The CEO of Mondelez ČR Ivana Tumova organized a lunch to promote Equal Pay Day Česko conference in March. The meeting focused on the possibilities of improving the position of Czech women not only at work was attended by many interesting personalities who had a lot to say on the topic.
Ivana Tumova (Mondelēz International): „At MDLZ, we create ‘colourful teams’ with respect to gender, nationality and personal backgrounds.“
Lenka Simerská (Ministry of Labour – Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí ČR): „The Czech government has a global ambition in promoting gender equality. […] It has achieved an agreement among EU member states on the Equal Pay Directive.“ This will help close the gender pay gap through transparency in public and private spheres. „Women are now discouraged to take on leadership roles due to the pay gap” which exists between female and male leaders, and which is on average 30 percent, in the Czech Republic.
Ambassador Anna Azari (State of Israel): “I appreciate the chance to represent the State of Israel among such a friendly people as the Czechs. But one of the issues which struck me upon my arrival is the low level of awareness of gender inequality among women including very educated women. I can even see frustration with policies promoting gender equality.” The Ambassador noticed, “When there is no effective daycare accessible to all, there cannot be much change. Women need to be empowered,” Ambassador Azari added.
Weston Stacey (AMCHAM Czech Republic): “Small and mid-sized enterprises might not have practices in place to promote diversity and inclusion.” Weston also asked: “Is the wage gap an internal company or external societal issue? Can a government bring about a social change through regulation?”
Šimon Pánek (People in Need): “People in Need employ 1,000 people in the Czech Republic and 2,000 elsewhere including in Afghanistan. We responded by creating hundreds of part-time jobs to accommodate needs of parents” to balance childcare and professional careers.
Lenka Simerská (Ministry of Labour): “Childcare still does not explain the pay gap between Czech professional women and men in their 40s.“; There are other causes which eventually „translate to an 18 percent pension gap between women and men.”
Věra Doušová (Food Bank Prague): “Increasingly, we are seeing single mothers or single women pensioners coming to the Foodbank for basic sustenance. Now it is even women who have always been responsible, who can manage their budgets, but they were the first to be laid out during covid as they worked in travel industry, restaurants or as performing artists. They were even pilots and air stewardesses”; “Currently, it is the high inflation which creates misery; and some, like the pensioners are not equipped to file for government support via the internet…”
Katarína Krajčovičová:
There is a benefit when “women business leaders discuss gender disbalance in pay. […] There’s a role for media to encourage women to share their stories, to make them visible at the national and EU level. […] They need to find their voices which can be heard.”
