are too different. From the start-up founder to the As a single-parent saleswoman in the grocery trade, there are the most diverse circumstances that women have to cope with, explains the doctor of law.
Family Minister Raab and Labor Minister Aschbacher (ÖVP) made women’s policy measures a priority at a press conference. In the wake of the Corona crisis, women were often faced with multiple burdens – despite various life situations. By shifting the daily work routine to one’s own four walls including school and kindergarten closings, multiple burdens became inevitable. The fact that this was often done by women has become a real role cliché. However, during the lockdown there were also fathers who took over the housekeeping and raising children.
The bottom line, however, is that women are less likely to become unemployed than men. However, this also had to do with the larger proportion of women in systemically important industries. Seasonal fluctuations, for example due to the male-dominated construction industry, are also a reason for this relatively lower female unemployment.
One measure that promises to improve the situation of women is the assurance that schools will be kept as open as possible in autumn. It would be a concern raised by many women, says Minister Raab. In the case of corona diseases in schools, the interruption of current lessons should be “kept as selective, regional and short as possible”.
“Corona aid measures also affect women”
Many of the government’s corona relief measures also specifically affect women, the members of the government said. Every mother receives 360 euros for every child as part of the child bonus. Furthermore, Minister for Women, Susanne Raab, gave the example of a retail saleswoman who earns 1,600 euros a month to illustrate the women’s measures. This will specifically receive a one-off 255 euros from September.
The hardship fund provides important support for women entrepreneurs. For example, in many cases women owe the short-time working model to keep their employment. The child bonus has become indispensable for mothers in times of growing unemployment. Also to be emphasized are the funds from the AMS (Public Employment Service), which secure the livelihood of many unemployed and support women workers in the low-wage sector. The lowering of the basic tax rate from 25 to 20 percent also falls into the women’s policy package. Labor Minister Aschbacher also announced the establishment of a Corona labor foundation, which should take care of aid measures for the professional repositioning of the unemployed.
Women should return to their jobs at the same wage level, said Minister Raab and Minister Aschbacher. The motto is to prevent women’s political setbacks on the labor market. However, one must take forward-looking directions, for example use the “momentum of digitization”, according to Raab, and bring women for better-paid jobs in the digital sector and in the STEM subjects.
Male work culture in the digital sector and STEM
The Minister for Women and Integration hereby makes a demand that was made last Thursday as part of a research study on the visibility of women in the six most widely-spread newspapers in Austria. The bottom line was that Maria Pernegger’s media analysis “Women-Media-Politics” came to the sobering result that women in political and economic reporting do not appear in their true proportion. This also has an impact on role models.
These would also be reproduced through media presence. It is true that women are not physically or legally excluded when choosing a career. Nevertheless, a male working culture has established itself in the MINT and digital sectors, which could discourage women from arriving in these areas, explains Christian Berger, digital advisor at the Vienna Chamber of Labor, in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”.
“Labor market disaster for women”
The SPÖ, Neos and the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions did not wait long for a critical statement. Disappointed, SPÖ federal women chairwoman Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek stated that the press conference was only a verbal reproduction of the already decided relief measures and “appeasement”. “If there is no action now and there are no concrete offers of help, we will slide into a labor market disaster for women in the fall,” says Heinisch-Hosek.
Neos women’s spokeswoman Henrike Brandstötter comments on the fact that Corona aid packages also help women as “a matter of course”. The government continues to scratch the surface when it comes to aid. The liberal women’s spokeswoman further criticizes that promises are not yet deeds and that the announced automatic pension splitting is still “on hold”.
“Nobody has anything to do with announcements,” commented ÖGB women’s chairwoman Korinna Schumann on the appearance of the two ministers. She demands: “At least 50 percent of the AMS funding budget should be used for the integration of women into the labor market.”
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