Taking care of children continues to fall on women in the region. This is corroborated by the latest data made public by the Ministry of Equality, which reflects that of the 336 leave of absence files that were registered in 2022, the … 89.6% of them (301) belonged to Riojan women. The explanation why they are the main ones who take advantage of this permit is simple. In general, as the head of Equality at CC OO La Rioja, Sonia Sobron, points out, “when determining who takes the leave, we take into account who is the person who earns the least and usually, we are the ones who have lower salary.
All due, in part, to the fact that there are many women who “have temporary jobs or part-time jobs due to the professions they dedicate themselves to, such as cleaning or home help. Sectors that, in addition, are widely feminized », she explains. A reality that is also confirmed by the Secretary of Equality of UGT La Rioja, Yolanda López, by emphasizing that “the attribution of sexist roles and the lack of remuneration for leaves of absence are the main reasons why men make less use of them, since that women, for the most part, have lower salaries.
The situation is not trivial. Despite the fact that more and more men decide to request a leave of absence to care for their children – 6% more now take advantage of this leave than in the last five years –, nine out of ten files still correspond to women. A figure that, although it has reduced slightly in the last five years (has gone from 347 in 2017 to 301 in 2022), places La Rioja as the fifth community that experiences the largest gender gap in the use of this labor right. Only Murcia (with 92% of leaves requested by women), Extremadura (90.67%), Ceuta (with 90.48% of files) and Castilla y León (with 90.27%) were ahead.
The problem, however, is that while the Rioja women take advantage of this right, “we stop receiving income and therefore, we lose economic independence, which also has an impact on pensions and retirement,” laments the person in charge of Equality. CC OO. All of this, in addition, “not only causes an obvious economic loss in women, but this intermittency in professional performance also interrupts their career progression,” says López.
Excess, therefore, even becomes a risk factor. “It is a time in which you will not be there, in which they will not count on you to promote or to assign you tasks that are important, so the physical and emotional load increases,” says Sobron. In fact, as the Secretary of Equality of UGT states, “it becomes one of the main drawbacks when it comes to subsequent promotion in the job, sometimes leading to the definitive abandonment of the labor market for people.” workers who take advantage of them.
Faced with this situation, the head of Equality at CC OO considers essential “cross-disciplinary training and education; “We have to become aware that taking leave is not an exclusive option for women.” It is also necessary to “work a lot on co-responsibility in companies, because there are men who want to take a leave of absence and they look at them badly or object to them,” explains Sobron before adding that “there must be public services that make it a little easier for us and policies “Let them do everything possible so that we do not have to leave the market to take care of our children.” “It should be compatible to have a work and family life that allows us to live,” he says.
“They have to assess whether they can pay another person to take care of the children and since it is more expensive, they take the leave”
Sonia Sobron
CC OO Equality Manager
«It represents an economic loss and becomes one of the main drawbacks in the subsequent promotion of the job»
Yolanda Lopez
Secretary of Equality of UGT
For the UGT Secretary of Equality, family care leave “confirms the need to reinforce accessible and quality public services that guarantee care, allowing the incorporation or keeping in the labor market of caregivers who, in turn, “ensure work in decent conditions for the people who are paid for this work.” Given this situation, the aforementioned union insists on the need to “have paid leave for family care, individual and non-transferable, to eliminate obstacles to access to employment for this reason, as well as to avoid temporary abandonment of the job.” employment or the involuntary renunciation of a professional promotion by women to dedicate themselves to caring for their families,” they say.
Above all, because as the head of Equality at CC OO points out, “when we decide to take a leave of absence it is because we have no choice.” If the Rioja women decide to take advantage of this right, “it is because they cannot afford to pay another person to take care of their children or to take them to camps, play centers or extracurricular activities. “They have to assess how to do it and since it is more expensive to pay for it, they take the leave.”
Sandra She was on leave for two and a half years to care for her daughter.
«I felt quite judged when it came to requesting leave»
Sandra (not her real name) knows first-hand the difficulties that exist in making work life compatible with family life. Almost three years ago, when she had to start her job after being on maternity leave, she was forced to ask for a leave of absence because “I couldn’t combine my life as a mother with my work life,” remembers this Rioja native.
She worked in a business that was open “Monday to Sunday 365 days a year” and could not depend on whether her husband was at home because “he is self-employed and does not have time freedom.” The company didn’t make it easy for them either. “They gave me a lot of trouble when it came to changing schedules or reducing the working day, but in my case it wasn’t financially rewarding for me to work fewer hours,” she says.
All due, in part, to the fact that if she shortened her day “she would have to hire a person to take care of the girl during the hours when there was no daycare (in the town where she lives they only provide service for four hours) or during all afternoon if I had to work at this time. She coped with this whole process “badly.” “I had a bad time because the boss she had at that time, although she was a mother, did not understand that she was asking for a leave of absence,” she laments. «It was not a dish of good taste for the company, because in the end the response I received from the people I spoke with was that they had all been mothers and had moved forward. The job I had was not viable for my circumstances and I felt quite judged,” admits this Rioja native.
During his two and a half years of leave, he tried to find out if there was any possibility of adapting his schedule. “They told me that when the maximum three years I could be on leave were over, they would tell me if there was any possibility, but since it was a very large chain, they could send me to Burgos.” They didn’t give him any kind of solution. “They told me that either I would take it or leave, so I decided to take leave, because in addition to not having any income, I couldn’t apply for the jobs that came up because I was on leave to care for my daughter,” he laments.
She left, but she ended up having a partner who “was in the same situation a year before and is also on the street. “We both had the same trajectory.” She understands that bosses “can’t carry all the weight, but in the end the bad situation is on us. If you are a father, they congratulate you, but if you are a mother they already look at you as if you are not going to work or that you are going to lower your performance. “Society is very poorly educated.”
