Women's rights: tens of thousands of people demonstrated all over France

Europe 1 with AFP 8:04 p.m., March 8, 2022

A "surge for equality" against gender-based violence: tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on Tuesday in Paris and in major cities of France on the occasion of International Women's Rights Day.

In Paris, 35,000 demonstrators marched according to the organizers between the Gare du Nord and the Tenon hospital to "demand means against sexist violence" and an increased fight against inequalities.

The claims are tinged with criticism of government policy: in the eyes of activists, Emmanuel Macron's five-year term represents "five years lost" in the fight against gender inequality.

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Left-wing candidates marched in Paris

Left-wing presidential candidates, including environmentalist Yannick Jadot and socialist Anne Hidalgo, were in the Paris demonstration.

“We will put 1 billion euros to get out of impunity in sexual and gender-based violence,” Mr. Jadot told AFP, a measure shared in the socialist, communist and rebellious programs.

Protesters also pounded the pavement in many other cities.

In Toulouse, 3,500 people, according to the prefecture, went to the courthouse, brandishing signs "Equal mental load" or "Feminist terrors".

Nadia Ilias, a 23-year-old student, missed a day of class to "reclaim public space".

"The state does not protect us", she believes, waving her sign saying "Let's honor the dead, let's protect the living".

In Lille, a few hundred people demanded "true professional and wage equality between women and men".

The condemnation of violence in higher education

Place de la République, in Rennes, you could see Ukrainian flags among the few hundred demonstrators with placards proclaiming "We are not born a woman but we die of it."

"If we stop, the world stops", "men, feminists, join us": in Bordeaux, 600 people mobilized.

“The patriarchal society is still there, repressing women. We are trying to educate students but the road is still long,” lamented Capucine and Eloïse, 20, students at Sciences Po Bordeaux.

Throughout France, demonstrators condemned the violence carried out in higher education.

“We know students who have to change universities because they protect abusive teachers,” denounced a member of the #NousToutes collective at the microphone of the Parisian mobilization.

"Even in National Education, there are inequalities"

"I am a teacher. Even in national education, there are inequalities, sexual violence, sexism", told AFP Gabrielle Bonicel, representative of the FSU in the North present in the Lille procession.

"Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Professional Equality Act and we still see a gap between the salaries of women and men".

On average, women earn 22.3% less than men in the private sector (excluding agriculture), according to Urssaf.

A third of this gap is explained by their lower overall working time, due to part-time work or short contracts: women represent 57.4% of short-term fixed-term contracts, but 42.5% of permanent contracts.

So many inequalities observed among so-called essential workers, under the working conditions highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Essential workers "blocked at minimum wage"

"They are too ignored, even invisible. They carry out jobs that are essential to us, but they are most of the time blocked at the Smic", declared Laurent Berger (CFDT) in front of the Pantheon, in Paris, during a rally which brought together more than a thousand people.

The activists denounced the "macabre record" of Macron's five-year term in the care of victims of violence.

At the call of the collective #NousToutes, the demonstrators organized a "die-in" at the gates of the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

To commemorate the 622 victims of women killed by their spouses since 2017, 622 young women with placards bearing the names of victims went to bed.

The government unveiled a communication campaign on Tuesday which aims to "challenge" men on their "role in educating and transmitting models of respect, non-violence and equality".

Sixteen famous men, including footballer Kylian Mbappé, swimmer Théo Curin and singer Amir, read an "open letter to boys born on March 8, 2022": "We will not let anything pass, no inappropriate gesture, no sexist remark (. ..) Dear man of tomorrow, you will be the best of men, the one who is committed to equality".

At work or at home, sexism remains anchored in the daily life of the French despite their growing desire to fight it, noted Monday in a report the High Council for Equality between Women and Men.