The Local Ministry of Women and Equal Opportunities finished yesterday the activities programmed for the 8th March, “International Women's Day”, with a round table on reconciling working and family life which took place in the Sociocultural Centre “La Cárcel” in which more than one hundred people took part.

This round table was run to create a space of reflection and exchange of ideas on questions related to reconciling, making participants and promoting the implication in this space of the different social agents (Public Administration, technical personel, etc.), as well as agents from the educational environment favouring their meeting and dialogue.

The lecturer from the University of Murcia, Lola Frutos, offered the conference “El conflicto para las mujeres entre familia y trabajo” and the Director from the Institute of Gerontology and Social Services, Gonzalo Berzosa Zaballos, was in charge of talking about “Conciliar es Pactar. Resistencias y posibilidades ante la conciliación familiar y laboral”.

During the round table the Local Minister of Women and Equal Opportunities, Josefa María Sánchez Méndez, thanked the speakers and attendees for their participation as well as the groups who collaborated such as the Group for Social Promotion “El Candil” and the Sociocultural Association of Women from Totana.

The Local Minister explained that with the incorporation of women in the workplace, the unequal division of responsibilities between men and women in the private sphere and the perpetuation of the division of work according to gender, negatively affect the equality of opportunities in the workplace, the social balance, family environment business productivity and the quality of life.

Sánchez Méndez indicated that reconciling is the key to resolving these problems and a very important aspect to change this tendency is the awareness raising of and education about equality, the division of responsibilities and the reconciling between the school environment to change attitudes and paradigms of new generations.