4Podcast Minou Reek

Women face a significant gender pay gap and it will take over 30 years to achieve equality in positions of power. Gender inequality is an important issue for creating a peaceful and sustainable world. The podcast Brighton Diaries discusses the complexities of gender inequality and shares stories and insights to create a more inclusive world. Gender equality in Brighton has improved slightly compared to the Netherlands. Hungary has low equality in power and allows exceptions for direct discrimination against women. The Hungarian government is taking action to improve access to the labor market for women. They have also implemented a Women's Funding Law, but it encourages women to stay at home. Olga Kussler, a guest on the podcast, shares her experiences with gender equality in different countries. She mentions that her workplace in Italy is balanced, but she noticed significant gender inequality in Malaysia. On average, women earn 22.4% less on the labor market compared to men. At this rate, it will take more than over 30 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace. Sustainable Development Goals 5, also called DSTO 05, is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This is an important issue as it is not only for women and girls, but it is also necessary to create a peaceful and sustainable world. Welcome to Brighton Diaries, a podcast about women complexities of gender inequality building to inspiring conversations. Each episode will talk about the stories of individuals and how they experience gender inequality. On top of this, we share insights to make the world a more inclusive place for them. Before we dive into the podcast, it is essential to define the term gender inequality. Gender inequality refers to unequal opportunities for women in all perceptions of girls and boys, or men and women. These alliances are developed by women that have big differences in gender inequality in their country. Today, we will take a closer look at gender inequality in Brighton, in comparison with the Netherlands. Looking at the gender equality index, we see that the Netherlands has a score of 57.1, while the U.S. has a score of 57.3. The gender equality index is a score from 1 to 100 based on equality between men and women. When the score is 100, there is a full equality between men and women. For people at this index, there is less scoring better or general equality. However, in Brighton, this score has risen 3.1% since 2022, but has only risen 0.6% in the Netherlands. The biggest difference between these countries is the equality in power. In the Netherlands, this has an index of 72.7, while there is only 26.2 in Hungary. In Hungary, direct discrimination is not allowed. However, there are some situations where this is not seen as a violation. For example, the situations that we reasonably explained. These exceptions are not for discrimination against ethnicity, race, gender, or internationality. It's only for women. This is against European Union law to have exceptions for sex and maternal relief. However, the whole diagram now allows exceptions even in cases of direct discrimination against women. The Equal Treatment Act is ruled to allow some exceptions in a program discrimination cases. These rules are applied in most areas. But in 2015, they changed it, and in 2014, started, and 1st of January, 2018, the important change is that the new rule now applies only to the hiring process, and not in situations during the agreement. This way, a company can't refuse to hire someone based on, for example, two seats. The government of Hungary is taking some action. They are requesting support from the European Union for technical assistance. They use this technical assistance to improve the access to the labour market for women. This way, they want to remove the gender impairment gap. Another thing the government of Hungary has done is implemented Women's Funding Law. This happened in 2022. This is a program for women earning premature earnings. In this program, the women are allowed to receive an early pension after taking care of the house and children after at least 30 years. However, by implementing this law, the government encourages women to stay at home and not travel. The women also receive a lower pension from this than what they would receive if they took a pay cut. However, this won't stop the unemployed women and girls if they cannot receive this early pension. On top of this, the Hungarian government only gives this pension to women who are born with it now. In other words, if the woman does not find it self-sufficient, then this as a law, their whole life, will transform to a woman who only receives the pension. This is all very different than in Milan. Milan has been the 4th most eager country in Europe since 2010. As you can see, the number of women in comparison with the month of February in a city with women born on average 12.7% less in Milan. Today, we will talk about experiencing gender equality as a young woman and how we feel about it. We will also look at the differences in gender equality in 2 countries in Europe, such as Japan, the Netherlands and Hungary. Together, we will do this with our special guest, Olga Kussler, who I will introduce in a moment. As for listening to this podcast, you will learn the differences between gender equality in Hungary and Milan and where these differences occur. You will also know how a young woman experiences this in her daily life and what you can learn about gender equality. This podcast is for everyone who wants to learn more about gender equality and how young women experience this. It is for young professionals who are just starting into their later life and for those who wish to be aware of the situation that is being prevented by their college and university students who are preparing to go into the workforce. This is really because this podcast will solidify the idea of gender equality. Today, our special guest, Olga Kussler, will join us. Olga is a young woman who is originally from Hungary. She lives in Malaysia and has been to the Netherlands. Now, she is doing her internship for the International Development Movement of Belgium in Italy. I invited Olga to talk about her experiences in her life in gender equality in Hungary and around the world. Olga has a lot of experiences, has lived in several countries in the past, but she has experienced gender equality in a different way. For everyone who wants to learn more about experiencing gender equality, Olga is the one to talk to. Today, we are here with our special guest, Olga Kussler. Olga, do you want to introduce yourself? Sure. Thanks for having me. My name is Olga Kussler. I'm 23 years old, currently in my last year of IBM, also at Font Homme, and I'm undergoing my internship at this moment at Fairtrade in Auburn. Yeah, very good. And where is this organization? It's based in Italy. Working a good time, though? Yeah, it's been a great six months and a half, ten weeks. Okay. So, it's going to be the closing of the period, really soon. Ten days. Okay, then maybe, for those who are curious to know, how does it work for you, gender equality? Do you notice anything about this? I'm currently working in an office that's built up of mostly women. So, we have around 15 women and maybe around six men. Okay. So, there's a very big difference. Yeah. You know, this factor is also being addressed at my workplace, and I suspect that when we're hiring new people, we'll try to put more men in the office, because it's very women-dominated. Yeah, we don't notice any gender inequality there. Everyone's very sweet and caring and open. It's very balanced, I feel, in the workplace, because everyone sees each other as equal. And the men also feel fine with other women. I guess sometimes they might feel a bit outnumbered. Yeah. And they might get a bit difficult in some locations with the words they use, but I don't think they have any issues with it. Yeah, good to hear. And do you experience any discomforts with women in general, in any way, in your daily life here? No. Not in your work surroundings? Not in my work surroundings. No? No. That's good to hear. That's good to hear. I came to the Netherlands, of course, a few years ago. When was that again? 2019. 2019. That was a long time ago. 2018. How was your experience there? I came from a very different culture then. Definitely. I came from Malaysia, and I can definitely see the gender inequality there. Yeah. Because men are still allowed to work, and women stay at home. Yeah. And, yeah, coming from Asia to Europe is a very different experience in general. But here I just felt very accepted and welcome. Yeah. There was no having to worry about men discriminating you on the street here, because everyone is quite in their own worlds, and not really focused on one another. And you did notice that in Malaysia, I guess? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that being a male is what you do for a living, especially being a white female there. Yeah. It's very different. You get a lot of catcalling, a lot of people pulling up to you, asking you to come into their car, demanding. They don't see you as equal. They see you as something to have next to them, as a way of showing other people how well you are. Oh, that's a big difference for me than in Malaysia. Yeah. But I'm always fine. Did you go to school there? Yeah, I went to a private school. Did you notice anything there? No. It was mostly looking at the cultural aspect, that it was very well-off schools. Yeah. So people would have personal drivers and expensive things. Yeah. From that, I just went to class. But it didn't really bother me, but you definitely can see a difference between rich and poor there and the way you're here. And that just means I didn't really see it as much as I did there. Yeah, it's good. But that way, in terms of equality, it's definitely more equal here than there. Like, there, we also had a maid. Yeah. So maybe that's still true still. And not working office, like I don't know. Yeah. And it also depends on, you know, if you're, like, coming from Europe to Malaysia, going to have a better job than a local, maybe. But I cannot have anything on that because, you know, I didn't go to a school system. So that's not what I see. So I noticed a few there. Was there maybe a woman teacher? There was a very equal divide, I think. But I did subjects where I had male-dominated teachers. So I did geography. I was very male. And I did art. And I was also a man in business. I was also a man in business. So I did very much male-dominated studies. But there were also, you know, equal amount of females. In there? Oh, my God. Yeah. So, like, not export. What do you call it? They work in there. Yeah. They work. Yeah. Okay. And what did your parents do there? They also both worked. My father worked. My mom didn't work. Okay. Because she didn't want to. She didn't want to. My mom is more like a dad-to-mother. Okay. Thank you. And did you notice anything where they treated the women? Yeah. In those days? Yeah. They were treated differently. Not with equality. Yeah. It's, like I said, it's very male-dominated. So the women, you know, even if you would see them on the highway, it would be the man sitting in the front of the motorcycle. And the woman would be on the back with the kids. Yeah. So she would not be driving. Yeah. Yeah. It was only, like, my work. So I would look after the kids, cook them food, stuff like that. Okay. And do you remember anything about home, how that was over there? I was only there until I was very young, you know, until I was 3 years old. But I did go back in summertime. And I guess if I would take my experience off, going around and, you know, going into cafes or things like this, I do see that there is a balance. But I also do know from my family, who my cousins have studied before they went to university, that there is a very high percentage of people, both male and female, who actually leave the country after they get their education. Yeah. Because the system is corrupt. So you're not going to make a decent living in Hungary. So a lot of young people move to Germany. Yeah. So that's also what I'm going to be talking about. There's people from about maybe 40 plus who come around, but everyone in their 20s leaves. Okay. So you will not see someone young unless they're taking a summer job working, you know, in a cafe. That mostly would be a summer job. But if you have an education, you're going to leave. My cousins stayed because they don't have the money to leave. But one of them is doing engineering. And I'm not exactly sure where my other cousin does. We don't talk. You don't talk enough. No. But even being a female, she has a very big job in Hungary. She just doesn't get to pay as she deserves because, you know, there's less than men over there. Do you know that? I don't know. I don't think so. I just think there's generally both paid. No, not for what I do. Yeah. And there's not enough money in businesses and companies. Yeah. And do you know, I don't know how this is in your family, but is everybody working there or are there people staying at home? No, that's at home. Your mom stays home, of course. And from your family in Hungary? My grandmother and I have cousins and aunts living there, like aunts, uncles. But I have a very little connection with my uncles and my aunts. I have talked to them, yes. But do you know that my family in that country had their own fishing company? Mm-hmm. But that still doesn't make enough money. And on the other side of the family there, they're working with Audi. So they have pretty good incomes. I know my uncle's wife also works with Audi. What's that? Uncle's wife, they both work with Audi. So the women in your family all also work? Yeah, mostly apart from my mother. Is that how you also experience this? Is it that the women are also working or are they mainly staying at home? I think they're definitely working because they need to, you know, put food on the table. Yeah. It's like when there are hassles, for example. Yeah. So they all work. Yeah, my mom, she has this interior design, so she does work. That's out of home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she has worked in the past in Hungary as a bookkeeper. Mm-hmm. But that was still in, like, the Soviet times. Okay. So she was making like a living. Yeah. Oh, good. Thank you. And do you notice any differences if you go to Hungary, if you compare it to the Netherlands over here? Okay, so gender equity? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think here they're quite open. Mm-hmm. Like, I would not get discriminated there because I, you know, I don't feel that. I mean, maybe if you're Jewish, you might have a different experience than if you're local. Yeah. But I definitely do see how I don't live in a very rich area, so I refer to them as people are. Yeah. I would just say nicely. Travellers? Yeah. So I do see how they treat their wives, and it's very outlined. Yeah. So that is something I do see. So in that way, I do see the inequality that's here. I think I'm only treated like I am. Yeah. And when you're Jewish and you get out of school, kind of because of the wealth, it's dangerous. Oh, definitely. Yeah. It's also part of it. The money is going in the wrong places. Yeah. And then if we talk about the index score, the index score is a score from 1 to 100. 100 for 100% equal between men and women, and 0 to 100% unequal. I don't know if this is right, but the New England has a score of 57.9. The Hawaiian has a score of 57.3. Do you think this is higher for those women, or? Yeah, I don't think New England is being higher. 75, 77. I wouldn't expect it to be in the 80s, maybe, like 80s and 80s. It's still the best score for Europe. Yeah. I think the income in Greece is pretty low. That's expected because it's a little poorer. We still have our own currency as well. And my experience, I definitely know I'm not going to work there because I know I don't get paid enough. Yeah. And that's also what the young generation sees. They don't get paid enough. Men and women don't get paid enough. Yeah. You know, everyone is pretty poorly paid. Yeah. And do you agree with the number, the 57 centuries? I think it should be lower. Lower? And why do you think that? 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