On the International Women’s Day, Carlos César stressed how effectively the Government of the Azores celebrated this day with the opening of a Shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

Among other events to celebrate this day – developed by the Government or in collaboration with private social solidarity institutions – the opening of another shelter for domestic violence victims, promoted in a partnership with UMAR-Açores represents another response to this problem. The President of the Government defined it as “a monitoring requirement to safeguard fundamental rights such as dignity and citizenship, whose maintenance is a duty of all citizens, which has been intensified with the increasing results.”

Pointing out that the process of self-fulfilment and inclusion of women has registered important progresses in the Azores over the last twenty years; the President of the Government mentioned the “massive entry of women in the labour market.”

For Carlos César, this “is probably the most significant social movement of the last decade in the Azores. Regarding the number of working women in the last ten years, there was an increase of 41%, from 32 thousand and two hundred to45 thousand. The number of young working woman (aged between 25 and 34) has increased to 34%, from nearly 10 thousand to 13,774.”

As the President said, the data “not only represents a manifestation of social emancipation, but also a very important change in the dynamics and opportunities which are a result of the growth, diversification and qualification of the Azorean economy.”

In the last nine years –as he revealed – while the overall number of workers in the Azores has grown 15%, the number of women working in companies grew 52% and the number of women holding “senior staff” positions grew 121%. Moreover, the number of women holding “highly qualified positions” has increased 300%.

“For decades, since the existence of employment statistics in the Azores, the number of unemployed women represented between 60 and 70% of the total number of unemployed. Nowadays, this figure has been reduced to 47%, which confirms the significant change in the structure of the labour market that has favoured the economic empowerment of women as well as their performance and access to professions,” stated Carlos César.

Domestic violence is one the Government´s main concerns, which has lead to the creation of a regional network composed by eight Shelters, starting with the first Shelter that was built in Ponta Delgada in 1997; to the creation opening of four attendance and monitoring centres for domestic violence victims; and to the creation of four community centres for the integration and socio-professional promotion of the victims.

In addition to these to the creation infrastructures and the implementation of several support programmes, the President of the Government pointed out the success of the “Psycho-Educational Rehabilitation Programme for Aggressors - “Contigo” (With You) which will be extended to all the islands of the archipelago this year.

“All these initiatives have been carried out with political determination, but all these advances are based on an interested cooperation, not only between public entities, but also between public entities, voluntary organisations belonging to the associative movement or voluntary organisations. Without these contributions, we would certainly be far behind,” concluded Carlos César.