Fundación Secretariado Gitano

Sara Giménez, director of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, member of the new Gender Gap Advisory Council [editar]

• National level

The new Gender Gap Advisory Council is chaired by the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, vice-chaired by the Minister for Equality, Ana Redondo, and is made up of 17 renowned personalities from different social, political, scientific and cultural fields.

At its first meeting, held on Monday 1 July, the minister provided data on Spain that justify the creation of the new body:

• In the labour market there are still wage differences and women are the ones who take most of the time off work to care for their children.
• With regard to pensions, the majority of female pensioners, 2.8 million, are in the lowest brackets and the gap with men is 20%, reaching almost 500 euros.
• Furthermore, more than half (54%) of the total beneficiaries of the Minimum Income are women, many of them mothers.

For all these reasons, one of the first decisions taken in the body has been to present, within a year, a global report analysing the situation, containing proposals for measures to be implemented in the Ministry, as well as to promote the publication of statistics and specific information on the gender gap in each of the Ministry's areas.

Sara Giménez, as director of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, will contribute to incorporating the perspective of Roma women into the analyses. Although Roma women are no strangers to the problems faced by other women, they are subject to other forms of discrimination due to their belonging to a socially excluded ethnic group.

In addition, the Council will begin to advise on other issues such as the Regulation of the Law on Foreigners, Permanent Disability and its compatibility with work and possible improvements in the Minimum Income, a tool for combating poverty that has identified the Roma population as one of its priority groups, due to their special lack of protection and high risk of exclusion.