How better time management could help equality in Catalonia

“There needs to be a cultural revolution in Catalonia. Not just a law, but changes in lifestyles and organizations,” said Tània Verge, Catalan minister of Equality and Feminism, during the opening conversation of the Time Use Week.

The event focuses on how time management impacts equality and displays different ways to increase quality of life with the right of time.

The Time Use Week wants to cast light on the right of time for women and the urgent need to create ways to lighten their schedules. They often lack personal time due to a busy work-life balance, extra domestic activities and children to take care of. “Women have a right to take care of themselves, to participate in life, socialize and maintain good health,” Verge said to Catalan News.

The ninth edition of the Time Use Week in Catalonia is an important one, because Barcelona has been chosen as the world capital of time policies this year. Therefore, many international speakers from Europe and Latin America participate in the event, which lasts until this Thursday.

An ongoing topic

Time use has been a topic of discussion for years in Catalonia. As discussed in an episode of the Filling the Sink podcast at the end of 2020, legal steps have already been taken to change Catalan timetables. The Timetable Reform Initiative is a pact signed by the Catalan government back in 2017, with the intention to shift back to European times by 2025.

The current time was set by Franco during the Second World War to match Berlin and was never changed back. The Greenwich Meridian Time is considered as a more natural rhythm for Catalonia and should improve health, create reasonable working hours and help better the balance between work and family.

Time for change

“Time use is a hot and essential topic and it is important to keep discussing it,” said Lluïsa Moret, provincial council of Barcelona. She used hard facts to highlight the importance of change.

“80% of caregivers are women who work more than ten hours a day and are in need of emotional support themselves. They have less access to time, and the time they have left often lacks quality,” Moret concluded.

Barcelona being Time Use capital this year increases awareness about the situation in Catalonia. Montserrat Ballarín from the metropolitan area of Barcelona states that a metropolitan pact about time is in the making: “We want a solid pact to govern and manage time, that will be both useful and practical and includes officials from different panels, a taskforce and results of studies.”

The need for action

Catalan minister Tània Verge agrees on the practical need to concretise their actions. “All institutions need to work together with trade unions, businesses and social organizations to change the time schedules,” the minister said. For now, time pacts are mostly promoted on local levels to network with different parts of the Catalan society.

The need for cultural change was regularly repeated in the opening talk. Project coordinator Marta Junqué points to the younger generations as key players in this change. “This is the fight of a young generation. It does not just want to work, it wants to live,” she said to Catalan News. 

The opening panel of the Time Use Week formed a gateway to the different talks this week. Upcoming events include a talk about the role of municipalities in the time revolution, proposals for the future law on working time use and an online session about coordinating time and care.