Speech by the mayor Claudia López in the commemoration of #8M, International Women's Rights Day
Happy International Women's Day to all present women from Bogotá and Colombia. Thank you very much for your everyday actions, for the good vibes, for the love, for the care, for the leadership that women have. I never get tired of saying – I am absolutely convinced, Sara, Camila, María Nelcy, Ximena, Diana, all of them – that the most important and beneficial change for all of humanity in this century is the change in women's society role; It is our empowerment, it is our social leadership, it is our growing political participation, it is our empowerment and economic autonomy. That is a profound change. I find it difficult to think of a more profound change in the history of mankind.
Since the existence of humanity, women have had roles of care – always behind, never next to, never ahead. That changed in the 20th century when we made our own history, thousands of years to change women´s role in society and it has not been easy to break stereotypes and prejudices; that have ended up in discrimination and violence against women.
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Break those role paradigms, having new female protagonists. No one made life easy for us and no one has given us anything. Here they didn't treat us like princesses, they didn't open the door for us with a red carpet, here we have had to earn everything, respect, affection, the know how to say: You don't yell at me, you better treat me with respect! Of course I can do this job! Why can't I do this job? If you teach me, I will change the world!
It hasn´t been easy getting here, yet there´s still a lot of road ahead, but, just maybe, we get to live in a rather exciting and profound era, which other women didn´t get to. Women in the past couldn´t have been the main character in the desired change. Us, instead could be the protagonists, live, tell and enjoy this change; this transition is an enormous change in the history of Bogota, Colombia, as well as humanity.
We have come so far as a result of many struggles, may we never forget. Let us always honor with gratitude the role of women we know, of protagonist women and of women that perhaps we did not know and that, perhaps, history does not remember, but every action of a woman's life, changed the lives of all women.
Since the times of Policarpa Salavarrieta began the changes in women´s life in Colombia. Antonia Santos –so many protagonists of our Independence, of the construction of our Nation–. María Cano, who taught working women – today, that we talk about work, economic autonomy, opportunities, about organizing and demanding equality in work conditions as an essential, about organizing ourselves, men and women, to defend labor rights as an essential condition to advance.
Not to mention the women who fought for us to have the right to vote. Thanks to the suffragettes who managed to convince, curiously enough, the most authoritarian government Colombia has ever had, the only military dictatorship Colombia has ever had, that of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. He wanted to make a referendum that would build peace and would push out the violence of the National Front, he had to have the vote of women. Possibly he did not do it out of conviction, but rather out of interest to pass his referendum, but the truth is, that this fight served so that women not only have a voice, but also a vote.
And since 1957 women could participate in elections as well as having female candidates for the Presidency of the Republic. Back in the fifties, sixties, seventies, we began to have not only women in government positions, but also minister women. I never get tired of repeating: all women suffragettes are wonderful!, But if you want to read a book to inspire you, read the biography of Esmeralda Arboleda, what a woman! What a privilege! I think she was the prime minister, the first senator, ambassador, in short, an enormous career.
Women like Socorro Ramírez, who later became a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, a trade unionist woman, Afro, a teacher; it was not easy for Socorro, but she opened a path for us. There´s been a popular mayor election in Bogotá since 1988 and only until 2019, for the first time, a woman is elected for the Mayor's Office of Bogotá and rest assured that this was the first, but in no case will she be the last mayor woman in this city, as well as other cities in Colombia and the world.
The reason behind all this words, is so that we never forget that the pride we feel for what each one of us does today, it is the result of the struggles of many others and it all starts with one: one more step along the way, one more layed brick on what has already been built. Because that is the only way to achieve inclusion, to achieve equality and to achieve representation.
Today, we celebrate our care system, that since 1988, has picked mayors by popular vote and almost twenty years had to go by, so that the first Women related council, was created. Four or five more years had to go by so that this council became the Women´s secretariat; another 10 years had to go by so that this secretariat shifted to the district´s care system for all women in Bogota. Even after our times, more achievements will be accomplished, I have no doubt about it; because that is what it´s about: opening paths, luring innovation, building on top of what´s already been built and to keep on contributing.
We feel very proud of what we have managed to build with the women of Bogotá, with the Women's Consultative Council, which has had this permanent social representation of the voice of the women of Bogotá –of their causes, their struggles, their proposals, which included that the care economy was acknowledged, for the care system to be built.
We aspired and still aspire, dear and appreciated candidates for the Presidency of Colombia, women today do not want flowers, we do not want chocolates, we do not want promises: we want facts, parity now, it is the least we expect from the next Congress and the next Government!
Here we have been celebrating March 8th since 1910. About how much longer do you think we have to wait for parity? We are not going to wait for another election. I want to propose to the women of Bogotá and the women of Colombia: a candidate for Congress and the Presidency who is not already committed to parity – we are half the population, we deserve half the representation – and who is not committed to women. We do not want to be more than anyone, but we will never again, and we will not accept being less than anyone, having fewer rights than anyone else.
Historical discrimination against women has been such that strong, clear and affirmative measures are needed, such as parity, such as having half of the representation, by institutional design, because it has been proven – we have been voting since 1957 – that just by voting we have no parity. That just by running for office we don't have parity. We are not trying to overcome a discrimination of years, tens or centuries: we are trying to overcome a millennia long discrimination and for the institutional design to give us equality in life, not just in rules but in life.
Second, of course, we are proud to have the District Care System and more than money –which is always needed–, more than institutional resources –which are always very important–, what was needed was will. Only until there was a female mayor, did the resources, the female allies, the male allies appear, because they have always been there, but that priority had to be put first. Bogotá and all the cities of Colombia have always had schools, they have always had kinder gardens, many have community development centers, but all these services are designed for children who, of course, are also part of our priorities, but they had not been designed for women.
Creating a Care System at a local city scale only requires the political decision to reorient the resources, the services, the schedules, of the entire local infrastructure of the mayor's offices; education, in kindergartens, in early childhood, in care, in work, in employment, in entrepreneurship towards women. As simple as it sounds, but here we have more than 30 years of mayoral elections and that has not happened.
Here Kindergartens are built for children, schools for young people, parks for all, what does it cost us to use all that infrastructure for the care of women, to use women caregivers so that we relief other women of that child burden care, that we go to their homes if necessary – as we are doing with the relays, let’s have these mobile blocks in the neighborhoods. Many women will ask, how did they find out? Because they saw them go by, by mouth to mouth, because Adriana's friend told her: “Look, I saw this, let’s try it out, what´s there to lose?” and, as one of my friends from high school said, “Is this too good to be true? Is this really free?"
This aint free because “I´m not getting money out of my pocket”, Ximena, this is first thanks to god, and possible by the taxes payed by all of Bogota´s citizens. With the taxes we can hire wonderful women like Maria Amelia, and they can tell other women that this care system is available for them as well, they can have 4 or 5 simple services, yet powerful and life changing. They can choose to rest or study. This is not just for child education, this is also for the adult women, who could not finish high school, so that they can pursue finishing it, or if the case, to pursue even further accomplishments like technical, technological or professional career choice of their own.
Third, so that they are able, (with the knowledge, with the rest time, with the education), to have economic autonomy because women don't expect anything to be given to them, what they want is to live off their talent and live off their knowledge, that is to have economic autonomy, to be able to get a good job or create one, or have a business. Nobody is born with knowledge and necessity does not make us entrepreneurs, let's not make a mistake thinking that.
Everything in life must be learned, I don´t know if Ximena knew how to manufacture such pretty shirts and jackets, but I’m sure she learned how to, she just needed the chance to be taught how to make the design, a business plan and some money; because she needs money to buy materials, she also had to find allies in other women friends, buy a sewing machine, as well as setting up a web page so that she can offer her products. Not just have it in a physical store, now we can have a worldwide store when it comes to social media, which is part of the modern learning sales curve. The inmense majority of women, the 70000 women that to this day have reached to “manzanas del cuidado”, they didn´t know how to use a phone, but learning is easy. This device we hold in our hands has many functions and many opportunities, from there we move on to the computer, and from the computer to social media. From social media they can become entrepreneurial machines, which will generate income for them, as well as other women.
Fourth, service, very important! Service is for all, for all members of families in Bogota are welcome to join “A cuidar se aprende”. Women weren´t born with a cooking course incorporated in our DNA, we weren´t born knowing how to make the bed, or knowing how to take care of children and elderly, so boys and girls, women and men, welcome to “¡porque a cuidar se aprende!
Welcome to “porque a cuidar se aprende”, you´re welcome to cooking lessons, care taking lessons, as well as aid with taking your kids to school, or scheduling a medical appointment. Have you any idea how much every day women´s activities are worth? It is the biggest Colombian economical contribute. The value of women´s care is worth 20% of all Colombian wealth, that´s what it´s worth. A completely different thing is that people at home choose not to pay them, but I assure you that´s what it´s worth. Us women are proud to produce this amount of value, but it´s exhausting producing it all by our own. So we welcome all to share this burden. Just like care giving women will learn to rest, study, work, learn how to become entrepreneurs, learn how to be drivers of the new electrical bus fleet (Transmilenio). Did we know how to do it? no! Why are most bus drivers men? Why? Us women can be drivers just like them, as well as being mechanics or electricians. We have a huge debt with women´s jobs, this debt deepened by the pandemic. Construction is the biggest job offering sector in Bogota, and all women are welcome to public and private construction work.
Our habitat secretariat, has made sure to double the amount of women working in the construction sector, because women can learn from that as well. We can learn how to design, we can learn engineering, we can learn architecture, we can learn how to tarnish, we can learn how to paint and we can learn how to wire electrical connections at a house. Of course we can! In a joint cooperation with SENA, women will be taught how to do this jobs, that in fact are very masculinized sectors, yet are the biggest job generators; the idea is to give women more competing chances.
Then the construction companies say: "No, I'm delighted, mayor, I'm super committed to women." No. What happens is that you don't get many women, well obviously, if you don't train them you won't get many, dear, obviously. They won't come out of a magic hat. If construction companies welcome them and are willing to form them, nothing bad will happen. How long are we going to take to form them? One or two years and if you let them do their practices, another year or so. In two years they are ready, dear, and just as some will learn that caring skills are learned, others will learn that having this type of job is also a learned experience. The care system puts within reach this four services. Before we got here, there was not a single sheet on a care system, we came up with the whole idea and made it a reality.
Me and Diana had nothing but conviction alongside the wonderful team of the Women´s Secretariat, that it could be done. One thing is to have all the conviction and theory, and another thing is bringing it into real life. In these two years we have learned in the process of doing so, we have learned with the women of Bogotá. We have learned from the Jimenas and the María Nelcys, and all the women of Bogotá, and from the 70,000 women who have approached the system and have taught us, they have taught us, what is needed, they have told us: “Oh, to be able to rest, what a joy, to have a free Sunday to go to a park and eat an ice cream, oh, how wonderful, mayor, thank you very much”.
Being able to finish high school, without a doubt, is going to change many lifes, which in fact is already doing so. After finishing high school, women can have educational formations either through SENA or other Universities, they can get jobs afterwards.
Being able to file a complaint is part of the Care System, is part of what Bogotá has always been doing, perhaps it was the most advanced thing of the care system before we got here, the main idea is to prevent violence or to attend to women who are victims of violence.
Bogota had created the Purple Line, female lawyers and psychologists worked in pairs to attend to women who were victims of violence. Bogota had created a Shelter House in order to be able to transfer women, that most likely would end up dead due to the violence context and would probably end up in another femicide case. Colombia has had Family Police Stations for many years now, to which women, children and men attend to, when they are victims of rape or violence by the hands of other family members; that was already part of the system before our administration, which of course, we have enhanced it. In the pandemic we started to notice that with more women at home with their daughters, there were less cases of sexual violence, because it is girls alone at home who end up being sexually assaulted. On the other hand, we also noticed that domestic violence amongst family members soared.
Sexual violence cases decreased yet domestic violence cases had increased. When we assumed Bogota´s administration, we started to notice that many women, due to the quarantine, had to stay locked up in a house with their aggressor, and it was not easy to go to a family Police station which among other things, were also fulfilling their quarantine, and could only attend to cases virtually. Very quickly our Women's Secretariat quadrupled the team of people who attended the Purple Line, up to 65 percent of the calls that came to the Purple Line were not answered due to lack of equipment. We increased the spots at the district´s shelter house: we cannot have women on a waiting list, a violence victim on a waiting list is a femicide just around the corner.
We partnered with many private commercial establishments like Farmatodo, D1, Justo y Bueno, Las Gatas, Terpel, and many of Fenalco-affiliated establishments that are very close to many women's homes. Their workers learned a very simple protocol so that if at any point in time a woman in distress arrives, they will immediately contact the Women´s secretariat. So we increased by a 1,000 times the capacity to receive requests for help and, of course, we had to equally increase our district´s capacity to attend these. That´s part of what we have been doing these past two years.
Incredible, we started from scratch because the care system did not exist and we had to change our structure and our secretariats had to change, the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Sports had to change to be able to use its happiness centers, its institutions, its programs, had to change for the service of women; so that we can, for example, with art and culture, take care of children, the elderly, people with disabilities, the people who are in charge of them so that they can study or rest. Our Secretary of Education is a great ally in this process, it is the one who organizes the entire Flexible Education program, so that women can finish high school or in the “Manzanas del cuidado”, or in the schools closest to the “Manzanas del cuidado” that are part of the program as well. Needless to say about our Social Integration Secretariat, which, of course, is the fundamental base, it is the one who cares the most.
It is the institution that cares for the most children, elderly, vulnerable people, people with disabilities, the institution that cares for the people of Bogotá, is in fact the Social Integration Secretariat. Without the Social Integration Secretariat, there is no care system, but at the time we needed them to expand their services, to change them, to modify them, they did modify them! They not only receive the child from the kindergarten, which is Great, wonderful, but you can choose to stay with that woman as she cares for your child, so that women are free to rest, study, or learning to work, or starting their own business, so we started thinking, well, we care for the child, where do we leave women?
That is why we use “las manzanas del cuidado”. the CADEs, the schools, the Community Development Centers, everything that we have at hand we have taken advantage of to be able to integrate these services to be able to integrating these services to care for those who care for us and care for those who care for them, both those people at the same time, these two sides of the coin is what makes the care system truly capable of relieving women who alone carry on their shoulders unpaid care overload. With time and with opportunities, get ahead, and a woman who gets ahead never gets ahead alone: she always gets ahead with herself, with her family, with those closest to her, with your neighbors. That is a fundamental distinction between women's leadership and men's leadership. It is proven: it is gender, not the country of origin, wherever we might be. Us women have a much more collective leadership, much more empathic. We always look to the side and behind, and that's fine, it's part of our heritage.
Today we are taking a new step because, of course, in these first two years we have managed to get 60,000 women to obtain different types of employment thanks to the labor intermediation of the Care System. We have managed to save 25,000 women entrepreneurs –like Jimena, with businesses and entrepreneurship–, they don't go bankrupt, but they can get ahead. But, what happens in the “manzanas del cuidado”? That many very diverse women arrive: there are women who can be employed, there are women who have skills or acquire skills and can generate ventures, even employ others. There are women who have stayed a step behind, they find it difficult, they find it very difficult, they are caring women who have been at home for many years, even decades. They don't have enough skills, no matter how much we have a relief system, if we say: "Look, I can relieve you twice a week, 4 hours", it's not enough to generate income, it's not enough, so we had to sit down to think about how we design economic opportunities for women caregivers of this type, generally adults, over 40 years of age, with a low level of education, who will not be able to leave their home very easily, but what they have is a care network, they care for their families, their neighbors, are their natural care network, it is the one they naturally take turns with when someone has to go out, when someone has a medical appointment, when someone has an emergency, that network of solidarity is there, learn how to use that, so that besides doing it out of care and solidarity, can generate income.
Well, that's why we sat down with UN women, with UNDP, with USAID, which has very generously lent us not only its resources, but above all its capacity, its knowledge, its capacity to innovate;
Thinking about innovating in the public sector, is very difficult: the bureaucracy was not made thinking of innovations. It is made to repeat what it already knows how to do. Innovating in the public sector is very difficult, taking risks in the public sector is very difficult. That is why we greatly appreciate everyone who helps us to innovate by doing things that we do not know how to do, but if we don´t take the risk of starting to do it in some way, or at least rehearsing it, perhaps closing it, correcting, measuring, improving and persisting, it is essential especially in something that is just beginning like our program 'Neighbours, let's work together'.
So we already have the Purple Line set up, as well as the Equal Opportunities Houses, the Shelter Houses, the entire system of protection against violence that already came from behind, which is where Bogotá started, it has done well and we always continue to improve because it is necessary to improve until we eradicate violence against women and make it punishable. The Care System, in addition to its protection services against violence, then generated rest services and that is why, for example, such practical things – you will not believe that we came up with it – such as putting washers and dryers in the “manzanas del cuidado” so that women do not spend an entire Saturday glued to a sink doing the week's laundry.
If a machine that has existed for more than 100 years has already been able to do that, let them come to the “manzanas del cuidado”, leave their clothes with us and we will wash them there, iron them and return them in 3 hours after. You can choose to rest or studies, or do what you please, things as practical as these relieve burdens of caring women. We already have 8”manzanas del cuidado” this year we aspire to have 7 or 8 more “manzanas” and, without a doubt, when our government ends we aspire to have at least 20.
Now´s the time to laugh, my poor Women´s secretary, the divine Diana Rodríguez, laughs nervously, every time I go out to make a tour of a locality. I go out three times a week, religiously, through Bogotá. I find a new Apple of Care and I write to her: “Diana, we have a new Apple of Care, I was just here this Saturday, for example – you know that every week we go to work with the Mayors of different localities and we pressure a push ahead on the issues of road maintenance, safety, improvement of public spaces. One of the things that make me very proud, and I take the opportunity to give them a special mention, are the rural women of Bogotá, 75 percent of Bogotá's land is rural, it has peasants and peasants who take care of our moors who take care of our ecological structure, which allow us to have water, cultivate our food, may we never forget about them. just like Afro women, indigenous women, women who come from those diversities and exclusions as well.
One of the decisions that makes us very proud in these past two years, in addition to the Care System, is that the Care System began as a proposal back when I was candidate. Today is the realization of the mayor, Claudia López, but it will be Bogotá's heritage because it was institutionalized in the Territorial Planning Plan, not of the candidate, not of the Mayor, but of the city of Bogotá; it will remain in its institutional work plan and investment for the next 15 years.
But things have to be taken care of dear women. Not only takin care of the material things but laws, decrees, as well. The elections, the free vote. May no candidate in the future be forgotten, or even dare to question the need to continue increasing and growing. If they come to do more, what a joy, if they come to do less, is a no.
Because it has cost us a lot to get here for us to take a step back. Not one step back, not one! On the contrary, always advance in the case of rural areas of Bogotá. Why did the “manzanas del cuidado” arise, the mobile units came up thinking precisely of women in rural areas, in rural areas that have enormous distances, a fixed site would not work for us, that works in the neighborhoods of Bogotá where there is public transportation, where there is high density but in rurality, the units arose there to be able to reach the rural area of Usme, to reach the rural area of Suba, to be able to reach Sumapaz, our wonderful rural town, and today, in its Territorial Planning, Bogotá plans to go from 20 to 33 locations. In order to be able to have these education services, early childhood, care, public transport, employment within 30 minutes of any Bogota man or woman. Bogotá is a city in average two hours, two hours to access school, two hours to access employment, two hours to move from one place to another, it´s too much waste of life. What the Territorial Ordering Plan wants is a city of 30 minutes. That any mother has her children's kindergarten a maximum of 30 minutes away from her house, her children's school a maximum of 30 minutes from her house, the Caring Block for her and her family a maximum of 30 minutes from her house, not two hours.
Of those 33 localities, 30 will be urban and 3 of them rural; one, new added to Sumapaz, there is a new one that adds the rural part of Ciudad Bolívar and Usme and the third is all the Cerros Orientales, which are a great ecological and environmental heritage of Bogotá, but also have a very important rurality that we have to preserve. We are making an investment, let us never forget about it.
If it were for electoral representation, the votes of rural Colombians weigh very little, that is why they are forgotten, because most of us are in the cities. Enough with the cities votes, that is what any candidate pursues, it´s why it´s so important that we have institutional designs that force us to represent them better, because for the life of the majority of voters they were never sufficiently represented.
In Bogotá, nowadays we are making in Sumapaz the largest public investment in the history of Sumapaz and Bogotá, because that is building territorial peace, it is not just talking about peace. Sumapaz for the first time has 72,000 million pesos of investment in roads, 43,000 million pesos in connectivity because they are part of Bogotá, this is a neighborhood that is 3 hours away and does not have internet and about 8,000 million in rural aqueducts because here or there, we all have the right to clean water, therefore we had to set up aqueducts as well as makimg the water drinkable.
In Los Cerros, in El Verjón, for example, in the area between Chapinero and Santa Fe, we are paving the road, kilometer 11 is called the El Verjón road, kilometer 11 is literally 11th km; 4 kilometers were destroyed, right in the middle of it, you couldn't go from the Santa Fe zone to the Chapinero zone, nor from the Chapinero zone to Santa Fe.
Did you know, for example, the peasant women of El Verjón still ride on mules carrying their products every weekend to bring them down to sell in Monserrate? That happens today, today. In order to facilitate those paths, that route, peasant enterprises such as Campesino Local, for example, it is a fundamental part of them being part of Bogotá as they are. All that is what we have achieved.
This year we have very specific goals. In the first two years we created 60,000 jobs for women and we managed to ensure that the majority of those 60,000 jobs were in the construction sector, which is the one that generates the most jobs but also employs women. And that of those 60,000, about 500 are women drivers who are drivers who enter Transmilenio to drive electric buses. Make another story for themselves, not only for women but for public transport and for air quality in Bogotá. We support 25,000 businesses or enterprises owned by women like Ximena. This year we have an ambitious goal, in two years we created 60,000 jobs, in this year we want to create 48,000. In two years we supported 25 businesses, this year alone we want to support 29,000, part of those the “Neighbors Let's Work Together” program. But above all dear women from Bogotá, we have a great challenge, and that is, as you saw un the hustory videos, in the story of María Nelcy, in the story of Ximena, the most powerful instrument to expand care services is not the news, nor the radio, nor television; but the voice to voice and WhatsApp, that is infallible.
That is why we have set ourselves a challenge as the Mayor's Office and we invite all of you to take on that challenge together, which is how we have managed to get ahead. On December 31, 2023, at least one million women in Bogotá will talk about the Care System, will learn about the Care System, will have passed through a Care Block and will have used at least one of the 4 services offered by the system because that million women who know the system and who used it and who can tell the other 3.5 million women in Bogotá that it exists and that it is for them, is what is going to ensure that the System continues, that it grows, that it improves, that is not with a guideline or with wedges, it is not with the voice of women, with a million women between now and December 31, 2023 knowing it, 8 million Bogotans are going to find out. And 50 million Colombians in other cities of Colombia are going to learn that this exists and that, just as it was done in Bogotá, it can be in Montería and it can be in Pasto and it can be in Bucaramanga.
And with a million women who know about the Bogota Care System and who use it, we will be able to ensure that the next Congress and whoever wins the Presidency this year achieves, in my opinion, at least 3 things that are fundamental for the women of Colombia not only for those in Bogotá: the first thing is parity, we want to be half not only in life, but in political representation and that is why we need parity now in all the lists of public corporations. The second thing is that we must conform, when all the cities, at least the capital cities of Colombia, have a System of City Care, uniting our infrastructure and services, which is the National Government jurisdiction to integrate a national system of Care with a basic income and services that are part of the Social Security System. half of every 10 employed women, half of the employment in Colombia and Bogotá is informal; this means they don't have a minimum wage, they don't have health insurance other than Sisbén, they don't have old-age insurance, they don't have pensions, oh but we're all children and we need care, right? And we all get sick at some point and need care and we will all get old and need care and then who is the social security of that informal half of Colombia?
Women are social security, but that is a huge weight on women's shoulders, that's why women can't finish their studies and they can't rest and they can't be entrepreneurs and they can't get a job because their life is literally gone, their life is gone in poverty for taking care of others for free to be their social security, no more, no more, similar inequity has to be overcome in Colombia and in all of Latin America.
The way to overcome it is to start with Care Systems at the municipal level, articulated with the social security system at the national level and that is the least we expect from the next Congress and the next presidency and of course economic autonomy because an educated woman, represented, with work and income is a woman who changes her world and changes the world. On the other hand, a woman without economic autonomy is a woman much more exposed to violence, much more exposed to discrimination. It is from economic autonomy that we will achieve a life free of violence, let us not have the slightest doubt about that.
So there are three very specific advances that we have to achieve and that we can achieve from next Sunday with our free, conscious, informed vote and for the women of Bogotá and for the women of Colombia.
A big hug for all and happy International Women's Day.
