European Women’s Lobby-Gender Equality-European Spring Council
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: May 15, 2006
the largest umbrella organisation of women’s associations in the European Union
(EU) with more than 4000
member organisations across Europe.
Strategy
European Spring Council, March 2006
BrusselsGender equality is a fundamental right, a common
value of the EU, and a necessary condition for the achievement of the EU
objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion. Current strong EU gender
equality legislation is important but it is yet to be fully implemented.
Furthermore, legislation alone cannot adequately address the structural and
institutional dynamics that continue to generate inequalities between women
and men in Europe. Gender equality can only be achieved with a strong and
clear commitment at the highest political level.In 2006, even with the commitments of EU Member States
to the Lisbon strategy, the Growth and Jobs agenda and the existence of a
binding set of European legislation concerning gender equality in employment,
serious gender gaps remain in employment in practice, for example unequal pay
(gender pay gap=16%), a lower employment rate (55% for women, 70% for men) and
a higher risk of poverty for women, especially women from vulnerable
groups.EWL welcomes and looks forward to the successful
implementation of the Commission’s Roadmap for equality between women and men
2006-2010 in helping to achieve the Lisbon goals. Especially since the gender
dimension of the Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth must be
strengthened. The Roadmap reaffirms the dual approach of gender equality
based on gender mainstreaming – the promotion of gender equality in all policy
areas and activities – and specific measures.Women’s employment remains key to their economic
autonomy and to greater equality between women and men in society as a whole.
Addressing women’s situation in relation to the labour market in Europe
demands a multifaceted approach that counteracts the gender division of work
in both the public and private sphere, combats discrimination against women in
the labour market and in tax and social security systems, and values the
development of sectors where women work.Women’s increased labour market
participation is a major factor contributing to the success of the “growth and jobs” strategy goal to increase employment rates
overall. Women are also a strength for EU productivity and competitiveness but
in order to maximise this potential, the European Union and the Member States
must take specific measures to facilitate women to access and remain in the
labour market. Furthermore, action must be taken to ensure that high quality
and full-time jobs are created in the framework of labour
market reforms, as often the problem of newly created jobs is they are mainly
part-time or short-term contracts, which cannot assure a
self-sustained existence for women.EWL therefore values a Lisbon strategy that ensures a
cohesive balance between the social, economic and environmental pillars within
the strategy and enables the EU to offer a social, as well as an economic
vision, with a clear commitment to the European social model. The refocused
Growth and Jobs Lisbon strategy threatens this by prioritising an agenda of
unfettered competition. This narrowing of the Lisbon Agenda will have a
negative impact upon gender equality, as well as other social objectives.EWL urges Governments and the EU to take action as
follows:
National Reform Programmes must deliver on EU and Member
State gender equality and employment commitmentsA gender analysis of the National Reform Programmes
(NRPs) shows that Member State policies to support female employment and to
realise gender equality are underdeveloped. For example, there are few
commitments to closing employment and unemployment gender gaps. The issue of
gender pay gaps is discussed more widely, but only a few propose concrete
actions (DK, FR, NL and SE). In the NRPs, measures for the reconciliation of
work and private life focus mainly on women and the need to strengthen the
role of men in care and parental leave is not stressed. Although all NRPs
address female participation in employment, the mainstreaming of gender
equality is treated only superficially. Rather than being a cross-cutting
issue relevant throughout the NRP, the gender dimension is limited to some
specific actions.In the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs
(2005-2008), Part II outlines guidelines for the employment policies for the
Member States, under which Guideline 18 states “Promote a life-cycle approach
to work” and among other items, calls on Member States to take “resolute
action to increase female participation and reduce gender gaps in employment,
unemployment and pay” and calls for the “better reconciliation of work and
private life and the provision of accessible and affordable childcare
facilities and care for dependants”. Thus Member States have committed to
increasing female employment rates and promoting gender equality. However,
despite this commitment, in the National Reform Programmes the Member States
generally do not explicitly develop an integrated lifecycle approach (LV, NL
and the UK do).A multifaceted approach to women’s employment is needed
to reach the Lisbon strategy employment rate target for women of 60%
employment by 2010. There are a number of issues that must be addressed to
reach this target including the unequal sharing of unpaid work and caring
responsibilities between women and men which creates unequal opportunities for
women and men in paid employment; segregation of occupations and sectors of
work for women and men; differences in education and training; and the way in
which jobs are classified and valued. Therefore, equality between women and
men in employment can only be achieved if targeted measures are undertaken
concurrently in ALL of the following areas:
Eliminate the gender pay gap Fully address gender segregation of the EU labour
market Improve women’s job access and career progress Ensure policies to reconcile work and private life for
women and men Provide care services for children/elderly and other
dependant persons Eliminate gender stereotypes in education Promote equal access to education and life long
learning2. A successful
streamlining of the OMC process must include a strong commitment to gender
equalityEWL calls on all Member States to ensure gender
mainstreaming in the new streamlining of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC)
that covers pensions, social inclusion, health and long-term care to ensure
the specific concerns of women are being taken into consideration in all
aspects of the new OMC process.Pensions
Many pension schemes in the EU Member States still leave many
women with only “derived rights” based on their husband’s employment record,
with the consequence that the majority of older people living in poverty are
women. Ensuring a better life for older women requires addressing the
structural factors contributing to inequality in pension schemes, including
the organisation of care and combining family and work life, inequalities in
the labour marker, the gender pay gap and direct discrimination in second and
third pillar pensions.Ø In the context of the Open
Method of Coordination (OMC) on pensions, EWL calls on Member States to
undertake a full study on the impact of pension reforms on women’s lives in
the EU with the following objectives in mind:· The
individualisation of pension rights (and social security and taxation systems
overall) to encourage women and men to engage in paid work, and thus earn
individual economic security;· The development
of mechanisms accommodating the employment patterns linked to society’s need
for the care of children and other dependant persons so that career-breaks or
part-time work are considered as full-time work in the calculation of
pension benefits.Poverty and Social
ExclusionWomen’s poverty and social exclusion in Europe requires
specific, multiple and gendered policy responses. The persistent trend of the
feminisation of poverty in European societies today demonstrates that the
current framework of social protection systems, and the wide range of EU
social, economic, and employment policies are not designed to meet women’s
needs and differences in women’s work and life choices/opportunities as
compared to men’s. Furthermore, social protection systems are oftentimes not
structured to provide women with individual access to social security.Ø EWL calls on Member
States to develop specific gender equality objectives and targets within the
EU Strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion, including a set of policy
actions to support non-traditional and one-parent families, and specific
policy actions in support of groups of women which face higher risk of poverty
and social exclusion such as migrant, refugee, and ethnic minority women,
older women, disabled women, and lesbians.Ø EWL calls on the EU and
Member States to develop EU guidelines to reform social protection systems
from a gender equality perspective in order to ensure that social protection
systems better counteract women’s precarious situation and meet the needs of
the most vulnerable groups of women.Health and Long-term Care
Although women’s health in the EU has improved significantly
over the past decade, there are still many factors hindering gender equality
in relation to health. Gender roles and unequal gender relations interact with
other social and economic variables, resulting in different and often
inequitable patterns of exposure to health risk, and in differential access to
and utilisation of health information, care and services.Ø EWL calls on Member
States to incorporate specific EU gender equality objectives within the Open
Method of Coordination in the field of health care, including strengthening
preventive programmes that promote women’s health, carrying out more research
on health and ill health of women, financing for equal access to healthcare
services, and developing the capacity for health professionals to properly
respond to women’s health care needs and illnesses.Further Development of OMC
In order to reach economic and social goals, EWL emphasizes
that the EU needs a successful European Care Strategy, which recognises that
care duties are the responsibility of women and men and which focuses on
providing affordable, accessible and high quality care services,available to all women and men whatever their financial
situation. A European Care Strategy will play an essential role in promoting
true equality between women and men and in enabling them to reconcile their
work and private lives. The EU has recognised on several occasions the
importance of achieving a balance in private and working life for women and
men[1]. However, much remains to be done in order to change the
gendered division of tasks in the home and to achieve an equal sharing of
domestic and care work. This work is still carried out mostly by women due to
the absence of affordable and good quality care services for dependent
persons. Evidence shows that there is a positive relationship between the
public expenditure allocated to social benefits (linked to the care of
children and other dependent people) and women’s participation in paid work.
Ø EWL calls on Member
States to develop an Open Method of Coordination in the field of care services
in order to formulate recommendations on how to meet the need for provision of
care services in Europe (i.e. the organizing and financing of care for
children and other dependent persons), including setting precise targets and
indicators with the aim of providing childcare facilities for 90% of children
from birth until mandatory school age across the EU and a sufficient level of
care provision for other dependent persons by 2015. All services should meet
the criteria of affordability, accessibility and good quality.3. Civil Society: an active
partner in achieving the Lisbon strategy goalsA renewed commitment to civil society participation and
partnership is vital to achieving the Lisbon targets especially considering
the enormous gap in terms of involvement of stakeholders in the adoption of
the integrated guidelines, the National Reform Programmes, the Community
programme and the progress report. EWL calls on Member States to support
greater participation by the social partners, including NGOs, at local,
national and regional level, in the development and implementation of gender
equality policies, particularly in the areas of education, employment and
pensions.Ø EWL calls for the full
implementation of the Framework of Actions on Gender Equality adopted by the
European social partners, UNICE/UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC in March
2005.4. Specific Gender Equality
reporting mechanisms are essential to realise gender equality commitments at
EU and Member State levelTo enhance the Lisbon strategy reporting mechanisms in
order to ensure advancement and implementation of gender equality measures,
EWL calls on the Spring Council to implement a reporting mechanism for gender
equality that includes:Ø When reporting on the
implementation of their National Reform Programmes for Growth and Jobs, Member
States must include a section outlining the specific measures that have been
taken to advance gender equality, especially concerning Guideline 18;Ø The Commission and the
Council must also include a section on gender equality in the Annual Progress
Report on the Lisbon strategy; andØ A strengthened role of the
Annual Report on Equality between Women and Men in the follow up to the
implementation of the Lisbon Process.To supplement reporting mechanisms of the Lisbon
strategy, EWL calls on the Member States to continue developing key indicators
to assess the progress of equality between women and men in all areas and, to
this end, to collect adequate, consistent and comparable statistics on a
regular basis, broken down by gender and age, and conduct a detailed analysis
thereof.
Promote Equal Participation of Women and
Men in Decision-MakingWomen are still under-represented in
all European Union decision-making bodies, in political decision-making in EU
Member States and in economic and social decision-making. Women’s persistent under-representation in political, economic and
social decision-making is a democratic deficit. Women’s active citizenship and
participation in politics and senior management public administration at all
levels (local, regional, national, European) should be further promoted.Ø EWL
calls on Member States to promote an equal participation of women and men in
decision-making in the economic and social sector.Ø EWL calls on Member States to
promote the active participation of women in politics through public campaigns
that encourage political parties to place women candidates in winnable seats
on the electoral lists.
European Pact for Gender Equality: A Tool for
Achieving Gender Equality in the Lisbon strategyThe European Women’s Lobby strongly supports the
initiative of the Swedish, French, Spanish, Finnish, Czech and Danish
governments for the European Pact for Gender Equality. EWL believes that such
an initiative will enhance the political will to fully achieve the Growth and
Jobs agenda as higher female employment will lead to greater gender equality
but it will also increase economic output and help to meet the economic and
financial challenges of an ageing population. Considering that commitments to
support female employment and to realise gender equality are underdeveloped in
the National Reform Programmes, the European Pact for Gender Equality is
urgently needed to ensure that women and men can participate equally and fully
in the labour market and contribute equally to society at large.Ø EWL expects all
European Union Member State governments to endorse the European Pact for
Gender Equality.It is essential that Member State governments remain
accountable to uphold their commitments to equality between women and men. EWL
calls on all Member States to uphold their strong commitments to increasing
the female labour participation rates and to gender equality by renewing
efforts to fully implement current EU and Member State policies on gender
equality in employment and in particular fully implementing the Integrated
Guidelines for Growth and Jobs (2005-2008), Guideline 18 to “Promote a
life-cycle approach to work”. As part of the Member State commitment to these
measures, the European Women’s Lobby expects the governments of Europe to sign
the European Gender Equality Pact and to include this Pact as an annex to the
Spring Council Conclusions. This document highlights the importance of
particular measures that must be taken in order to reach the Lisbon strategy
target of 70% employment rates for women by 2010. EWL strongly believes that
bold and concerted effort and actions in the area of women and employment will
make a serious impact on improving EU employment rates and the EU economy and
will make a better and more equal life for women and men in Europe.
[1] For example in Council Resolution 2000/C 218/02 on the
balanced participation of women and men in family and working life______________________________________________________________
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