A Charter for Women

The Women’s Charter is a political declaration of intent, which sets out five key areas. The objectives are equality of women and men in the labour market, a significant reduction of pay differentials, equal participation of women and men in political decision-making processes, ending violence against women and gender equality beyond EU borders. Viviane Reding emphasised the necessity to tackle violence against women. “Violence against women violates fundamental rights; human dignity, the right to life and the right to the integrity of the person. I will make sure that the strategy contains energetic measures against female genital mutilation”, said Reding in a press release.

Closing the gender pay gap

The annual report of the European Commission on the gender pay gap between men and women has once again given Austria extremely bad marks. Apart from Austria, there is hardly any other country in the EU, where women earn so significantly less compared to their male colleagues. The presentation of the report was followed by the start of the second phase of the “Equal Pay” Campaign. In contrast to the first phase, this second one concentrates on the situation of the individual Member States. Reding announced at the launch of the Campaign that targets would be agreed with all Member States. Apart from that, the Commissioner threatened to impose stricter sanctions on employers who do not comply with the legal provisions in respect of gender equality. She named the disclosure of public and private sector salaries as an important instrument to make pay differentials visible in the first place - a step, which would be more than necessary from the perspective of Austrian workers.

Further information:

The press release of the Commission on the Women’s Charter

The Equal Pay Campaign homepage