Something for the weekend: Along with its agency Mortierbrigade, ZIJkant, a progressive women’s movement dedicated to wage equality in Belgium, has launched a campaign with a darkly humorous video.
Published to coincide with Employee Day (17 April), previously known as Secretary’s Day in Belgium, the 90-second film was directed by the directing team Lionel Goldstein as part of the movement and agency’s latest Equal Pay Day campaign. It has been released across national TV and online platforms and suggests that behind every successful male employer stands a workforce of under-paid women.
The video shows Jef Van Huytsel, a self-proclaimed feminist boss receiving an award for Employer of the Year. In his acceptance speech, he honors his female employees by calling them “the backbone of the company” and claims to pride himself on knowing how to treat women.
During a tour of the factory Van Huytsel works at, he allowed a female employee he states is the vice president to touch his award, and after handing out flowers to them, the female workers are required to jump for joy on command.
Van Huytsel also shared the formula for his profitability success, which includes a team made up entirely of women, who are high-performing, dependable and 20% cheaper than men. He added that he would be stupid to hire men for this reason.
The video, titled “Give women the respect they deserve”, aimed to use irony to highlight that wage inequality and sexist stereotypes are still present in the workplace.
A ZIJkant spokesperson said: “ZIJkant reiterates its demand for workable work: measures such as a shorter working week with continued pay bring oxygen into the rat race and ensure job creation. Longer maternity leave is crucial to give men the opportunity to father, and thus divide the care tasks more fairly. In addition, investments in childcare remain crucial. ZIJkant emphasises the importance of implementing obligations for employers to communicate transparently about wages in their organisation.”
While this may take a parodic view on the subject, equal pay is still very much a prevalent issue today and something that employers across the world are working on.
