Women in Cyprus

Kleri Angelidou is a well known philologist in Cyprus and an awarded writer and poet. She has served as a Minister of Education and Culture in Cyprus and as a Member of Parliament. Kleri is an honorary member of the International Women’s Association and she is also the Honorary President of the Greek Language Association and the Lions Club Arsinoe.Kleri Angelidou has been awarded with an honorary PhD by the University of Athens and also by the University of Middlesex, London.

Greek Cypriot women have seen a gradual change in their role as players in the economic revival of the country since the Turkish invasion in 1974. This has been achieved through their increased participation in the island’s economic activity, the updating of family and labour law, the public awareness of women’s issues and the government’s policy for the promotion of gender equality. The contribution of Cypriot women in the overall development of the country is evident:

• Women’s share in the total labour force rose from 30% in 1976, to 37% in 1985 and 44% today
• 62.1% of all women aged 15-64 years are integrated in the labour force
• 31% of Greek  Cypriot women over 20 completed tertiary level  education compared to 29% of Greek Cypriot men

But there is still a long way to go when it comes to gender equality in the workforce:

• Only 14.4% of high posts are held by Greek Cypriot women
• While women are paid an average of 17.4% less per hour than men across the EU, the gap for Greek Cypriot women is 24%

Cyprus is essentially a male society. Patriarchy, the social system in which a male is the family head and primary authority is still very much alive. This is probably due to the political conflict that prevails on the island. The island’s institutions, represented mainly by men, have been focused on the Cyprus issue since 1974, marginalising thus any other important issues such as women’s rights and gender equality. As a result, Greek Cypriot women still have a long way to go through before claiming their liberation from a system which traps both genders.

Traditionally, the expected primary role for Greek  Cypriot women has been to get married and have children and all other achievements were perceived as secondary. Nowadays, Greek-Cypriot women are split when asked if they believe that their social role is different from men’s.

Greek Cypriot women do not talk much about themselves, what they want and their achievements. This is due to gender socialization, which promotes the norm for women to speak very little about themselves and when they do, to be judged as inappropriately showing off. Another reason related to women’s socialization is that women are expected to listen rather than speak, and to focus on caring and serving the needs of others, especially their children.

While many Greek  Cypriot women work outside the home, they are usually expected to fulfil the traditional domestic roles of housewife and mother. Even when these women have full-time jobs, they usually expect little help from their spouses or male children.  To my mind , they are to blame up to a certain extent. Most Greek Cypriot women  often forget that apart from children, they have a husband too. This may account for the increase of divorce in the last 20 years.

It was Mao Zedong who first wrote: “ Women  hold up half the sky.”   

What's the status of women in your country? What are their hopes and aspirations?

Comments

[Haruko N]

A Japanese woman has almost unquestioned authority within the family system in Japan. Typically the wife will make all decisions regarding the raising of the children, and will have absolute control of the family's finances.

[Christina]

The status of women in Greece is pretty much like in Cyprus, but women have become a lot more independent than they were in my mother's generation. Younger women between the age of 30 and 40 share the household chores with their husbands but in the workplace there's still a lot to achieve - especially because women won't be employed if they are pregnant! As for their hopes and aspirations, their priority is a career first, that's why most of them start thinking about making a family after 30.

[Alexia M]

Female workers in the Netherlands appear to be facing a "glass ceiling", but there are positive signs the situation is starting to change. Unfortunately, Dutch culture doesn't value women's contribution to top posts as much as the United State or much of Europe - France, Germany, UK for example. I had to work very hard - a lot harder than a man - before I finally got the post of area manager at the workplace.

[Laura]

In the UK, more women than men now work in high status professions, but men are still paid far more than women. The changing nature of women's work and better education had led to a quiet revolution in the workplace. This means that the widespread idea that women do the low status jobs is now wrong. In fact, they are more likely to be found working in the sorts of occupations that both men and women think are higher up the social scale.

[Lakis Ioannou]

More and more Greek Cypriot women are entering the job market. By 2007 at least 62 percent of women were employed outside the home. This number has now doubled. However, there is a wide gender-determined pay gap: Women predominantly occupy lower-pay positions, typically working in health, education and domestic work.

Anastasia. many women in Cyprus interrupt their careers to raise their children and for them, re-entry into the job market is difficult. These issues contribute to a longer-term disadvantage for women: later in life they end up being entitled to lower pensions owing to their lower initial pay and also the interruption of their careers. As a consequence, they are more dependent on social benefits. In fact, elderly women in Cyprus face the highest poverty risk in Europe at a rate of 52 percent.

Cyprus, with its links to continental Europe, is increasingly a transit point for migrants. It is also a destination for people from Asia and Africa who seek a better life for themselves. Migrants are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and laws and policies in the nation do not offer adequate protection.

[Lisa A]

Unemployed rate is hight for both in the south and north of Italy, but men have more occasions to work plus there are not the same amount of services (like nurseries) that you can find in the north part so lots of women in the south are housewives but NOT because is a male-dominated society, but only because there are not enough occasions, when they get the same occasions believe me that southerns women work as anywhere else.The first female marine in Italy is a southern and so are the most of female soldiers and top guns. Same goes with policewoman the most of them are southerns, if the south was a male dominated society how could you explain this? Is only a matter of occasions and welfare services, nothing more
The first marine woman in Italy was Silvia di Siervi

[Sophia]

Kleri Angelidou is a Lady! But also a very talented poet and surely the best female politician Cyprus has ever known. Let us not forget that we owe her the University of Cyprus. Women in Cyprus are heroins and they have proven that for centuries. In the 1955 - 1959 war of independence against the British rule and the British policy of devide and rule, women were the unknown heroes who were often as fearless as the men who fought. In the 50s, women proved that they could fight in their own way, without guns. Nowadays, women in Cyprus are equal to men even if they don't always get the same money in the workplace. Women have contributed to so many areas such as business, science, commerce, the media. I am proud of myself to be one of them as I did not hesitate as a reporter to leave my family for one month as war correspondent in Lebanon and Iraq. But in the workplace, senior men who have spent a life sitting behind a desk get a higher pay! Isn't that unfair, Anastasia?

[Jafar.]

According to India’s constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men (Indian Parliament). Because of lack of acceptance from the male dominant society, Indian women suffer immensely. Women are responsible for baring children, yet they are malnourished and in poor health. Women are also overworked in the field and complete the all of the domestic work. Most Indian women are uneducated. Although the country’s constitution says women have equal status to men, women are powerless and are mistreated inside and outside the home.
India is a society where the male is greatly revered. Therefore women, especially the young girls, get very little respect and standing in this country. The women of the household are required to prepare the meal for the men, who eat most of the food. Only after the males are finished eating, can the females eat. Typically the leftover food is meager, considering the families are poor and have little to begin with.

[Katie White]

During my lifetime in the United States, I know only of a society where women play an active and important role in political engagement. About 100 years ago, American women fought for the right to vote and hold political office. Now, women are encouraged to represent their home area at the local, state, and national level. While men still hold most elected positions, women are highly respected in these endeavors. I see a female President of my country in future and I'm sure that the number of females with a voice in politics will increase.

[Jeff]

Different cultures espouse widely variant ideas of the proper role and place of women within a society. One coworker, from Egypt, informed me that women did not typically live outside of their parents’ homes there unless they were married. There, a woman setting up “house” by herself is assumed to be setting up a place of prostitution. Why else would she leave the guidance and protection of her family? This way of thinking was completely new to me and would be to most Americans. Here, females, just like males, are expected to move away from parents’ homes and set up on their own in order to prove themselves successful, fully functioning adults. True, a woman can more easily remain at home with her parents than a man can here, but past about age 25 others would begin to look at her askance. So expect the women here to live on their own, in apartments or homes that they own, and consider such a situation to mean simply that such a woman is an adult and that she can afford such accommodations.

[Jean-Paul Bouvier]

Le développement de l’humanité dépend en effet du développement harmonieux de ses deux composantes masculine et féminine, qui sont complémentaires. La femme est notamment destinée à jouer un rôle particulier dans l’établissement de la paix mondiale.
Si, par le passé, le monde a été gouverné par la force, et l’homme a dominé la femme par le caractère plus violent et plus agressif de son corps et de son esprit , cette tendance va s’inverser, et les temps nouveaux seront moins masculins et plus imprégnés d’idéaux féminins.

[Olga P]

Οι μεγάλες κοινωνικές αλλαγές προκάλεσαν βαθιές αλλαγές στους σκοπούς, τις δομές και τη λειτουργία της οικογένειας. Οι αλλαγές του ρόλου της γυναίκας καλλιεργούν διεργασίες θετικές και αρνητικές στην οικογένεια και στον ευρύτερο κοινωνικό χώρο.

[Danaioq]

At this point in time, most of the countries of the men and women rights in slowly tend to be equal, but in some aspects, also not equal.

[Agnes]

I know embarrassingly little about Cyprus so this was very educational to me.

[Alexia M]

I'm back here to add that women have often proved to excel as mothers, wives, working girls and politicians. Men have never proved to be fathers, husbands, working guys and politicians. Not even ....Sarkozy!