B’nai B’rith Europe co-organised with the European Jewish Community Center a conference entitled “Double-glass ceiling ? Experiences of Christian, Jewish, Muslim & Buddhist Women. Challenges facing women in patriarchal and secular societies” at the European Parliament in honor of  the International Women’s Day, on the 8th of March 2018.

 After the introduction of the theme  by Members of the European Parliament Wajid Khan (S&D) and Roberta Metsola (EPP), Director of B’nai B’rith Europe emphasized the importance of equity in the workplace, which puts in place optimal conditions for workers to fully contribute to the success of the company they work for and establishes bridges between communities (speech attached).

The dialogue between the different speakers was moderated by Alfiaz Vaiya, European Parliament’s coordinator for the anti-racism and diversity intergroup (ARDI) , who successively gave the floor to Yael Leibovitz, secular Israeli, Chain Zisman, Israeli Jewish observant, Manel Mselmi, reporter for the blog Ecofeminism and Ines Wouters, co-founder of Bodhicharya and specialised lawyer in religious discriminations. The speakers expressed their perspectives as women of different faiths.

The conference allowed to illustrate the opportunity gaps between secular and religious women with concrete examples,  underlined the communication challenge between people from different cultural backgrounds and highlighted what needs to be done to end discrimination in the workplace. Member of the European Parliament Wajid Khan reminded that women’s rights must be protected, “not only today, but also every single day of the year”.