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GENDER EQUALITY IN EUROPEAN UNION
Prepared by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman
The Treaty of the European Union obliges Member States to promote
equality between women and men. Over the years, the principle of gender
equality has been reinforced with legislation. In the 1990s, the policy
of gender mainstreaming was introduced. This new strategy strived to
include gender equality issues in all activities – in the “mainstream”.
Gender mainstreaming calls for all EU policies to take into account the
different situations of women and men.
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF GENDER EQUALITY
The EU has a structural approach to achieving gender equality. Its
five-year plan – the Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality
(2001–2005) – covers equality in economic, social and civil life, equal
participation and representation, and changing gender roles and
stereotypes. A series of actors collaborate to deliver the objective of
gender equality, including the European Parliament, the Council, and the
Commission. NGOs advise the Commission through the Advisory Committee.
The European Commission is the main implementation body within the EU
structure, and also the body that proposes new legislation. The Equal
Opportunities Unit is based in the EU Commission Directorate General for
Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs. It is responsible for
ensuring compliance with the EU Directives on equal opportunities for women and
men. This Unit is also charged with the implementation of the Community
Framework Strategy on Gender Equality.
The President of the Commission and a number of Commissioners comprise the
Commissioners Group on Equality. They maintain an overview on equal
opportunities between women and men at European Commission level and discuss in
particular the question of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all services
and policies.
The Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities between men and women is an
advisory body composed of ministerial representatives from the Member States of
the EU. It meets regularly to give opinions to the European Commission on major
new policies that have an effect on women.
Members of government of the Member States meet in the Council of Ministers. The
Social Affairs Council of Ministers, where national ministers of social
affairs are represented, is the Council that is responsible for most decisions
relating to the equality of women and men. Very often, it has the final word
onlegislation and programmes in this field.
The European Parliament (EP) is the only European institution elected
directly by the citizens of the Member States. The European Parliament does not
have full legislative power, as do parliaments in Member States, but it can give
political signals and has control over the budget legislation, policies and many
political actions affecting women. It drafts reports on the Commission’s
proposals on women’s rights, organises public hearings and defines budget
priorities for Women’s Programmes. The work of the European Parliament is
organised in different parliamentary Committees, including the Committee on
Women’s Rights. This Committee has played an important role in advancing
gender equality issues within the EP.
A major actor in the field of gender equality is the European Women’s Lobby. EWL
follows very closely the processes of changing the EU Treaties, all legislative
proposals having a gender aspect and tries to integrate a gender perspective in
all areas. EWL takes positions on the different legislative proposals and
lobbies of the EC and the EP.
EU LEGISLATION ON GENDER EQUALITY EU legislation established
in the area of gender equality enforces equal pay for women and men for
same work and work of equal value; equal treatment in employment and
vocational training, promotion and working conditions; equal treatment
in social security (statutory and occupational schemes). It protects
workers in cases of pregnancy and maternity; paternity in member states
recognising such rights; specific rights for parental leave for fathers
and mothers. Protection is ensured against direct and indirect
discrimination based on sex, including marital or family status, as well
as protection against harassment based on sex and sexual harassment.
Victims of discrimination can go to Court and are protected by measures
against retaliation. The legislation ensures reversal of the burden of
proof (the presumed author of discrimination must prove that he/she did
not make any discrimination) and sanctions for those who perpetrated the
discrimination, as well as compensation for the victims. The EU promotes
preventive measures against discrimination by employers, especially in
cases of harassment based on sex and sexual harassment. Positive actions
are endorsed for under-represented groups, equality plans in companies
encouraged, the role of Social Partners and dialogue with non
governmental organisations emphasised. Moreover, EU legislation
establishes a requirement to have bodies for the promotion of equality
between women and men in every Member state.
One of the effects of the Amsterdam Treaty is that equal opportunities
for women and men are now considered one of the fundamental aims of the Union.
In the Treaty the Member States lay down that gender equality issues will be
taken into account in all of the Union’s doings, or in other words that the
Union will adopt what is known as the mainstreaming strategy.
An important task in the EU is to supplement the treaties with laws – directives
– that go into more detail about the goals that the Member States have agreed on
in the treaties. In the field of gender equality there are a number of joint
directives:
- Council Directive of 10 February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of
the member states relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for
men and women (75/117/EEC) stipulates equal pay for equal work and work of equal
value;
- Equal Treatment Directive (76/207/EEC) establishes prohibition
against direct or indirect discrimination (the latter means that a rule that
appears to be neutral might in actual fact be disadvantageous for a particular
group, as in the case of a decision by an employer to pay lower pensions to
part-time workers, as almost all of those who work part-time are women);
- Directive 2002/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23
September 2002 amending Council Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of
the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to
employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions (Text with
EEA relevance)
- Council Directive 97/80/EC of 15 December 1997 on the burden
of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex stipulates who has to prove
what in cases involving gender discrimination (it is up to the employer
suspected of discrimination to show that there has been no discrimination based
on gender in the workplace);
- Council Directive of 19 December 1978 on the
progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women
in matters of social security (79/7/EEC) guarantees equal rights to social
security;
- Council Directive of 24 July 1986 on the implementation of the
principle of equal treatment for men and women in occupational social security
schemes (86/378/EEC) protects women’s and men’s right to be treated equally
where company or occupational social security schemes are concerned, with regard
to pension entitlement, for instance;
- Council Directive of 20 December 1996 amending Directive 86/378/EEC on
the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in
occupational social security schemes (96/97/EC)
- Council Directive of 3 June
1996 on the framework agreement on parental leave (96/34/EC) stipulates that
both women and men should have the right to at least three months unpaid
parental leave;
- Council Directive 92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the
introduction of measures to encou rage improvements in the safety and health at
work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are
breastfeeding establishes the rights of the women who are pregnant or who have
just given birth: the right to at least 14 weeks leave in connection with the
delivery and the right to retain their wages or other forms of remuneration.
- Council Directive 86/613/EEC of 11 December 1986 on the application of the
principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity,
including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity, and on the protection of
self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood.
GENDER EQUALITY POLICIES In the 1990s it was realised that a new approach was
needed to achieve equality in practice. At the Fourth UN World Conference on
Women in Beijing in 1995, gender mainstreaming was included as a principal
strategy for promoting gender equality in large parts of the world. The new
strategy strives to include issues impinging on gender equality in all
activities. All proposed changes are now to be analysed from a gender equality
point of view.
One of the objectives to which priority is given in the EU action programmes is
an equitable distribution of women and men in the decision-making process. The
Council of Ministers has exhorted the Member States and the EU institutions to
recruit more women to decision-making positions. In a recommendation issued in
1996 (96/694/EC) the Council calls for more initiatives that will result in an
even distribution between women and men involved in decision making. The
representation of women in decision-making positions has increased considerably
in recent years.
The Commission has also begun to review its own organisation and its internal
workings. An equal opportunities group has been appointed, whose task is to
ensure that gender equality issues are taken into account throughout the
Commission, on every level and in every field. In 1998 the Council of Ministers
adopted new regulations in order to place more women in senior posts in the EU
institutions. In these regulations the Ministers make equality of opportunity
one of the objectives in recruitment and promotion to senior posts within the EU
institutions. The ministers want more women directors and middle-level managers.
They also want the institutions to recruit more women at senior executive level.
A cornerstone in the gender equality programme of the EU is that women and men
must have the same opportunities to support themselves and attain financial
independence. The EU has introduced a large number of measures to bring this
about. Apart from the directives on equal conditions in the labour market and
the right to parental leave, the EU also has common guidelines on employment.
Each Member State follows up the common guidelines each year to give them
concrete expression in national action plans for employment. In the action plans
the Member States commit themselves to policies that will lead to increased
equality in the labour market. Female employment in the EU countries now stands
at close to 55 per cent. The Union contributes to this with actions to reconcile
work and family life, including care facilities for children and other
dependants. The EU has set a target employment rate of 60 per cent for women to
be reached by 2010. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental principle in the EU. It was the
Treaty of Amsterdam that explicitly introduced the principle that women and men
are to receive the same pay for the same work or work of equal value. Women and
men are to be paid the same wages not only when they are doing the same job but
also when the work they are doing is of equal value. The Treaty of Amsterdam
also permits what is called positive discrimination in the labour market. This
means that an employer can apply special measures to women, or men, if they are
in the minority in a workplace, for instance by making it easier for them to be
promoted or to undergo further training. Despite this, women still earn less
than men. Closing the gender pay gap therefore, remains at the top of the EU
policy agenda.
Promoting entrepreneurship amongst women is also a major goal for the EU.
The Beijing Platform for action included among its strategic objectives the
fight to eradicate violence against women, covering in particular physical,
sexual and psychological violence within the family. Combating violence against
women is one of the fundamental issues on the European social agenda. Thus, at
EU level, decisive progress has been made on making trafficking in human beings
a criminal offence and enforcing legislation.
Over the last few decades, women in the EU have closed the education gap and
even surpassed men in terms of numbers of university graduates. Women are more
likely than men to go on university education and to graduate. But there are
still large differences in the fields of study chosen by women and men. Men
greatly outnumber women in science and engineering, while women dominate in arts
and humanities. There remain education sectors seen as “female”, which normally
lead to lower paid jobs. The elimination of these stereotypes is one of the EU’s
priorities.
Gender equality is intrinsic in external aid from the Community budget and
European Development fund.
Meanwhile, emphasis has shifted towards the equality of men and women outside
the field of employment. New areas analysed under a gender perspective include
world trade and globalisation, EU enlargement, fisheries, and asylum and refugee
policy. EU concerns about gender equality are being integrated into a broader
policy regarding non-discrimination on the basis of factors such as race, age
and sexual orientation.
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