Galery

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One of every small or medium sized companies in Greece is initiated and managed by a woman, reports Vima, referring to a publication of the New York Times. The American edition says that the crisis has exchanged the roles in the Greek family, and women increasingly begin to make the living. Besides their greater flexibility on the labour market, the changing views, together with the peculiarities of the transitional period play an important role. In many cases, the job is not a matter of career choice and career satisfaction, but a matter of survival.

"I have never imagined that I would apply for a job as a cashier at the local supermarket, but five months after I had lost my job in the public administration, and since my husband has been unemployed for 18 months, someone has to feed my children," said a 36-year-old woman, an architect. She said that after her husband lost his job they were forced to move their child from the private school to a state one. Their elderly parents even have taken the monthly repayments on the mortgage loan while the young family finds its feet again.  

The old typical Greek traditions that the man has to earn the living and the woman has to stay at home and take care of the children and the house are forced to change due to the economic crisis. Experts comment that this, on the other hand, is a healthy way of functioning of a society, because the activity of people (men and women) of working age is extremely important for the level of productivity of a country as well as for the strengthening of social security funds.

However, many women are forced to seek any job, even if it is illegal. In other words, the conditions to start working and getting a salary include no demands for payment of social and health securities, and other violations of the labour law. According to recent data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, almost one third of all working people in Greece do not have employment contracts, no social securities are paid for them and formally, it seems that they are unemployed. The state is losing an average of 15 billion euros annually due to the informal sector, which is making use of undeclared jobs.

Meanwhile, unemployment for women is expected to increase in the short term due to the reforms in the public sector and the public administration. Most of the employees there are women of middle or old age and they would find themselves outside the system, which has sheltered them for many years. However, the easy attitude of women to radical changes, unlike men, would facilitate finding solutions on the labour market. The data for the last quarter of 2010 showed that unemployment among women under the age of 29 years was 33%. Unemployed women in Greece as a whole are about 18%, which is almost double the average accepted rate of female unemployment in the European Union (9.7%).