City of Brussels names street after women’s rights lawyer and mother of social Europe Eliane-Vogel Polsky

On the border of Laeken and Jette, between the Emile Delvastraat and the Steylsstraat, three new streets will soon be built as part of a new development. Creating three new streets means assigning three new street names. This time, the City of Brussels chose to honour a female hero: Eliane Vogel-Polsky gets a street next to the very appropriate Emancipatiestraat and Gelijke Rechtenstraat.

Eliane who?

Though the name Eliane Vogel-Polsky may not instantly ring a bell, a quick search online immediately clarifies the influence this women still has today. Throughout her life, Eliane was committed to defending female rights and female working conditions.

Eliane Vogel-Polsky is born in 1926 in Ghent. She moves to Brussels at a young age and is educated at the Emile Jacqmain high school in the center of the city. In 1950 Eliane graduates as a Doctor of Law at the ULB. She studies social and European law, a combination that characterises het further path. During her student years, and as like many intellectuals and artists during that time, she often hangs out in the Goudblommeke van Papier.

It is through her studies that Eliane is confronted with the unequal and unfair working conditions for female workers. In the early 1960s she starts conducting surveys about the working conditions of men and women. In her reports, she describes the "total unwillingness of society to integrate girls into a process of education and training identical to that of boys in order to open up the same professional choices for them." Her investigations fuel her commitment and her will to fight inequalities and discrimination against women. She actively seeks out a case that she can defend before the European Court of Justice, but she has trouble finding a woman who wants to speak out. Many workers appear to be too scared to lose their job.

Defrenne versus Sabena

On the basis of Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, which described the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for the same work, she brings a case before the European Court of Justice in 1976: the Defrenne versus Sabena case. The indictment concerns the inequality of wages and the obligation for women to go on unpaid retirement from the age of 40. It is thanks to this judgment that the Court recognizes that Article 119 creates an individual right that can be directly invoked before courts in any EU Member State. Individuals may demand that this article is respected, not only by the states and their governments, but also in any collective labour agreement or private contract. The Defrenne judgments are today regarded as highly symbolic and constitutive judgments of European law. Eliane Vogel-Polsky has since been described as one of the mothers of social Europe.

More women in the streets

Using the hashtag #meervrouwopstraat, the City of Brussels launched, together with Sofie Lemaire, a call to Brussels residents to share stories about female heroes who deserve to be honoured in public space.

Khalid Zian,
Alderman responsible for Equal Opportunities. in Brussels (PS)

This list of suggestions, together with the existing names from the Action Plan for Gender Equality, are tools that allow us to achieve the feminization of public spaces in Brussels.

Of all streets in Brussels with the name of a person, 85% are male and only 15% female. One of the women that was put forward by the Brussels people was Eliane Vogel-Polsky.

The initiative is supported by the Institute for gender equality (IGVM), which in 2007 published a book about Eliane’s achievements.

Liesbet Stevens,
deputy director of the institute for gender equality 

Street names highlight the contributions that people made to our society. Many women have achieved fantastic things and it is therefore important that more attention is paid to this in public spaces. This initiative contributes to this and recognizes the great merit of Eliane-Vogel Polsky.

Ans Persoons (Change.Brussels),
Alderwoman of Urban Planning charged with naming public space

The decision to give Eliane Vogel-Polsky a place in public space was easy to make. Her street reminds us of a struggle for rights that we consider self-evident today, but also a struggle that is still ongoing.

According to the latest data from Eurostat, dating from 2015, European women still earn on average 16.3% less than men for the same work. These figures show our society still has work.

Ans Persoons

With the Eliane Vogel-Polskystraat, the Emancipatiestraat and the Gelijke rechtenstraat, we immortalise not only Eliane and her commitment to equal pay, but every woman and man who uses his or her voice to enforce equality, be it on the street or in a court.

Sources 

• Laura Mercier, « Eliane Vogel-Polsky, mère de la fragile Europe sociale », 7 february 2018 : https://www.taurillon.org/eliane-vogel-polsky-mere-de-la-fragile-europe-sociale

• Eliane Gubin, « Eliane Vogel-Polsky, a woman of conviction »,
  institut pour l'Égalité des Femmes et des Hommes, Bruxelles, 2007 :
  https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/13%20-%20Vogel-Polsky_EN.pdf

Image: © Private Collection 
Eliane Vogel-Polsky, mid 1960's