Pope Francis criticises gender pay gap

Pope Francis has criticised the "scandal" of pay disparities between men and women and said it is "chauvinism" to blame the decline in traditional family structures on female emancipation, as he showed again his willingness to wade into heated battlegrounds of economic and social policy.

The pontiff's defence of women's economic rights, made during his weekly audience in St Peter's Square before a crowd of about 20,000 people, reflect his continued drive to modernise the tone - if not the teachings - of the Catholic Church.

In his remarks, Pope Francis touted the "Christian roots of radical equality" between the sexes and said it was essential to support the right to equal pay for equal work.

"Why do we take it for granted that women should earn less than men?" Pope Francis said. "No! They have the same rights. Disparity is a pure scandal."

Since being elected to the helm of Catholicism and its 1.2bn followers more than two years ago, the 78-year-old Argentine has put a strong emphasis on drawing attention to economic problems around the world - including poverty and income inequality.

A UN report this week found that women were paid a quarter less than men globally, and called for governments to take action to narrow the gap. The White House Council of Economic Advisers released its own report recently calling the gender pay gap a "stubborn troubling fact" despite women's gains over the years.

However, efforts by Barack Obama, US president, to push through legislation on pay equality has been stymied by Republicans in Congress over worries that such rules could lead to excess litigation for businesses.

In the EU, the wage gap between men and women is more than 15 per cent, according to Eurostat data from 2013, with Estonia having the widest and Slovenia the narrowest. In the UK, a new law means that from 2016, large companies will be forced to report on the gender pay gap in their workforces.

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In his remarks on Wednesday, one of Pope Francis's main points was that the increase in divorces and separations and the slowdown in marriage rates should not be seen as the result of women's desire to work.

"Many believe the change we have seen in recent decades was catalysed by female emancipation. But this argument is not valid, it is false . . . it is a form of chauvinism," he said.

Pope Francis's comments came a day after the Vatican hosted a conference on climate change, another economic and social issue on the global agenda.

The pontiff is expected to make a strong call for more aggressive action to combat climate change in an encyclical letter - the most important of papal documents - as early as next month.

Additional reporting by Sarah O'Connor

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