Small sentence, big consequences. A little over a month ago, Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament, admitted that women were going to be “a little more impacted” by the pension reform project, currently being debated in the Senate. .
So, of course, women had not waited for this admission from the executive to demonstrate against the disparities caused by this reform. But, on this sixth day of national mobilization, and on the eve of International Women’s Rights Day, their protest resounded with even more vigor in the streets of the country. Retired women, nursing assistants, executives, students… The story of a protest tour of France, at the heart of the processions.
“Precariousness in France rhymes with feminine”. Despite her “Rage against the macronist” sign, we take little risk in telling you that Annie, 50, will not make a career in song. But the issue is elsewhere. Since the start of the discontent, this lawyer at Pôle emploi has not missed a demonstration. With Doriane, her 26-year-old teacher daughter, their message synthesized the grumbling of women.
Further upstream from the Parisian procession, boulevard Raspail, Isabelle did not meet the two demonstrators. But her testimony echoes the message of mother and daughter. “We women have the right to cut careers. I am a nursing assistant in nursing home, I am 54 years old, the difficulty of my job is not recognized. I work at night, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., do you really believe that I will be able to work until I am 64, ”despairs this 54-year-old woman from Orne, who came to demonstrate for the first time since the beginning of the “sequence” retreats.
“I am fighting for my two daughters… And it makes me sick”
700 kilometers further south, in Toulouse, in the rain, Céline, surrounded by her colleagues Cathy and Valérie, abounds. “The imposed part-times are mainly held by women and this reform has a catastrophic impact on these people who will have chopped, incomplete careers”, details this executive from Thalès, who considers himself personally “well off” but wants lead a “collective fight”.
Precariousness, Marina knows. Operator in a factory for more than 30 years, the 62-year-old Antiboise is forced to continue to go to work, to grow “her small pension”. “I’m fighting for my two daughters who won’t be able to earn full pay until they’re 68, despite tough jobs in the chemical industry. They will not be able to enjoy their retirement. And it makes me sick, ”says the sixty-year-old in the middle of the 6,000 Nice demonstrators (according to the police).
“This reform is an aberration”
Among these recipients of a low pension, women are over-represented. According to a study by Drees (Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department), 44% of women of the 1950 generation thus retired with an incomplete career, compared to 32% for men. Because they more often hold part-time jobs and sometimes take a break for several years to raise their children, as our call for witnesses on the issue reminded us.
This raw observation pushed Noa, a 24-year-old student from Lyon, into the street. “This reform is an aberration. My fight is for women, out of solidarity for those who have a physical job or those who have to take care of a member of their family and who will suffer the full brunt of the pension reform, ”says the young woman.
In Nantes, same generation, and same concern for Aliénor, 27, who is demonstrating for the first time. “They are more likely to stop working to raise their children so they are even more affected by the reform”, supports the Vendée.
Postponing the legal retirement age to 64 by 2030 should also penalize mothers. As part of their maternity, they benefit from additional quarters validated. But this modality will not allow them to anticipate a departure before the legal age. Some demonstrators, like the Lyon student Noa, admit to demonstrating “without too much hope that the mobilization will be of any use”. Others, like Nathalie, in Strasbourg, keep the hope “to move” the lines by beating the pavement, with the will to tend towards equality between men and women.
On the subject, not sure that the hope comes from the United Nations, which announces a goal achieved… At best in 300 years. A reason found to follow in the footsteps of Valérie, a Lyon protester. “See you tomorrow (Wednesday March 8, International Women’s Day) for the continuity of the struggle and the feminist strike. »