WIDF, 'For Their Rights as Mothers, Workers, Citizens' (1952)

=== [PDF page 1] === FOR THEIR RIGHTS MOTHERS WORKERS CITIZENS === [PDF page 2] === FOR THEIR RIGHTS MOTHERS WORKERS CITIZENS Issued by the Womens International Democratic Federation Unter den Linden 13, Berlin W8 === [PDF page 3] === INTRODUCTION Ohroughout the centuries women have made their contribution as givers of life and through their creative work, to the progress and development of civilisation. For many decades women have been battling for dignity as human beings. Their struggles for full equality as mothers, workers and citizens are now, and always have been an integral part of the struggle for democracy and progress. Many important gains have been made and in a number of countries today women have attained full equality, guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of their respective countries. However in 15 countries women have no rights whatever. In other countries, although the principle of equal political rights for women has been accepted, the actual implementation of these rights is limited by all kinds of qualifications and restrictions. Women are a very important factor in the productive forces of many countries. In Great Britain, USA, France and West Germany women constitute one third of the labour force — a total of 40 million. Unequal wage rates between men and women is a source of great profit for the industrialists but brings many hardships to the women and their families. Discrimination against women economically is intensified as unemployment tises. 40°/o of all the unemployed are women. In Italy one million women are unemployed and another million are working short-time. Large-scale cuts in peacetime production in many countries have caused increasing unemployment among women. Added to these hardships is the fact that the standard of living of whole peoples has been seriously undermined by huge war budgets, cuts in social insurance and social] welfare. In addition, millions of women suffer the humiliation and hardship of second-rate citizenship. In many countries, such as Iran, Iraq, etc. women have no equality before the law and occupy an inferior position in all spheres of life. All these evils are now further intensified by the all-round attack on the liberties and the standard of life of the peoples. Where democracy is attacked, the rights of women, already limited, are further gravely endangered. Today, in such countries as France, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, we witness an attempt to revise the democratic provisions of the Constitutions in order to make them conform to the demands of the Atlantic Pact war programme. === [PDF page 4] === In the United States of America the basic democratic Bill of Rights has been replaced by a whole series of unconstitutional laws which have created an atmosphere of fear, hysteria and repression. Under these laws millions of Americans are on a black-list, hundreds are under investigation, facing trial and serving prison sentences. Foreign-born Americans are being deported or held for deportation. More and more women realise the connection between these antidemocratic measures and their everyday life. They are taking part in the fight for the maintenance and extension of democracy as a means to help defend their homes and their children. In Korea, Viet Nam and Malaya, where women and children are subjected to cruel warfare — germs, napalm bombs, chemical weapons — where children are buried alive, where women are tortured and violated, it is inconceivable that women can dream of a normal existence until peace is restored. Women are subjected to numerous ideological attacks calculated to confine them to the sole role of being the mothers and wives of soldiers. They all centre on the theme that women are less able and less interested than men in politics, in economics, in intellectual work, that they are only suited for menial and clerical tasks and for bearing children. This antiwoman, pro-war propaganda was expressed most clearly in,Life“ magazine in the summer of 1947: “Only in wartime do the sexes achieve a normal relationship to each other. The male assumes his dominant, heroic role, and the female, playing up to the male, assumes her proper and normal function of being feminine, glamorous and inspiring. With the arrival of peace a decline sets in... until a new challenge in the form of wartime psychology restores the balance.” Another pernicious ideological attack on the family is the Malthusian theory. This theory justifies hunger, misery and war on the grounds that populations are not keeping pace with diminishing food supplies. It would substitute atom bomb extermination for the use of science to advance mankind, It aims to paralyze and demoralise the fight for a higher standard of living, a decent life and for peace. Voicing the aspirations and needs of the women of the world, the Women’s International Democratic Federation, is calling a world Congress of women. === [PDF page 5] === THE WOMEN WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLITICAL LIFE OF THEIR COUNTRY For their dignity as women, For a happy life, For the independence of their country, Against war and war preparations, For full democratic liberty, For friendship between the peoples. UNITED STATES In 1920 the women of the United States won the right to vote. In practice, in numerous States regulations concerning residence, qualifications, literacy tests and the payment of poll taxes deprive millions of women, particularly Negro women, of this right. In the U.S. Congresses from 1917 to 1945 there were only 38 women members elected. In 1950 there were 8 women members in the House of Representatives out of a total of 435 and only one woman in the Senate out of a total of 96. Claudia Jones, outstanding women’s leader in the U.S.A. is now in prison and is threatened with a 5 years sentence under the Thought Control Smith Act for writing an article on International Women’s Day and against the war in Korea. DENMARK -SWEDEN-NORWAY The women of Norway won their political rights in 1913, of Denmark in 1915, of Sweden in 1921. —Men and women have the same political and juridical rights. —Men and women have the same rights in principle to advancement and women can enter all professions. But in practice the proportion of women who reach the higher rank positions is very small and the principle of equal pay for equal work is not always applied. === [PDF page 6] === Switzerland is one of the only countries in Europe where women do not have the right to vote. In a referendum held November 30th 1952 regarding the granting of the right to vote to women — Out of 42 865 women voters, 35 792 voted, YES“ and 6346 voted,NO“. A Committee of Action which included many women’s organisations, conducted a petition pledging women to take part in the referendum. The Women’s Popular Movement collected numerous signatures on the petition. GERMANY In 1919 German women won universal suffrage. Under Hitler, the Nazis relegated women to the role of warriors’ wives, based on the idea of the three K’s (Kitchen, Children, Church—Kitiche, Kinder, Kirche) and suppressed for them, as for the whole German people, all democratic rights. The Constitution of the Bonn Federal Republic grants women equal rights, while at the same time the laws which existed under Nazism are still in operation, thus in fact depriving women of their rights. In the German Democratic Republic and the Democratic Sector of Berlin, the Constitution grants women full equality. All the laws and regulations which impinged on this equality have been abolished and measures taken for women to exercise their rights more fully. All over Germany women are fighting against the General War Treaty {treaties of Bonn and Paris) and are demanding a united, peaceful, democratic and independent Germany which will essure equal rights to all German women. Up to January 15th 1953, 15,003,696 men and women of Western Germany had already signed the referendum against the General War Treaty and for a peace treaty. Women played a tremendous part in this campaign. === [PDF page 7] === ITALY In their struggle against fascism and against the Nazi occupation, the women won recognition of their rights, now established in the Republican Constitution of 1947. Through their votes, women contributed to the successes won by the democratic forces in the 1952 election, in spite of corruption, shameful ideological pressure, violence and trickery. The Christian Democratic Party, which agreed to the American occupation and the Atlantic Pact, and which, in preparing war, is increasing the misery of Italian families, lost 4 million votes. In an attempt to oppose the waves of protests, this Party has presented draft bills which are attacks on the rights recognised by the Constitution: attacks on the right to strike, on the freedom of the Press, on trade union liberties and finally, aim at a revision of the Electoral Law. The draft Electoral Law requires 30,000 votes for the election of a deputy from the Government majority and 60,000 for an opposition deputy. ‘A LEGGE ELETTORALE SECONDO L'ARITMETICA DEL GOVERNO — S’tcr? Suns $i in‘ sino oveeds contro l’approvazione della leggetruffa che prevede 30 mila voti per eleggere un deputato di maggioran- -_ za e 60 mila per eleggerne uno di minoranza, i deputati di opposizio- = ne si battono in Parlamento con il valido e deciso appoggio delle donne italiane insieme a queilo della parte migliore del Paese. Un articolo di GIANCARLO PAJETTA In all parts of Italy, the Opposition Deputies receive thousands upon thousands of letters and postcards expressing support and adherence. A great number of women have signed these letters. Italian women take part in all demonstrations. Hundreds of women have been arrested and attacked by the police. === [PDF page 8] === Elisa Branco, mother of 2 children, sentenced to 4and a quarter year of prison for her courageous stand against sending Brazilian soldiers to Korea. After having served one year in jail, she was released under the pressure of protests by the people and particularly the Brazilian women. She was awarded the International Stalin Prize for strengthe- ‘ ning peace between the z [Unreadable] FRANCE The 1946 Constitution, result of the struggle of the people of France for national liberation and democracy, states: “The law guarantees women equal rights with men in every field.’ But in reality women are not given the facilities to exercise their rights and the existing laws are frequently disregarded. The Civil Code always places married women in an inferior position in relation to their husbands. The attacks on liberties, the repressive measures taken by the government, strike’ at the rights of all French people, and thus at women’s rights, too. The electoral law prevents the democratic forces from obtaining their rightful representation in Parliament. In face of the evergrowing struggle against misery and war policy, the Government is trying to revise the Constitution so that they can reduce the power of the elected Assembly, destroy the prerogatives and guarantees of the opposition and allow the government to rule by decree. AUSTRALIA Australian women have had the right to vote and access to Parliament since 1904. But about 47,000 aboriginal men and women, who are not included in the population statistics, have practically no political rights, === [PDF page 9] === GREECE The strength of the democratic movement forced the fascist government to grant women the right to vote for the first time in June 1952. But the Government cynically deprived the women of this right by announcing the holding of the elections in October, whereas women would only have been able to vote if the date of the elections had been officially announced after November 15th. Extract from a letter from a Greek woman—To the WOMEN’S INTER- NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION—NOVEMBER 1952, “20000 women peace fighters are in prisons and concentration camps on barren islands. In carrying out the orders of its American masters, the Athens Government is determined to exterminate all prisoners and has already started putting this decision into effect. “New prisons have just been opened on the island of Rhodes for women who are at present in the prisons of Patras and Averoff (Athens). There the women will be in underground cells without light or water. Those women prisoners, whose state of health requires immediate transfer to hospital, are left in prison without treatment.“ SPAIN In Franco Spain the whole people have been deprived of all the political rights guaranteed by the Republic Constitution of 1931. The position of women is summed up in the Franco slogan “Man was made to create and to lead, and woman was made to obey.” Thousands of women are in prison for having fought for their rights and for the Republic. Many of them have already been there for 13 years and the majority have never been brought to trial, showing Franco’s utter disregard of any legal procedure against men and women opposing his regime. YOUGOSLAVIA In Tito’s Yougoslavia, the women’s rights are trodden under foot. Women have no equality, either in political economic or social life. According to the Titoist press itself, the women elected in Croatia in 1949 were only 8.9°/o. Since then the number has decreased. In Zagreb only 2°/o of those elected were women. In Vitkovits, Split, Riek and other towns, not more than 1°/o are women. In other districts of Croatia, no women have been elected to the regional and local committees. In the course of the last elections to the leadership of the,zadrugui“, (cooperatives) in Serbia only 2°/o were women, in spite of the fact that they represent half of the personnel. === [PDF page 10] === BRAZIL The Brazilian Constitution of 1946 grants equal rights to women, but the electoral law grants the right to vote and to be elected only to literate women, thus depriving the overwhelming majority of the female population of this right. GUATEMALA Since 1945 women have had political rights but these rights are still very limited. For instance, illiterate women cannot vote or be elected. JAPAN The Japanese Constitution grants equal rights to women. But as soon as the war in Korea began, the Yoshida government prohibited all meetings in defence of peace in accordance with the instructions of the “Willowby Letter”. A draft bill on subversive activities, even more reactionary than the wartime Public Security Law, aims at suppressing all peace and democratic movements. Women are fighting against the recruitment of their sons and their transport to Korea by the American Occupation forces, and against the conversion of their country into a war base in Asia. INDIA Women’s meeting in an Indian village during the 1952 electoral campaign. A great proportion of women voted for the candidates who campaigned for the defence of their right to life and national independence. === [PDF page 11] === INDONESIA The Revolution of 1945 advanced the principle of equal rights for men and women, and it is included in the Provisional Constitution of the Indonesian Republic of August 1950. However, colonial oppression remains the same and the rights granted to women have remained a dead letter. There has been no general election sinee 1945. TURKEY In 1933, the Constitution granted women certain political rights, but the economic and social conditions of the country and the existing fascist laws in fact deprive women of all rights. The “Law on Association” prohibits the constitution of any political organisation which does not support the Government. The Penal Code provides for the death penalty for infractions of the law. Dr. Sevim Tari, Melahat Turksal and Sevine Tanik are now in prison where they have been subjected to the most cruel tortures. SYRIA Two years ago the new Constitution gave voting rights only to women who had passed an elementary school examination. Thus only about 4,000 women out of one and a half million obtained the vote. IRAN The Organisation of Iranian women organises educational conferences to involve women in the demand for their rights. In 1952, 100.000 signatures were collected to a petition for the right to vote. The democratic organisations are prosecuted; the meetings are subjected to arbitrary regulations and to the interference of the police. Article 10 of the Electoral Law stipulates that “the mad people, the children and the women have no right to vote”. ALGERIA The Moslem women who represent nine-tenths of the female population in Algeria have no right to vote. Only women of European origin can vote and be elected. 10 === [PDF page 12] === Madame Funimatayo Ransome Kuti, President of the Nigerian Women’s Union. The Nigerian Women’s Union is leading a campaign for women’s rights. They demand the right to vote and to be elected and refuse to accept a general tax imposed on women. Women who protested against an individual water tax were persecuted. EGYPT Egyptian women have no political rights. In the fight against imperialist, exploitation, against any kind of military aggressive alliance, they demand: — equality for all citizens, men and women, before the law, without religious distinction; — the full enjoyment of liberty for everyone; — the abrogation of all emergency laws restricting liberties, imposed by imperialism; — the guarantee by the State of the right to education, to work, to health, to welfare, the right of association, the right to security and peace. IRAQ Women in Iraq have no rights. At the moment there, are 36 women in prison in Bagdad condemned for their actions for their country’s independence and for the emancipation of women. Some of them were arrested at the end of 1948, and have conducted hunger strikes in protest against the cruel tortures they have undergone. On November 6th, 1952. 15 children under 10 und 30 women were killed during a demonstration against Anglo-American imperialism. TUNISIA Tunisian women have no rights. In Cape Good the colonial troops killed 5 babies before their mothers’ eyes. 20 women are in prison in Tunis because they demand their right to life and to the liberation of their country. MOROCCO Moroccan women have no rights. The Moroccan people are denied freedom of association. They cannot join trade unions. They cannot leave the country without a special authorisation, additional to their passports. Meetings and demonstrations are prohibited. The national and democratic press is suppressed. 11 === [PDF page 13] === KENYA In Kenya whole villages are being destroyed. 3,000 people, among them 2,200 women and children, have been deported to cold and barren areas. The British Colonial Administration rounds up and confiscates whole herds of cattle, the only resource of the Africans, thus condemning thousands of people to starvation. Madame Charline Raznamalala was @ midwife. She was arrested during the 1947 repression, when thousands of Madagascans who were demanding independence for their country were massacred. Her husband was one of the victims. She has spent the last 5 years in the women’s prison of Anjanamasina and has 10 more years to serve. She had 4 children; one of them has died since her imprisonment and she was not permitted to see him. SOUTH AFRICA African, Indian and Coloured women have no rights, for political rights are granted only to European women. Laws and decrees impose terrible restrictions on the people. Non- Europeans have to live in reserves or ghettoes. Married couples belonging to two different racial groups may not live together. An African must always carry one or more of 12 different types of passes. Early in 1952 the Pass Laws were extended to women. Non-Europeans cannot enter trams, restaurants and public gardens reserved for Europeans. In the campaign of defiance of unjust laws which is uniting the whole Non- European population, women are playing a leading part: for instance, in Port Elizabeth 30 women were arrested for having boarded a train reserved for white people. In Grahamstown 34 women were arrested for being on the streets after curfew. In Benoni 11 African women found without passes were condemned to 7 days hard labour. 12 === [PDF page 14] === WOMEN MAKE AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION IN THE BUILDING OF A HAPPY LIFE Maria Menchova, leader of a cultural group of the Stalin collective farm in the district of Kourganinski, is a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. U.S.S.R. The rights of Soviet women are guaranteed by the Constitution. Article 122 of this law stipulates: “Equal rights with men are granted to women in the U.S.S.R, in all fields of economic, public, cultural, social and political life.” The possibility of realising these rights is ensured to women by granting them equal rights with men with regard to work, pay, leisure, social insurance and education. The government protects the interests of mother and child by grants to mothers of large families, to mothers who have sole charge of the child, by granting paid maternity leave at the usual salary and by a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens. 280 women are members of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. More than half a million women are members of the local Soviets. They are women of all trades and of various nationalities. In each of the 16 Federated Republics there are women ministers and vice-ministers. More than 40 °/o of the judges and people’s assessors are women. 13 === [PDF page 15] === CHINA Article 6 of the Ist chapter of the Joint Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference stipulates: “The People’s Republic of China abolishes the feudal regime which kept women oppressed. Women will enjoy equal rights with men in social, political and economic life.” Chinese women play an active part in the administration of the State. In the Central Government 36 women occupy important posts. Women are members of government councils, vice-presidents in the provincial councils, mayors, magistrates. For instance, the Vice-President of the Government of the Hopei Province is a woman and 13 women are magistrates there. In the rural administration the number of women occupying leading posts is still greater. In North Szechwan, 7 District leaders, 225 Hsiang leaders and 5273 village leaders are women. ALBANIA Women of Tirana, Albania, in national dress, on their way to vote. The women in Albania participate in all government fonctions. 17 women have been elected as deputies to the People’s Assembly, 3 of them are members of the Presidency of the National Assembly. Two women are secretaries of departments of State. 596 were elected members of the People’s Councils and 396 are assistant judges. 14 === [PDF page 16] === In POLAND, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, RU- MANIA, BULGARIA, ALBANIA, MONGOLIA, in the PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA, inthe DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM and in the GERMAN DEMO- CRATIC REPUBLIC, the Constitutions and laws guarantee women equality of political, economic and social rights. In these countries women are given tremendous possibilities to participate as equals in public life and the necessary conditions are created for the full implementation of the rights granted by law. Many women occupy State posts of great responsibility in administration, justice, production and co-operative organisations. Among the members of the national councils (local bodies) in Poland there are nearly 15,000 women and about 1,500 of them are Council Presidents. 67 women were elected deputies to the Diet in the last elections which took place on the 26th October 1952. In Czechoslovakia, 24 °/) of all juridical positions are occupied by women. 387 women are deputies to the National Assembly. 30,000 women are members and heads of the local and national committees. In Hungary 60,000 women councillors are working in the municipal and district councils. 72 women, chosen from the best, represent the interests of women in Parliament. In Rumania, 7,400 women are people’s assessors, 135 women are magistrates and one woman is a Councillor of the Supreme Court. 27,841 women are deputies to the People’s Councils. 66 women are deputies to the National Assembly. In Bulgaria, there are 37 women deputies, 11,306 women members of local councils, 2 women Ministers and 3 Vice-Ministers. In Mongolia 22 °/, of the deputies to the Great People’s Hural (National Assembly) are women, and thousands of women are elected to be heads of local bodies. The Mongolian women take an active part in the economic life of the country and make up 33.5°/) of the model workers. 15 === [PDF page 17] === AGAINST THE WAR OF EXTERMINATION FOR THE RIGHT TO LIFE! | cei In front of the cave of Anak, Korea, where women and children were beaten to death and burnt alive. Chai Chun Ok, aged 65, said that 7 of her 8 children were among the victims and she declared: “The Americans are wild beasts. They came into our town and killed everyone here.” To her right is Candelaria Rodriguez, Cuban member of the Women’s International Commission for the investigation of war atrocities committed in Korea. The People’s Republic of North Korea has granted women their full rights. The historic law on equality between the sexes promulgated on the 30th July, 1946, has freed women from feudal bondage. Industrial legislation has established the 8-hour day, social insurance, work for everybody and security for the workers; an extensive network of nurseries and after-school facilities has been developed. In 1948 there were already thousands of women in the people’s committees in towns and villages; 33 women were deputies to the Supreme Assembly. There were 2 women judges of the Supreme Court, 53 women judges and 1,360 jurors. In South Korea, an American colony, all the gains of the liberation have been suppressed. In 1948 there were 3 million unemployed and 5 million illiterate people. Savage repression is conducted against the people who are struggling for the unity, independence and democracy of all Korea. In June 1950, the American imperialists started war on the Korean people. In nearly 3 years they have killed hundreds of thousands of human beings and caused untold suffering. They have dared to drop germ bombs and maliciously spread epidemics which above all, threaten the frail little bodies of children. 16 === [PDF page 18] === The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam has granted women equal rights. The principle of equal pay for equal work has been put into effect. Women have the right to own land. Each locality has its maternity home and its school. In the regions still occupied by the French imperialists, misery, unemployment and savage repression against patriots prevail. For more than 7 years the French and American agressors have been waging war on the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, carrying out raids, violating and murdering. They drop napalm bombs on peaceful villages, burning the inhabitants, their homes and their crops. In Malaya women are deprived of all rights. The British Government has been conducting war against the people of Malaya for 4 years, razing villages to the ground, deporting whole populations to concentration camps and carrying out deliberate chemical destruction of crops. The women of Korea, Viet Nam and Malaya together with all their people are rising up to drive the aggressors out of their countries, to defend their right to life, national independence and peace and in order to exercise their rights in prosperity and progress in their homelands, liberated at last. From June 1950 to June 1951 as a result of the war in Korea, American millionaires made profits of 23 billion dollars. Two peace figthers from Korea and Viet Nam. 17 === [PDF page 19] === THEIR RIGHTS AS WORKERS. »Equal pay for equal work“ GREAT BRITAIN Nearly 7 and a half million women do paid work (figures given in October 1951). “The highly skilled work”, says the Central Office of Information in a Bulletin on Women in Britain 22.7.52, “is mainly reserved for men, except in such industries as textiles and pottery where women’s skill is traditional.” The difference between men’s and women’s wages is growing due to increased war preparations: thus in April 1950 women’s wages were 55.2 °/o of men’s wages, while in April 1952 they were only 53 °/o. The principie of equal pay recognised by the British Government for more than 30 years has never been enforced. Organised women workers have for a long time been conducting a powerful campaign for substantial wage increases and for equal pay for equal work. In May 1952, hundreds of women lobbied their Members of Parliament when the House of Commons debated this question. FRANCE Since 1947, the Constitution recognises the principle of equality between men and women; but it was the Minister of labour, Croizat, who promulgated the law for equal pay for equal work, abrogating the 10 9/o difference which was legally recognised until then. This law is constantly violated in practice; an average difference of 7/9 remains which is now tending to increase. Young girls get lower wages because of age, but on reaching the age of 18, they are often dismissed and replaced by younger girls who are paid less. At the Longwy Pottery works the young girls have forced the ending of dismissals. 18 === [PDF page 20] === The above mentionned figures are taken from governmental statistics. UNITED STATES AVERAGE YEARLY INCOME..1950 all-individuals 32709) WHITE NEGRO 19 and a half million women, 34°/o of all women in the United States, are working or looking for work. Of the 37 and a half million housewives, 20°/o work at part-time jobs or do work at home, and millions more work with their husbands and children as unpaid agricultural workers. Out of 451 job classifications, three quarters of all women workers are in the 23 lowest-paid categories; four-fifths of Negro women workers are in the lowest-paid categories, There is no federal law guaranteeing women equal pay for equal work. Mapping Fight For VE Women According to investigations conducted in 1950, the average salary per year of a women industrial worker was 1,285 dollars less than aman’ssalary. Multiply this figure by 4,171,000—the number of women working in factories—and you get the astounding figure of 5.4 billion dollars superprofits realised in one year by the big American firms and drawn from their exploitation of women. At a conference on women’s problems, called by the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, the women said:,,We call for a battle against discrimination in wages, in hiring and firing, in application of seniority and upgrading.“ 19 === [PDF page 21] === Article 37 of the Constitution provides for working women to receive the same rights as men and equal pay for equal work. The investigations made in 1952 by the Union of Italian Women, together with the Women’s Commission of the trade unions, has revealed that in the food industry women’s wages are 21.19/) less than men’s; in the chemical industry 18.4 %/p less, in the glass industry 30/) less, in the textile industry 22.6 °/) less. In the textile industry the rate for a skilled woman worker is 32.85 lira per hour whereas the rate for an unskilled male worker is 36.75 lira per hour. Together with their fellow men workers the women fought for and obtained increases in their wages. In Arezzo in the Buitoni works, the management had to upgrade 60 women workers and pay 300,000 lira back pay. At the beginning of 1952 the Italian Union of Chemical Workers and the Association of 1948 1949 iso Synthetic Textile Manufacturers signed an The striped line indicatesthe agreement which raises the production bonus increase of profits, the grey from 12.5 %/p to 28 %/) for both men and women. one shows the intensifica-:. 7. tion of exploitation, the Women workers in the rice-fields have obtained black, the lowering of the wages equal to those of their men fellowpurchasing power of the working class. workers. HOLLAND Women cleaners and laundresses in Amsterdam struck for and obtained wage increases. Women are also fighting against mass dismissals in the light industries, notably in the textile industry where 80 °/o of the working force are women. WEST GERMANY The wages of women in industry are on an average 35/) lower than men’s wages. The owners refuse to implement the principle of equal pay for equal work on the grounds that according to the Bonn Statute equality for women only concerns political rights and that wages are covered by wage agreements governed by civil law. 50°/o of the 9 million working women earn 30 West marks per week, as official statistics show. One fourth of the women employees receive a monthly wage ranging from 100 to 200 West marks. 75°/o of the mothers who work are the sole support of their families. 20 === [PDF page 22] === OVR. KONTORS- PERSONAL The proportion of women and men employed as technical or administrative personnel. KONTORSPERSONAL 1) technical personnel with qua- M. KVALIFICERAT lified work TEKH DERSONAL © OVRIG TEKNISK 2) the remaining technical per- M.KVALIFICERAT == PERSONAL’ sonnel a ARBETE 3) clerical staff with qualified +t work 4) the remaining clerical staff DENMARK, SWEDEN, NORWAY—The average wage for a woman is between 60 and 70 °/o of that of a man. FINLAND—Women’s wages are 17.20 °/o lower than men's. BELGIUM—50 to 80°/o of men's wages in industry. HOLLAND—a skilled woman worker in industry receives an hourly rate at least 17 °/o lower than that of a man for the same work. An unskilled woman worker receives an hourly rate of at least 39.50 °/o less than that of a man. AUSTRIA—Women's wages are about 23°/o less than men's wages. In the confectionary industry, a woman department head gets 40 shillings less per week than an unskilled man worker under the age of 18. In the chemical industry, a skilled woman worker gets 10 groschen less per hour than an unskilled man worker. SWITZERLAND—In the shoe industry a woman worker is paid 1.64 francs an hour while a man receives 2.45 francs for the same work, JAPAN—In textiles, women workers receive 50°/oof the wages paid to men. EGYPT—The salaries of industrial women workers only amount to One third to one half of men's wages. ARGENTINE—In the factories making refrigerators, La Blanca, La Negra and Armour, the various categories of women workers get 55.66 °/o to 68 °/o of men's wages. 21 === [PDF page 23] === SPAIN The Franco regime means the suppression of liberties and basic rights, the constant lowering of living conditions and the limitless exploitation of labour, especially that of women. In a great number of metal plants a skilled woman worker earns only half the wages of a man worker doing the same work. But the women are fighting courageously against this situation. During the strikes in Catalonia in 1951, the women workers of Barcelona, Manresa and other Catalonian towns were the first to leave the factories and the last to go back. BRAZIL Women receive only about half the wages paid to men for the same work, In August 1952 the men and women workers of Sao Paulo organised a great strike for higher wages. The employers were forced to grant 60% increases in wages. ISRAEL In the food industry the women workers’ wages are 68% of men’s; in the textile industry 63°/o; in the clothing industry 61°/o; in other industries they are 40 to 45 %/o, INDIA In the textile factories the women workers’ wages are always lower than the men’s. The women employed as labourers receive a daily wage which is not enough to buy even a litre of milk. In the plantations of Assam, which employ several hundred thousand women and children, the usual payment for work consists of a few handfuls of rice and a few yards of cotton fabric. IRAN In Ispahan 1,725 women are working in factories; for 14 hours work they earn 10 to 14 rials whereas the men receive 25 to 40 rials for the same work. In Chahi (textile industry centre) men earn 55 rials for the production of 800 kilograms of thread and women 39 rials for the same amount. ALGERIA In the carpet industry in Tlemcen the working women receive wages which are often only 60 °/> of the rate fixed by the Government. 22 === [PDF page 24] === RIGHT TO WORK ITALY The Constitution states, ‘The Republic recognises the right of all citizens to work and undertakes to create the conditions for the implementation of this right.” In 1951, there were 1,932,000 totally unemployed; in 1952 the number had risen to 2,147,000. In Pisa, 450 women protested against the closing down of the “Dell’Acqua”’ factory, and occupied it for 3 days. The women workers of the Angri cotton mills succeeded in getting the withdrawal of the 230 dismissals decided on by the management. During the fight of the workers against the closing down of the factories, the Reggio Emilia branch of the Union of Italian Women conducted a plebiscite asking the population whether or not they approved the fight of the workers to save the national industry; 80% of the families in the province answered in favour of the workers. Solidarity action was organised: more than 220 workers’ children were cared for in children’s holiday camps, 100 in peasant families. Many women’s demonstrations took place in support of the workers’ demands. BELGIUM Unemployment allowances for women are lower than for men. In 1949 the Ministry of Labour and Social Security published an order withdrawing unemployment allowances for many married women. The Women’s Assembly took the _ initiative, together with some trade unions, to launch a campaign against this meas- * Many unemployed Flemish women textile worure. It was then withdrawn. ers demand their Rights. 23 === [PDF page 25] === UNITED STATES According to official statistics there are between 10 and 12 million unemployed and persons who are only working part-time (7 to 25 hours). This figure is constantly increasing. FRANCE In the textile industry 100,000 workers are fully unemployed and 400,000 are on short time. 60,000 workers out of the 80,000 in the paper and cardboard industry are partly unemployed. Out of 250,000 workers in the leather and hide industry, half of the workers are on short time. In all these branches the overwhelming majority of workers are women. Married women are the first to be dismissed. If they lose their jobs they receive only 44% of the unemployment assistance rate. The same thing happens with young girls living with their families. If they are out of work when they leave school or after their training, they are not considered as unemployed. Together with the General Confederation of Labour, the women are demanding: unemployment allowances — 75 9/y of their wages to all persons, regardless of age; and the inclusion of unemployment insurance and payment for short time for an unlimited period in social security laws. The young dressmakers, work in small rooms, without air, for their lunch they only eat “as little as sparrows’, all that they can afford with their salaries. The women workers of the clothing firm “Madeleine de Rauch’? demanded and got a 50% increase in their wages for extra work. GREAT BRITAIN In the textile industry, which is one of the worst affected by unemployment, a high proportion of those unemployed are women. Thus in Nelson, a cotton town in Lancashire, in June 1952, only 16,600 looms out of a total of 30,420 were working. In other cotton towns the women have been working only one and a half days per fortnight for many months. Married women workers who are included on their husbands’ insurance cards cannot claim unemployment allowance when they are out of work. 24 === [PDF page 26] === FINLAND Women, who constitute 40% of the labour force, are the first to become unemployed. The industrialists do not “dismiss” them, but they give them “leave” of one year or six months without pay. WESTERN GERMANY There are at present 3 million unemployed and partially employed workers in West Germany and the trend is upward. The number of unemployed youths, for whom there are practically no apprenticeship jobs, are not included in these figures. 64% of the unemployed are women over 35 years of age. Married women, who have been in their jobs for many years, are being dismissed on the grounds that their husbands are employed. Thus they lose the right to a pension. AUSTRIA In May 1952, there were 1,974,000 workers in Austria, one third of them women. More than 250,000 are unemployed, half of whom are women. In order to receive unemployment assistance one must have worked at least 12 months in the course of the 2 years preceding the first payment. This provision excludes great numbers of workers. CANADA The insurance regulations, as amended on July 1st 1951, disqualify married women from receiving benefits for unemployment occurring within two years after marriage. AUSTRALIA Approximately one third of the 200,000 unemployed are women. Married women, who are the first to be dismissed, are not entitled to unemployment benefits. YUGOSLAVIA According to the newspaper “Borba” of 16th June 1952: “In trade 60 9/o of the dismissed workers are women. In light industry (textile, food and other branches) the situation is similar.” In Lubliana, last April 300 young girls, who had graduated, were unable to find employment. According to official statistics from 1949 to the beginning of 1952, the number of working women in Yugoslavia went down by more than 20°/o. In 1949 in Macedonia, 40 °/o of the employees in commercial enterprises were women; now the figure has dropped to 14%/. In Zagreb out of 5,500 persons without work, 900 are mothers supporting their families. === [PDF page 27] === At the Kawo Soap Plant (in this picture) which had been forced to manufacture an explosive compound instead of soap, 250 workers (half of the entire employees) were fired. But the workers waged «a heroic fight against dismissal and in defence of peaceful industry, and have continued their struggle for more than six months. JAPAN In 1952 the number of totally unemployed and short-time workers amounted to 18 millions. When the Pukoku textile factory closed its doors, the young women workers from the countryside were thrown on to the streets without even getting enough money to pay their fares home. Destitute and homeless, many young girls were forced into prostitution. In Tokio a great number of brothels are directly under the control of American headquarters. INDIA Because of the dumping of Am-rican products, which is one of the factors that deepen the economic crisis in national industry, the textile factories, the rice mills and cigarette manufactories etc. which employ mostly women, are either closing down or cutting the working hours. The glass factory of Firozabad which used to employ thousands of women is closing some departments; the potash necessary for the manufacture of pottery is reserved for the armament industry. In Bengal, the jute factories are closing down and tens of thousands of women are first to be dismissed. In the Perganas district, a delegation of 25 workers, among them 7 women, protested to the Management of the India Jute Factory Association against the dismissal of women. 26 === [PDF page 28] === AGAINST SPEED UP ACCELERATED BY WAR POLICIES ITALY At the Pirelli factory in Milan, 4,100 women workers are engaged in the production of bicycle inner tubes. With the same number of workers and without any technical improvement, an output three times as big is now demanded, whereas wages remain the same. In the Cunro plants, a year ago each woman worker used to work 412 spindles. To-day each woman operates 718. 200 women-workers have been dismissed but the same production is required of the rest. In the wool industry, at the Rossi plant, the management’s profits were 190 million lira in 1949 and 535 million lira in 1950. FRANCE In the metal industry, the women who work on presses, for example in the Renault and Citroen factories, make as many as 2000 pedal revolutions per hour. As a result a high percentage of working women have gynaecological complaints and many pregnant women miscarry. In the flax spinning mills of the North the dry dust causes frequent and heavy nose bleedings and breeds tuberculosis. In the Synthetic Textile Society of the South-East, the declared profits were 30 million francs in 1946 whereas in 1950, they reached 168 million frances, (an increase of 560 °/o). The women workers demand the return to the 40 hour 5 day week— an important gain won under the Popular Front in 1936. MEXICO Woman who sews agave fibre bags, receives only five centavos per bag which is not even enough to buy a corn “tortilla” (the bread of the Mexican people). 27 === [PDF page 29] === UNITED STATES “The March of Labour”, New York, published an interview with a woman spinner who states that she receives a miserably low wage; her husband has been unemployed for a long time. She says that the employers have been farsighted enough to provide a few breaks due to the fact that since raising the production quotas, the women workers frequently cannot keep up the exhausting pace, and faint. One of the women workers suffered an injury to the spine; another one had her arm dislocated. When the women workers went to the management to complain about their unbearable working conditions, they were told that they had better do the work as required or get out. AUSTRIA In the underwear and clothing factory “La Gloriette” in Vienna many women have fallen sick due to the lack of ventilation and the speed up. To reach the required output, the workers cannot take their 2-hourly breaks. It is also forbidden to leave the machines, A few other examples BRAZIL: Women in the factories work from 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes even 14 hours. IRAQ: In a date packing plant women work 12 hours a day. THAILAND: In the match and tobacco factories a working day of 11 hours is the rule. SYRIA: Jn most factories the working day is 12 to 16 hours. Very often women are ill treated and fined for the least infringement. JAPAN: In the textile factories, the young girls must work for 14 to 15 hours a day, despite the 10 hour—law. 28 === [PDF page 30] === RIGTH TO EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND PROMOTION! IRAN: 95°/0 of the women are illiterate. There are no technica! schools. Out of 5,000 students, only 100 are girls. TURKEY: Half of the villages are without schools. 90% of Turkish women are illiterate. INDONESIA: In 1951 the total number of young girls studying at the university was 660. The vast majority of women remain illiterate. SYRIA: 90 °/o of the women are illiterate. KENYA: Almost all women are illiterate. EGYPT: 93°/o of the women are illiterate. The number of young girls attending universities may not exceed 7 °/» of the number of men students. SUDAN: 99/0 of the women are completely illiterate. In Khartoum University there are only 5 girl students. SOUTH AFRICA: Almost all African women are illiterate. IRAQ: 99°/o of the women are illiterate. ALGERIA, TUNISIA, MOROCCO: Ii is obligatory to speak French at school whereas the population speaks Arabic. 76°/o of the women are illiterate. WEST AFRICA: 95 °/o of the women are illiterate. 29 === [PDF page 31] === FRANCE Theoretically, professional equality is guaranteed but the training and qualification centres for women are closing for lack of funds. In administrative jobs less women then men are retained after examinations. Very often young girls are kept on as temporaries even when they qualify for permanent jobs, and are paid less under the threat of dismissal. Thus 5,000 temporary employees of the postal and telegraph services are scheduled for dismissal, among them many young girls. BELGIUM In engineering there is not a single skilled woman worker. There are no women in the textile training centres; those who are working have learned their trade in practice and they hardly ever attain managerial posts. GREAT BRITAIN Women railway clerks at the 1952 conference of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association protested that 88% of them are in the lowest grade while young men are promoted over them; they demanded the reclassification of a great number of women. ITALY Of the 66,000 students in the technical schools about 5,380 are young girls; of 3,371 textile apprentices, 328 are young girls. Yet there are about 400,000 women working in the textile industry. In the training schools for adult workers there are 3,544 women out of the 63,449 students. AUSTRALIA No woman can become principal of an elementary school. Only the few secondary girls’ schools may have headmistresses. Women teachers receive lower salaries than their men colleagues, the salaries being 80 to 90% in some States; while the rate of their retirement pensions is also lower than the men’s rate. In all States except New South Wales, women teachers must resign on marriage; if they wish to go on teaching, they have to become temporaries and accept the restrictions governing temporary employment. 30 === [PDF page 32] === TO ENJOY THE FRUIT OF THEIR LABOUR TO SEE PROGRESS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE! INDIA 30% of the peasant families have no land. 80% have insufficient land. Most of the peasant women may not possess land of their own. There is no irrigation, no seeds for sowing, no farm animals. The families are crushed by multiple taxes, rents due on their crops, debts to the feudal landlords and moneylenders. The streets of Calcutta are again echoing with the starvation marches of the peasants from the famine areas. JAPAN The whole of the arable land of one village in the district of Ishikawa has just been requisitioned as military territory for the United States. The misery of the peasants who have been deprived of their land is beyond description. Thus, the resistance to the confiscation of arable land is growing from day to day. INDONESIA The number of landless peasants is increasing because land is being handed over to big American companies. EGYPT The Nile Valley can produce 3 crops a year. Yet the Egyptian peasant women live on corn, onions and dried pulses, and eat meat only twice a year, on feast days. Whereas the agricultural production has been increasing during the last 20 years, the consumption of cereals, textiles, meat and tobacco has gone down by 20%. 2% of the landlords possess 45% of all the land and 5 million peasants have no land at all. 51 === [PDF page 33] === EGYPT: Mother and son in the countryside. ALGERIA, TUNISIA, MOROCCO, SYRIA Very often the wife and children work with the father on the land of the colonialists and only the father is paid. BRAZIL In Brazil there are 10 to 12 million peasant women without any protective labour legislation. One-third of them, without homes or a place to live in, wander about the countryside in search of work. FRANCE The potatoes sold for 70 francs per kilo in the Paris markets are bought from the producer for 10 franes per kilo. Wine which is sold to the consumer for 70 to 80 francs is bought for 20 to 25 francs from the producers. The agricultural budget for 1952, already ridiculously small, has again been reduced by 20 billion frances, while there are 25,000 localities out of 37,000 which have no running water, and 600,000 farms have no electricity. Rural roads are in a very bad state and social services are practically nonexistent in the countryside. 32 === [PDF page 34] === In order to build aerodromes and military bases, hundreds of hectares of good land are taken away from the peasants. The Union of French Women organised a national conference in Defence of the Rights of Peasant Women, attended by 300 delegates. ITALY Country women have taken a very active part in the struggles for land, for work contracts that guarantee their rights, and for peace. Hundreds have suffered from police repression. Several women were killed— Angelina Mauro and Juditta Levato from the south of Italy and Maria Margotti, a “‘mondina” from Emilia. UNITED STATES The Negro women are subjected to discrimination and to attacks as a result of the practices of white supremacists. In the southern part of the country Negro and white share croppers strive to rear their children under semi-feudal peonage conditions. About one million white migratory agricultural workers and their families go from place to place, searching for work. "| miss my children so bad..." Mrs. Rosa Lee Ingram, who defended herself against the attack of a white farmer, is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment, together with her two sons who defended her. In the eyes of the white supremacists, a Negro woman has no rights a white man is bound to respect. 33 === [PDF page 35] === To her right, Claudine -Curie. liot s meeting. 29 a big women’ At the rostrum Chaumat In France, === [PDF page 36] === FULL ECONOMIC EQUALITY FREES THE WOMEN’S CREATIVE ENERGIES! The navigable Lenin Volga-Don Canal, the first of the great construction works of Communism, unites in a unique system of waterways the five seas of the European part of the Soviet Union, The photograph shows: Maria Boldyreva, woman electrical solderer, one of the workers who over-fulfilled her norms of production by 200 to 300 %/s, during the construction of the Canal. U.S.S.R. The right to work is guaranteed to every member of society and women have become a tremendously creative force in Soviet society. Formerly there were very few women engineers and technicians. In 1951 they numbered 380,000. There are 207,000 women doctors, more than a million women teachers, and at the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. 37% of the scientific workers are women. 40 % of the agronomists are women. In the Ukrainian S.S.R. alone 189 women were elected chairmen of collective farms and 15,000 are agricultural specialists. There are no illiterate women in the U.S.S.R. More than a million women attend colleges and high schools. When they graduate from high school, college, technical or vocational training school, boys and girls are given work according to their qualification and personal choice. 35 === [PDF page 37] === CHINA In China, there are now women workers, technicians, tram and bus drivers, women aviators, parachutists and mechanics. In 1952 the number of women workers and employees had increased by 74% compared with 1950. In the national enterprises, working women have the same facilities as men for training and are promoted to high posts. In the Northeast and East of China, more than 6,400 women have been promoted to leading jobs in the enterprises and trade unions since the liberation. Under the land reform, women receive their share of the land. Many peasant women have been appointed to leading positions as brigade leaders and cooperative managers. The Government pays special attention to the development and technical training of women in agriculture, in order to teach them how to make good use of agricultural machinery. On the State farms one can already see women tractorists and farm managers. MONGOLIA Women have the same right to work as men and receive equal pay for equal work. In Ulan-Bator, 73% of the women work in industry; they constitute 76% of the medical personnel and 25% of the students in teachers’ training colleges. More than 30/9 “Model Sheep Breeders of the Republic” are women. 36 === [PDF page 38] === CZECHOSLOVAKIA In the textile industry, there are 18 women works managers who were formerly workers. In Olomouc, the Rector of Palacky University is a woman. There are many women doctors of medicine, university professors, doctors of science and _ specialists. 837% of the industrial workers are women. winder at the Florica Munteanu, factory in the Peoples Republic of Roumania. This model worker has and is now working for the 1955 plan. overfilled her There are many women scientific agriculturalists and zoo-technicians in Czechoslovakia. The rapid training of new cadres who prepare themselves in scientific instuitutes for their futur responsibilites, is one of the constant concerns of the State. Our picture shows Dagmar Kohlova from the biological Institute of Olomouc examining seeds for spring sowing. “Dinamo” norm RUMANIA 17,000 women are engineers, 2,500 are forewomen and assistant forewomen. During 1951, 30,000 women became skilled workers, and 11 women are presidents of collective farms and 1,105 women are on the management committees of collective farms. Thousands of women are shock workers. A thousand women _=§ are among the cadres for higher education. Two women are members of the Academy of Rumanian People’s Republic. 3,000 women have been granted awards. === [PDF page 39] === POLAND 20,000 women have been promoted to managerial positions in various fields of the national economy. There are more than 2,000 women engineers, 1,500 technicians and 2,777 women doctors. The number of women professors of all subjects is increasing constantly; in 1951—1952 they numbered 454, compared with 74 in 1935—1936, while women teachers number 2,973, compared with 275 in 1935—1936. There are 44,000 women students, compared with 13,000 in Poland before the war. During the last two years 6,129 women have been given awards for their social and professional activities. BULGARIA A great number of women are managers of enterprises and institutes. 14 women are “Heroines of Socialist Labour” and have been awarded the highest distinction, the Dimitrov Prize. 2,464 women help to manage collective farms. 16,312 are group or brigade leaders. 755 are tractorists. Nearly 50% of the students at universities and colleges are women. There are 43 women workers attached to the Academy of Science. Boheka Varbanova, head of a@ women’s tractorist brigade. Member of the Bulgarian National Assembly. 38 === [PDF page 40] === Wally Kugler, Model worker in the electric-lamp plant of Berlin. GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 37% of the working population are women. By the end of the Five Year Plan in 1955, this figure will have reached 41 °/o. Many women have been awarded the National Prize in recognition of their work, others have been honoured with the titles “Merited Inventor’, “Heroine of Labour”, ‘“Merited Doctor of the People’, “Merited Teacher of the People”, and “Merited Activist’ (best workers). Five women are Ministers or State Secretaries, Aenne Kundermann is a special Ambassador to Poland, Hilde Benjamin is Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Greta Kuckhoff is President of the German State Bank. There are 4,185 Women’s Committees in the enterprises and in administration who ensure that proper social institutions are set up and that women receive training and promotion. HUNGARY 30% of the presidents of agricultural co-operatives are women. According to 1951 statistics, 21°/o of the shock brigaders are women. The highest State distinction, the Kossuth prize, has been awarded to 31 women scientists, artists and prominent workers. While in 1938 only 1700 women were able to attend universities and colleges, in 1950—1951 there were over 7,000 women students. ALBANIA Before the liberation, 98 % of the population was illiterate. Practically all women have already learned to read and write in courses specially arranged for them. Since 1951, 40,777 women have attended study groups. In the elementary schools, 7,940 young girls are studying; there are 1,643 girls at secondary schools and in the higher grade institutes opened in 1952 there are 95 girls. 39 === [PDF page 41] === FOR THE DEFENCE OF THEIR FAMILIES FOR A DECENT AND HAPPY LIFE UNITED STATES There is no federal law protecting the rights of the working mother. There are no maternity leave rights or maternity grants. Certain States have started a few nurseries and after-school facilities, but the number has already been reduced. There is no national health service. The hospitals cater for only 30°% of those requiring medical care. 76% of the new budget is devoted to war preparations; the remaining 24 % has to cover all other governmental expenditure and the social needs of the American people. “U.S. News and World Reports” of November 21st, says that “the hard fact is that during his first year of office Eisenhower almost surely will spend more on military defence than Harry Truman spent during his last year in office.” One third of the workers’ salaries goes in taxes. Purchasing power is 3% lower than in 1944 and 15% lower than in 1948. Mrs. Jean Fields had her two children taken from her by the U. S. Courts because she taught them equality between Negro and white people, and spoke against the war in Korea. Scores of women — mothers and grand-mothers — are threatened with deportation. Many women are threatened with imprisonment and are the victims of harassment by the notorious F.B.I. because of activities for peace and democracy. 40 === [PDF page 42] === FRANCE In 1946 a social security law was passed. Among other things it provides for the protection of mother and child through pre-natal allowances and a system of health centres and mothers’ clinics, the refund of a high percentage of the money spent in cases of confinement and illness, convalescent and rest homes for the workers and the members of their families, and finally, old age pensions. A system of family allowances was instituted to help families. Today the government is increasing its attacks on social security, creating difficulties for the work of the branch offices, restricting the rights of the people concerned in the management, diverting funds from their proper use, restricting the application and the benefits of insurance. Many women’s and trade union organisations are fighting for the application.and extension of social security. While the education budget is 5,2% of the total budget, the budget for reconstruction 0,37%, the health budget 1,3%, the war damage budget 8,51 %, the military budget represents more than 45% of the total. Whereas a minimum living standard requires 30,000 francs a month, official statistics show that 2,700,000 workers earn less than 18,000 francs and 50% of wage earners less than 25,000 francs. 1938 Wages........ 40% of the national income Profits of the big industrial firms.. 34% of the national income 1951 Wages.....54+545-s 29% oft the national income Profits of the big industrial firms.. 54% of the national income Taxes for financing war preparations are growing heavier and heavier. On a pair of shoes costing... 3,500 francs 875 francs goes in tax On 5 kilos potatoes costing... 90 francs 18 francs goes in tax On 1 kilo sugar costing.... 127 francs 30 francs goes in tax On 1 kilo roasting beef.... 760 francs 251 francs goes in tax On 1 kilo butter....... 810 francs 218 francs goes in tax Thus a worker who earns 25,000 francs per month pays 6,250 francs in taxes; one quarter of his salary is swallowed up by the military budget. GREAT BRITAIN Day nurseries are being summarily closed down; and the introduction of exorbitant charges far outside the means of working mothers shows that the Government’s objective is to do away entirely with this service in the near future. === [PDF page 43] === pROPER fa} BE yOUSING a cAR RENTS TT “LEX 42 === [PDF page 44] === Because of the lack of school accommodation, about one-half of the local authorities do not admit the children at 5 years, which is the official school-entry age, and they may be already 5 and a half when they go. Expenditure on school meals has been cut. Legislation to provide a free health service was passed shortly after the last world war. However this service has also been severely cut. A charge of one shilling is made on each prescription, which alone costs the people 12 and a half million pounds sterling per year. Dental treatment, formerly free, must now be paid for. Plans to allay the shortage of hospitals, clinics and maternity homes are postponed. Because of lack of hospital beds, there is a waiting list of half a million people needing hospital treatment. In October 1952, food prices had risen by 58 °/o since 1947, clothing by 44% and household goods by 36%. The removal or cutting of government subsidies by over £200 million on basic necessities, such as butter, eggs etc. in many cases puts these goods outside the range of working class families. In the nation-wide campaign against the rising cost of living and social service cuts, women and women’s organisations, particularly in the labour and co-operative movement, are playing a leading part. The National Assembly of Women is in the forefront of this movement. FINLAND The Government proposes to cut 225 million marks from the funds allocated for family allowances, 200 millions from the funds for young married couples, 10 millions from the kindergartens, 240 million from the funds for vocational training. They aim to eliminate completely the grants to secondary school pupils and to war widows. The grants for cheap milk, for the salaries of municipal doctors, midwives, children’s clubs etc. have been severely cut. In addition, the Government aims to reduce the funds for old age pensions by 800 million marks, by postponing the age of retirement from 60 to 65. AUSTRALIA In 1952 the Federal Government of Australia spent one-third of the total budget, 200 million pounds, on war preparations and 111 million pounds on the payment of liabilities arising from previous wars. A family of 4 persons which in 1950 paid £9.11.10d in taxes on wages, in 1952 paid £18.16.0d, that is to say twice as much. With the exception of teachers, pregnant women have no right to maternity leave. There are only a few nurseries in factories. 43 === [PDF page 45] === Bt BS EE, ae ae 8 This is one of the 1000 new airraid shelters in Copenhagen which curtailed the building of homes. 150 million crowns are devoted to the construction of air-raid shelters in the total military budget of 1 billion crowns compared to 50 million crowns before the war. ITALY Article 32 of the Constitution states: “The Republic recognises health as a basic right of the individual and in the interests of the community guarantees free treatment for all who require it.” For 11,500,000 Italian people no health assistance is available. In Calabria, Lucania, in Campania, 37%, in Apulia 32%, on an average 30 to 50 % of the houses are recognised as being unhealthy and uninhabitable. From September 1950 to October 1951, the price of meat increased by 19.4%, eggs by 22%, bacon by 24%. To buy a woollen cloth suit, a peasant had to pay the value of 3.6 quintaux of wheat in 1938 (1 quintal is 100 kilograms); today he has to pay the equivalent of 4.6 qx. 612 billion lira are allocated to the war budget whereas only 185 billion are granted for education; there is a shortage of 70,000 classes; 100,000 teachers are unemployed; 2 million children do not attend school. 300,000 applications for war pensions are still pending; 15,000 of these are from war widows of 1914—1918. On the 26th August 1950, Parliament passed a law on maternity rights, granting maternity leaves of from 11 to 20 weeks, depending on the category of the work. During this period, the workers has the right to 80% of her pay. The same law grants agricultural women workers a total of 25,000 lira. To secure the adoption of this law a great campaign has been conducted throughout the country by the Union of Italian Women. 44 === [PDF page 46] === YUGOSLAVIA War preparations have swallowed up 3 billion 581 million dollars, as the Tito Government itself has admitted. Nurseries and kindergartens are being closed down. Yugoslavia has one of the higgest mortality rates in the world. Protection of mother and child has been more or less abandoned. Pregnant women are dismissed from the factories so that the employers will not have to grant them maternity leave and allowances. In Bosnia there is only one doctor for every 40 to 50,000 inhabitants. BRAZIL Industrial legislation entitles women workers to maternity leave with part-payment of salary and breaks for nursing mothers. However, in most factories there is no place for the mothers to feed their children. In order to avoid their obligations to pregnant women the employers dismiss them. One of the main demands of the Brazilian women is for nurseries. The overwhelming majority of Brazillian women are peasants without any social legislative protection whatever. In the N. E. of Brazil, in the State of Ceara embroidering is laborious work performed by women. Little girls of 7 are also employed on this work. Many industrialists grow rich on the labour of these women, and the embroidered blouses which they sell them are re-sold by the merchants at prices three or four times as high. Thousands and thousands of women in N. E. Brazil live from this handicraft work. 45 === [PDF page 47] === CHILE This “Rancho” was built of bamboo sticks with a straw roof at the roadside. It is 3 metres long and 2 metres wide. Here lives this woman with her three children and her husband. Note the clefts in the walls for ventilation. JAPAN The 1952 budget, 70% of which is allotted to military expenditure, has increased 15% compared with the previous year’s budget. Arising out of the presence of American troops in Japan, 300,000 children have been born out of wedlock. These children have no social protection whatsoever, and misery often drives the mothers to suicide or to abandon their children. Mothers are selling their blood for blood transfusions for American soldiers wounded in Korea in order to get money to maintain their families. PHILIPPINES In the tobacco, textile and rubber industries which employ many women, there is no protective legislation. Women workers can be dismissed without notice and without payment and the employers can reduce their wages as they like. In Manila in 1951, out of 100,000 deaths, 40,000 were due to malnutrition. 46 === [PDF page 48] === IRAN The labour laws ratified by Parliament in 1948 grant social rights and protective provisions to working women. Yet pregnant women have to work until the last moment of their pregnancy and they frequently have to conceal their condition so as to avoid dismissal. In certain factories the worker who is absent from work for one day must work 4 days without pay in order to be reinstated. The price of food has increased from 6 to 8 times and, in certain cases, 14 times since the end of the war, whereas wages have increased by only 2 or 3 times. In Turquey, Peasant women go to fetch water from a far away well four or five times a day. There is no water systemin any of the 40000 villages in the country. 47 === [PDF page 49] === This Indian woman who lives under miserable conditions is making delicate embroideries for the saris of the rich feudalists. INDIA There are 16,314 beds in maternity hospitals for the whole country. The Charter of Children’s Rights drawn up by the democratic women’s organisation demands: “At least one children’s hospital for each State.” In some factories maternity leave and allowance are agreed to in principle, but the management breaks the agreements with impunity and dismisses pregnant women. As a result of the extreme poverty most of the babies in town and country are fed with tea instead of milk. Over wide regions famine claims thousands of human lives. Procurers lie in wait for the women who leave their villages every day with their babies in their arms in search of food. In face of this terrible situation which affects the whole country, a shameful campaign inspired by American pseudo-scientists has been started. Hungry people are cynically advised to “have less children—eat less— choose a rational diet”. Hence the International Conference for Planned Parenthood, held in Bombay in November—December 1952, under the auspices of the London and New York committees of the International Committee for Planned Parenthood. The purpose of this conference was to organise a campaign in all the countries of Asia which are suffering hardship from thé war and rapine policy of the imperialists. 48 === [PDF page 50] === In Tunisia, Morocco, Lebonan, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria there is practically no system of social security for women workers and mothers. In Algeria only a tiny number of Moslem women receive family allowances, There are no maternity homes and there is only one doctor for every 75,000 inhabitants. In Tunisia there are no sanatoria for T.B. cases. 60 to 80°/o of the children ‘have trachoma. There are no nurseries. In 1950, the Gafsa Mining Company declared 247 million francs profit and the Association of French Farmers 265 million. In Morocco there is one doctor for every 45,000 inhabitants in the towns and one for every 120,000 in the countryside. In Syria there is one doctor for 15 villages. The misery is so great that sometimes families sell their children to save them from starvation. The budget for “national defence” amounts to 70°%/o of the total budget. In Turkey for 40,000 people suffering from T.B. there are only 2,000 hospital beds. Out of 500,000 deaths, 300,000 are due to undernourishment. Police and army expenditure takes up 60/0 of the total budget. In Nigeria there is only one doctor for 133,000 inhabitants and one fever hospital. 51°/o of the children die before the age of 5, and as in all the African colonies, the population is continuously diminishing. In Lebanon, confinement in a maternity ‘home cost 500 Lebanese pounds, which is the equivalent of 5 months salary for a worker. The construction of the military airport at Khalde and of strategic roads has cost more than the whole Lebanese budget for one year. The League for the Rights of Lebanese Women states, ‘‘The national interest requires that this money should be spent on schemes of peace and civilisation, to improve industry and agriculture, to build schools and hospitals and to raise the living standards of the people.” In Cyprus, social insurance is practically unknown. There is only one doctor for 627 villages. 37/9 of the population live in one-room dwellings. At the Cyprus Conference on Economic Problems which was held on the 14th October last, many women presented demands to lower the cost of living, for health services and against slums. 49 === [PDF page 51] === THE ARE DENIED THE MOST ELEMENTARY RIGHTS In Iran it is not unusual for girls of 8 to 10 years to be given in marriage. There are two forms of marriage, the permanent marriage in which a substantial “‘Kabin’ (dowry) is given, as a result of which the wife is more respected; and the provisional marriage in which the “Kabin” is small and in which case the man has the right to keep the woman one night, 10 days or a lifetime. This kind of marriage is made and broken with incredible ease and without the woman having the right to express her point of view. Article 1113 of the Civil Code stipulates that the woman has the right to daily maintenance only if the marriage contract stipulates it. The man can repudiate his wife at any time by a mere notification and there are cases of women being divorced without their knowledge. Women can only obtain divorce for a very limited numer of reasons, such as the insanity or impotence of their husbands. They are denied their rights as mothers: in the case of separation, the father takes the sons when they are 2 years old and the daughters when they are 7. In the case of the death of her husband the wife receives one quarter of the inheritance and the rest is confiscated by the State, If there are children she receives only one eighth. The husband inherits his wife’s property. The description of the life of Iranian women illustrates the tragic situation in which the women of the colonial and dependent countries are maintained. In Lebanon, in matters of inheritance the boy receives twice the share of the girl. In law the evidence of a man is worth twice as much as a woman’s, In Negro Africa it is not rare to find a chief who owns tens and sometimes hundreds of wives. A village chief goes round the villages, chooses a young girl or woman who pleases him and has her taken to his home: that is the only formality of the marriage. In 1947, in French West Africa when forced labour was abolished, the wives of several chiefs, thinking that this law concerned them, went back to their parents: but the Colonial Administration had them brought back by force. === [PDF page 52] === In Iraq the father chooses a husband for his daughter. If the father is absent it is the brother who makes the choice even if he is younger than is sister. In India the parents impose the husband of their choice on the woman; the Indian law prohibits divorce. In Brazil a married woman is treated on a level with minors, bankrupts etc. In Belgium, Scotland and Ireland the father alone has parental rights for as long as the marriage lasts. In England the father makes the sole decision on his children’s education. In Holland the husband alone administers the property of the family, he can sell or mortgage it without his wife’s consent. In the United States the law in 30 States prohibits marriage between coloured and white people. In many States the woman is a minor according to the Civil Code; her personal belongings become the property of the husband on divorce. According to the laws of certain States, the salary of a woman belongs to her husband. She has no right to take part in business or to have a business of her own, The income from a common enterprise belongs to the husband. The father is the sole guardian of minor children and has all parental rights, In many States the married woman may not make a will. In France the choice of the legal domicile is the right of the husband. The opening of a personal bank account for a woman requires the consent of her husband. He alone administers the property of the family. He can sell, buy or mortgage without the consent of his wife. Certain matrimonial contracts grant the husband the administration of all his wife’s personal property. According to French law, if the father dies, the mother cannot be guardian unless she is advised by a family council appointed by the Court. === [PDF page 53] === A LIFE OF SECURITY TOEVERY FAMILY GUARANTED BY THE GOVERNMENT. U.S.S.R. Security is ensured, there is no unemployment. Great attention is paid to the social and health protection of the woman and child. All citizens of the U.S.S.R. receive freely and without formality all care, treatment and remedies. If factory workers are ill, they receive a big proportion of their salaries and sometimes the whole salary. Mothers are assisted by maternity leave, a network of nurseries and kindergartens and large family allowances. Old people receive pensions, women at 55 and men at 65. The right to leisure is scrupulously respected and there is a network of rest and convalescent homes and country houses, where workers usually pay one-third of the actual cost, or are sometimes sent free of charge. Many palaces of culture, clubs, theatres, cinemas and concert halls are at the disposal of the workers. All the achievements of science and culture are placed at the service of the people. Since the end of the war, prices have been lowered 5 times. The income of the workers and employees was roughly 57% higher than in 1940 and the income of the peasants 60% higher. From 1940 to 1951 the national income, three-quarters of which is utilised to satisfy the material and cultural needs of the people, increased by 83%. Every Soviet family can view the future with confidence. The new 5 Year plan of development of the U.S.S:R. from 1951 to 1955 provides for an increase in the whole national economy and for the improvement of the welfare and culture of the people. For example, the level of industrial production will increase by 70% as compared with the former 5 Year plan. 105 million square metres of living accommodation will be built. The construction of schools will increase by 70%; the number of places in nurseries by 20%, in the kindergartens by 40%, in rest homes by 30% and in hospitals by 20%; libraries will increase by 30% and clubs by 15%. 52 === [PDF page 54] === Professor Olga Lepechinskaia, of the 0, 81 Se Re Stalin Prize Winner and Biologist, who is doing researches on the problem of longevity. This is one of the sanatoriums in Gagry. The Black Sea shore in the Caucasus is one the favourite holiday places of the Soviet people. === [PDF page 55] === CHINA The social insurance regulations established in 1951 provide that women workers and employees have the right to paid leave during confinement. Special provision has been made for the payment of old age pensions to women, who receive them 10 years earlier than men and at the same rate. More than 21,000 medical establishments care for the health of mothers and children. During the last 3 years the Government medical service institutions and the people’s organisations conducted a broad campaign among the masses for the popularisation of hygienic welfare. Midwives are being re-educated and old habits and methods which endanger the health of mothers and children are being vigorously combatted. Thus, infant mortality caused by tetanus has fallen considerably. 242.618 midwives have been qualified and reeducated in the country. In 1950 a marriage law was adopted stipulating that a new democratic marriage system based upon monogamy and the free choice of marriage partners, upon equal rights for man and woman and the defence of the interests of mother and child be put into effect. The general living conditions of the Chinese people are improving from day to day. === [PDF page 56] === In POLAND, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, RUMANIA, BULGARIA, ALBANIA, MONGOLIA and in the GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, social and health services are being developed more fully, thus allowing women to exercise their rights. The women workers are protected by social insurance, family allowances, maternity leaves and work pauses for nursing mothers. The right to leisure is ensured through rest periods spent at rest and convalescent homes. Old age pensions ensure the security of old workers. POLAND The number of maternity homes, which were non-existent formerly in the countryside, increases from vear to year. A midwifery service is also being developed in the countryside. The new family code states that marriage is a lasting union based on absolute equality between man and woman. All the laws which infringed on the rights of married women have been abolished. In the case of divorce the rights of children ar In the People’s Republic of Poland the child is being cared ms always for from the time of birth, by the government which spends safeguarded. 31.5 %o of its budget for social and cultural purposes. The. number of nurseries is increasing from year to year as shown 80%) of the children py the following figures: under 3 years old are under the constant 1938 1945 1949 1951 1955 pore of health t Seasonnal creches _— -- 121 192 1.500 | after Centres. Creches.... 66 — 537 800 1.150 J the plan CZECHOSLOVAKIA The social insurance laws adopted in 1948 have granted women all social rights. Newly married couples receive a State loan of 36,000 crowns, repayable within 10 years. On the birth of the first child, the State itself pays the interest on the loan and for every new child, the loan is reduced by one-sixth. 55 === [PDF page 57] === HUNGARY Women have the right to 12 weeks paid leave, 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after their confinement. 32000 mothers have received the decoration awarded by the Government to mothers of large families. RUMANIA Almost all the big enterprises and institutions have nurseries and kindergartens. In the villages seasonal or permanent kindergartens have been set up. New maternity homes are being opened in the cities, and rural maternity homes are being created for the first time. In the case of illness of a child under 2, the working mother has the right to full paid leave which does not affect her regular holiday, so that she can look after her child. The labour laws guarantee the good functioning of social insurance by free medical assistance and by placing a vast network of holiday and seaside resorts at the disposal of the workers. BULGARIA The Government ensures maternity leave to mothers and grants them free medical care. By a decree of June 26th 1951, a grant is made to a family when a child is born, if one of the parents is insured under the Social Insurance law. Parents not belonging to this category receive a substantial amount of maternity insurance. Under the same decree family allowances are paid for children up to 14 years of age. 56 === [PDF page 58] === ALBANIA The 1951 budget provides 275 million leis, that is 5 and a half million dollars for the protection of mothers. In the case of total or partial disability, whether due to accidents at work or to disease, the law guarantees the woman and her children free treatment in State institutions. The working woman receives a pension at the age of 55. She has the right to spend her annual holiday, which ranges from 15 days to one month, in one of ‘the trade union rest homes, where she pays a modest sum. The best workers are rewarded with free accommodatien in rest homes. GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC The law for the protection of mother and child and the rights of women is proof of the care shown to them by the government. Pregnant women can spend rest periods in convalescent homes. If their state of health requires it they are given lighter work to do. A network of institutions is at the disposal of mothers who are the only support of their families; their children can be brought up in these homes at the expense of the State. An illegitimate child is not considered a disgrace, and the mother has full parental rights. New kindergartens, children’s homes, feeding centres and laundries are constantly being opened. Women receive pensions at the age of 60, and if they wish to continue working, receive both their wage and their pension. MONGOLIA Men and women have the same rights within the family. Marriage is an institution based on the free will of men and women; they both have the same rights concerning domestic property; the father and mother have the same duties regarding the children. === [PDF page 59] === CONCLUSION omen in many countries are in a ferment for their political rights, for the right to vote, to be elected and to participate in the political life of their countries. Outstanding in this respect is he struggle of the women of Iran, Lebanon and Switzerland. The Right for equal pay for equal work has been intensified in many countries and is gaining support from the trade unions. The current campaign for equal pay for equal work in the USA, for the advancement and training of women workers for qualified jobs, led by the United Electrical Workers and the Pading House Workers Unions and various others, is the first time in recent decades that major unions are undertaking action of this kind. In Italy a bill has ‘been presented in Parliament by deputies of widely differing political opinions, to provide that women receive as much pay as men for the same work. In Great Britain, where the question of equal pay was discussed iin Parliament in the summer of 1952. a mass delegation of hundreds of women representing a large section of the organised women workers, came to the House of Commons to lobby the Government. Actions against high prices, against the curtailment of sociai welfare are widespread in many countries. In Brazil in 1952 the demonstrations against the high cost of living were met with police violence and one woman was killed and many wounded. The multitude and variety of the struggles around numerous issues show, that women refuse to accept the hardship and sacrifices being forced upon them \by wars and war preparations, and by national oppression. A World Congress of all women who want to find a common solution to the great problems which confront them; how to protect their families, how to defend, extend and secure their rights in a world at peace, will meet in Denmark in June 1953. This Congress is called by the Women's International Democratic Federation in the name of 135 million women in 65 countries. An appeal was issued by the Council of the W.I.D.F. to every women's organisation, to trade union and other organisations, to every women everywhere, to unite and participate iin this great historic Congress. 58 === [PDF page 60] === Madame Eugenie COTTON, President of the Women’s International Democratic Federation. 59 === [PDF page 61] === CALL FOR THE WORLD CONGRESS OF WOMEN! WOMEN OF THE WOHLE WORLD! We who give life and who bring up our children, have always played our part, through our work, in the building of civilisation. To make our full contribution as mothers, workers and citizens to the creation of a better life, we must possess complete political, economic and social rights. This is why in the countries where these rights have not been granted, women are demanding both the possession of their rights and the means of exercising them. The dearest wish of all women is to live in peace and friendship with all the peoples of the world. They are determined that their children shall be safeguarded against the horrors of wars of extermination. War, already a terrible reality for the women of Korea, Viet Nam and Malaya, threathens to destroy the whole world, Women everywhere are seeing all their hopes for the future endangered, as war preparations increase and military bases are set up in many countries. For millions of families the arms drive is bringing with it a lower standard of living, unemployment and poverty. WOMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES! To meet the deepest needs and wishes of all women, to seek together a solution to the great problems which face them, the Women’s International Democratic Federation is convening the World Congress of Women in June 1953 in Denmark. MOTHERS, who want to bring up your children secure from the hardships intensified by war preparations, who want to see them well-fed, healthy and well-clothed, who are demanding more homes and more schools for them, MOTHERS, who want to rescue your children from suffering and starvation, who have no rights at all, who, along with your children, are refused the possibility of education, and who, together with your peoples, are joining the fight against colonial oppression, THIS CONGRESS IS YOUR CONGRESS! 60 === [PDF page 62] === WOMEN WHO WORK IN FACTORIES, SHOPS AND OFFICES, who are campaigning for an end to the wretched wages, unemployment and speedup which are aggravated by war policies, who are demanding your right to equal payment for equal work, for equal opportunities for training and employment and the application and extension of industrial legislation, WOMEN WHO WORK ON THE LAND, who produce the world’s food, who in so many countries live in bondage to the colonialists and feudal landlords, perpetually weighed down by debts and taxes, you who want to enjoy the fruits of your labours and to see progress in the countryside. HOUSEWIVES, for whom the family budget is your daily worry, PROFESSIONAL AND CULTURAL WORKERS, who are demanding guaranteed employment and free entrance to all the professions; THIS CONGRESS IS YOUR CONGRESS! WOMEN, who are demanding the right to take part in the political life of your country, your right to vote and be elected, your right to work and to knowledge, your right to motherhood; who want to see social security schemes introduced and developed, who want social services and cultural institutions; you who are fighting for your dignity as women and for democratic rights, for the independence of your country and friendship between the peoples, And you who live in the countries where all children have a happy life and where women’s rights are guaranteed, All of us who want to live, and bring up fine children, in a world free from the atom bomb, where progress and science will make a rich and full life possible for everybody, WOMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, opinions, beliefs and social backgrounds, whether or not we belong to an organisation, whatever the colour of our skin, THE WORLD CONGRESS OF WOMENIS OUR CONGRESS! Let us set to work at once. Let us talk to every woman in her home, factory, office or shop, and in the fields. Meet, elect and mandate our delegates. Send to the Congress thousands of messages, suggestions and proposed solutions to our problems. TOGETHER LET US ENSURE THE SUCCESS OF THE WORLD CONGRESS OF WOMEN! 61 === [PDF page 63] === Women’s organisations and movements, trade union and co-operative organisations, professional, cultural, social and religious groupings and parents’ associations, let your voices be heard at the World Congress of Women. WOMEN CF THE WHOLE WORLD! Let us clasp hands across the frontiers to bar the road to war, oppression and poverty. Let us act to force: the end of the wars now being waged; the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction, of atomic, chemical and bacteriological weapons; the progressive reduction of armaments leading to general disarmament; the conclusion of a Pact of Peace between the 5 Great Powers; United, we constitute an invincible force! FOR THE WINNING AND DEFENCE OF OUR RIGHTS, FOR THE PROTECTION OF OUR CHILDREN AND HOMES, FOR A PEACEFUL WORLD. SUPPORT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF WOMEN! Vienna, December 20th, 1952. Adopted unanimously at the Council of the Women's International Democratic Federation 62 === [PDF page 64] === SUMMARY Introduction Page 2 The women want to participate in the political life of their countries. Page 4 The women make an important contribution to the building of a happy life. Page 13 Against the war of extermination, for the right to life. Page 15 Their rights as workers. Page 18 Full economic equality frees the women’s creative energies! Page 35 For the defence of their families, for a decent and happy life. Page 40 A life of security to every family guaranteed by the government. Page 52 Conclusion Page 58 Call to World Congress! === [PDF page 65] === [Cover/decorative page: WIDF emblem: white dove over a globe with stars, in a dark square]