Next Thursday 8 March 2018, coinciding with International Women’s Day, numerous trade unions have organised a general strike in favour of equality and against the pay gap, harassment and male violence against women.
This call for a general strike is added to the campaign of the International Women’s Strike which began in 2017 and gained momentum in several countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Italy and the United States. This year the strike takes place in over 50 countries and all professional sectors.
From the National Museum of Science and Technology (mNACTEC) and its entire Territorial System we highlight the major role played by women in the industrialisation process in Catalonia. This importance of women’s work has been showcased in the exhibitions “Women in the industrial world”, “Women, driving force of revolution”, “Women in mathematics and women in science” and the creation in 2015 of the blog Women in the industrial world.
We thus show our complete support to the call for a general strike on 8 March in order to:
- Provide visibility to the need to improve professional conditions, applying the necessary measures to put an end to professional inequality and the pay gap established from the very start of industrialisation and continuing almost unchanged for more than 200 years.
- To ensure the effective application of the protocols against harassment in the workplace and implementing measures to eradicate male violence.
- To implement budgetary and regulation measures to promote social advances and work-family balance.
- To eradicate precariousness in the workplace and the vulnerable professional and social conditions experienced by women with no work security and no right to strike.
- To introduce the need for a gender perspective not only in museums and cultural centres in Catalonia but also in all the fields and sectors of the public administration in Catalonia.
- To recognise and value the key role of women in the economic, social, cultural and national development process in our country. In compliance with Law 17/2015 of 21 July on the effective equality between men and women we undertake to vigorously promote and implement cultural policies and activities which add visibility to these contributions to society in general and to scientific, technological and industrial heritage and culture of Catalonia in particular, so that every day is 8 March for the entire mNACTEC Territorial System in terms of past, present and especially future.
8 March 2018
