On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Bilbao City Council is launching a new awareness-raising campaign to highlight women’s contribution to social and economic life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Eta zu, nola moldatzen zara / And you… how are you doing it?” aims to make visible the inequalities and difficulties that women have faced and are facing during the pandemic, and calls for social co-responsibility.

By involving both organisations and workers, especially men, Bilbao City Council hopes to encourage work models based on joint responsibility that:

• Recognise the contribution of all women in this time of health crisis.
• Value the new models of work management that have been imposed to maintain jobs, production and services, but reflect on their impact on the advancement of equality and the need to incorporate the gender perspective.
• Promote co-responsibility in order not to generate inequalities between women and men.

“Unpaid tasks at home, as well as caring for the elderly and children have once again fallen into the hands of women,” said Nekane Alonso, Councillor for Equality for Bilbao City Council. She added that “the limits of space and time between work and family life have been blurred, and on occasions we have left personal space to one side.” She also acknowledged that “inequality between men and women when it comes to taking responsibility in the private sphere has become more evident than ever.”

A study carried out with companies participating in the Denbbora Sarea network, of almost 4,000 workers (2,110 women and 1,792 men), highlighted that companies that have already adopted more flexible work models to accommodate the reconciliation of work, family and personal life, are also the ones with better results in the profit and loss accounts, as well as a better feeling of having a good work environment among staff.

Elements of the campaign

This new municipal campaign will begin to be seen in the coming days both via physical posters around the city, and in digital format on the City Council’s website and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts using the hashtags: #Martxoak8 #8March #Bilbao #EmakumeenNazioartekoEguna #InternationalWomen’sDay

The campaign is framed within the city’s 5th Plan for Equality between Women and Men 2020-2023.