Flanders marks Equal Pay Day 31/03/2008 00:00

Women are staging protests in support of equal pay as Flanders and the world mark Equal Pay Day.

31 March 2008

FLANDERS - Across Flanders, women are staging protests in support of equal pay. The protests come as Flanders and the world mark Equal Pay Day.

Vera Claes of the progressive women's organisation Zijkant told the VRT that in a number of sectors, the wage gap between men and women is still very large.

In the clothes manufacturing industry, women make up 80 percent of the workforce. The men that are employed earn 40 percent more than female employees.

There was a rather unusual sight in Antwerp station this morning. Drag queens and musclemen have been handing out banknotes with a value of EUR 7.5.

In this way they want to highlight the fact that on average women make 25 percent less than men.

Women are also taking their message to industry. There are protests in some 20 businesses.

[Copyright flandersenews.be 2008]

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