Women in Gaza Demand End to Wage Gap, Decry Israeli Siege

Womens' groups in the Gaza strip have organized a sit-in to demand equal pay and decry the escalating unemployment levels caused by Israel’s decades-long siege.

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A member of the Palestinian people’s Central Committee and head of the working women committees in Gaza, Laila Khashan, told Ma’an, the Palestinian media outlet, that they want both local and national institutions to provide salary equality.

Khashan also said that the Israeli siege has left Palestinian women to bear the brunt of the suffering, and highlighted the importance of setting a minimum wage.

She noted that while the unemployment rate had reached 41 percent in the besieged Gaza Strip overall, for women, the rate had risen to 64 percent.

Calling for an end to the wage gap, the women’s leader also called for an end to the Palestinian national conflict, so that an independent Palestinian state can be created, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

A 2016 report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, PCBS, found that male participation in the workforce is a staggering 71.9 percent higher than women.

It also found that while the average daily wage for Palestinian women in 2015 was around US$26, for Palestinian men it was US$31.