Greek women may well be asking themselves if they have any cause for celebration on the 8th March. Five years on from the country's debt crisis, International Women's Day 2015 finds women in Greece struggling with low pay, few choices and fear.
The Prosperity Index and Gallup World Poll find a large number of women in Greece (60%) worrying a lot about a range of issues - that's the 6th highest rate, together with Cyprus.
More than 30% are not satisfied with their living standards - which is the lowest rate in Western Europe. This makes perfect sense since the average Greek family has lost more than 33% of its income and research shows that within a four member family only one member holds a job and contributes to the family income. Meanwhile, the psychological burden on women in Greece carry is heavy -- only 11% think it's a good time to get a job. Greece's ranking is the 13th lowest in the world. Furthermore, annual salary for male employees in Greece is 12.7% higher than the one for women.
21% declared not having enough money to buy food at some point in the last month (at the time the survey was done).
On issues of personal freedom and governance, 33% of Greek women declared themselves dissatisfied with freedom of choice - this is the second lowest in the world, between Angola (30%) and Kosovo (36%). In terms of their confidence in the government, only 19% of Greek women have any faith in the authorities - this ranks them between Croatians (18%) and Portuguese (21st) women.
The current governing party, Syriza, has committed to offer women equal payment, access to more working opportunities and protection of their rights, in few words, a brighter future. "Hope, optimism and the sense of dignity are returning for our people." state in The Dawn/I Avgi newspaper, which is politically affiliated with Syriza. It may be still early but numbers surely show something totally different for Greek women.