Could you give an example of legislative initiatives in family area that your Association supports?
Elena:
Nowadays a lot of families are created without an official marriage. This union is considered by European law as a free union with respective rights of men and women to common property, manifested by tax reductions and other benefits. In Monaco the society is multicultural and people who come from other European counties are not aware of the fact that there’s no free union recognition here. Despite the fact that only a woman can give birth to a child, this often leads to discrimination against her. The site movingtomonaco.org highlights this issue very well with some advices on this matter.
Janna:
Free unions should be recognised as a family, meaning that they have a common economic life, which is not different from a married couple: common property, common incomes, and a common tax unite. The Monaco’s legislation is progressing a bit slower in this regard, be it with division of common property in case of divorce, or with recognition of free unions as units of society.
In a case of separation, the vulnerable partner is the one who gave priority to kids or home, and who liberated the time for the career of an externally active family partner. The society should be interested in protecting the vulnerable one. Even more so, given the fact that the stronger partner resident in Monaco has, as a rule, a very sufficient budget, which does not require any contribution from the Principality other than legislation.
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In recent decades, the contemporary laws have been directed towards non-discrimination of fathers on the basis of their biological inability to carry and nurture kids by introducing paternal leaves, kid sick days, etc while allowing women to return to workforce soon after giving birth. No matter how the social and legal system here try “to equalize” both parents, one can not deny the biological and psychological make up of the woman and her superior role in raising small kids. No matter how extraordinary are the opportunities to stay in the office, it is mostly the mothers who breastfeed, nurture the sick kids and take a lion’s share of household chores, often being taken out of career growth and other social developments in life, thus becoming an economic underdog, since the household work is not counted as an economic contribution. In many cases, women choose to stay home in full awareness of the detriment to their economic well-being. When the child is sick, can we really think of our careers or bank accounts?
By focusing on promotion of equal opportunities for women in workplace and participation of fathers in the family and household, haven’t we actually achieved something against our biology in the name of equality? Or have we perhaps tipped the balance towards minimizing the biological role that women can take as mothers and thus devaluing motherhood and mothers’ biological, social, cultural and spiritual contribution towards children, family and society as a whole?
Thank you for your comments and important questions raised. Through EgLex we would like to open the discussion on values of parenting and the renewed focus on protection of women choosing to play the mother’s role without being financially rewarded for this…
The first step is recognising free union as a legitimate unit of society. The petition has been passed and heard by National Council of Monaco, resulting in a respective legislative bill. The next step is to insure that this law is in accordance with European and UN standards.