Warsaw holds women's equality conference

To mark the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) held a conference on Wednesday on equal opportunities for women in public life.

Established on December 18, 1979, CEDAW has been acceded to by 189 states of the United Nations. It was the first act of international law that defined the concept of discrimination against women.

The conference, aimed at recalling the CEDAW resolutions, was attended by Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

"As a society, we have an unpaid debt towards women," Trzaskowski said opening the conference. He added that "the second decade of the 21th century is ending, and equality between men and women is still not obvious (...) it still happens that women earn less than men by doing the same job."

Trzaskowski also noted that the results of this year's 'Warsaw woman in the labor market' research show that women indicate a change in their situation on the labor market following childbirth. After that, they are regarded as less effective workers, which means less paid, he said, adding that "we can't tolerate such a situation any longer," Trzaskowski observed.

The conference was also attended by, among others, Nicole Ameline, Vice-Chairperson of CEDAW, and Barbara Limanowska from the European Institute for Gender Equality. The topics of the discussion included ensuring full development and promotion of women on the basis of equality with men, and the situation of women on the labor market. The speakers also raised issues related to women's participation in public and political life after the elections to the EU Parliament and to Poland's Parliament.

The conference is co-organised by Warsaw City and the Warsaw School of Economics and held under the honorary patronage of the Polish Ombudsman.