8th of March 2022,
On the International Women’s Day, FAFCE celebrates the great contribution of women to our families, our communities, Europe and the Church.
This year, the Catholic University of Avila, organised a two-day International interuniversity congress on “Female Doctors of the Church and Patron Saints of Europe“, in collaboration with the Pontifical Urbaniana University and the Institute for Advanced Studies on Women of the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum, celebrating the rich contribution of women to the Church and to Europe. FAFCE welcomes this event, and recalls all the examples in human history given by consecrated women, mothers, wives, girls, doctors, resistance fighters, intellectuals, queens or shepherdess, all women who gave an example of a holy and courageous life.
In that respect, FAFCE wishes to recall the hidden and decisive role played by mothers every day: they provide the most important service, however too frequently overlooked, often alongside their own professional work. However, when choosing to take care of their children, mothers often face various and numerous discriminations and unwelcoming environments. Welcoming a child should never be a source of discrimination, and denying the right of mothers to have equal access to the labour market, especially with the necessary flexible working arrangement, questions the actual equality between men and women in our society, especially in the light of the experience of the pandemic. Motherhood should never be addressed as a burden, but as a strong and courageous responsibility taken up by women, a precious gift, to respect and protect, and needs to be accordingly valued and recognised.
In these times of war in Europe, we value this priceless treasure carried out by women, first builders of peace : “Motherhood represents the present and the future of a community, and of any state. It is the woman the one who welcomes life and who is called, in a very special way, to protect it from the beginning” (Carmen Fernández de la Cigoña, Director of the University center for multidisciplinary research in defence of the values of family and life, CEU San Pablo, on El Debate).
Overall, FAFCE recalls the rich contribution of women, whether in the family or in the workplace, and in the economic, social, cultural and spiritual life of our communities. We stress the importance to enable them to contribute to society on their own terms and to their fullest, free from any pressures, alongside and in cooperation with men.
Read more about FAFCE work to support women:
- FAFCE addresses the motherhood and parental pay gap in a public consultation on pay transparency measures
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Slovakia: a bill under discussion to support pregnant women and young mothers
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FAFCE-NWFE White Paper on “Protecting women from maternal mobbing”
