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BackThe Gender Equality Strategy of the EU Commission will expire next year. Based on this fact, the EU Parliament took the opportunity of organising a workshop under the title "A new strategy for gender equality post 2015" in Brussels to voice recommendations from the point of view of the EU Parliament at an early stage. A study, featuring the most important demands was also presented for this purpose. These demands are not new because it is a sad fact that progress made during the past years in respect of gender quality has not been sufficient.
A lot has still to be done to achieve equality of women and men
Gender mainstreaming, the economic independence of women, maternity leave, women in political and economic decision-making positions, combating violence against women as well as gender equality in respect of foreign affairs and development cooperation - these were the topics being discussed with experts from different countries during the workshop. The experts analysed the situation and provided recommendations for action to be taken by the European Commission and other European actors. There was unanimous agreement that gender equality of women and men was still a long way off. The crisis in Europe seemed to have reduced the inequalities between the genders, but unfortunately only at first glance. University professor Marcela Corsi underpinned this statement with statistics and concluded that the crisis had the effect of making both genders worse off. Also, little progress had been made over the past years with regard to the gender pay gap, said Corsi. She therefore demanded that gender equality policy had to play a direct role in the EU’s crisis policy. The Green MEP Monika Vana addressed the problem that in Austria higher employment rates of women, which in itself were to be rated positively, were exclusively a result of an increased number of part-time jobs. A situation, said Vana, which in reality would not reflect the image of the apparent improvement of the position of women.
Gender equality policy has always been a concern of the EU Parliament
Gender equality of women and men has always been a long-standing concern of the European Parliament and belongs to the most important values of the EU. For example, in order to push forward gender equality, Parliament adopted a report on quotas for women on management boards. However, the workshop clearly showed that many problems have been known for years, but that actual progress has not yet taken place.
Further information:
Study of the EU Parliament “A new strategy for gender equality post 2015”
Presentations of panelists on a new strategy for gender equality post 2015
Gender mainstreaming, the economic independence of women, maternity leave, women in political and economic decision-making positions, combating violence against women as well as gender equality in respect of foreign affairs and development cooperation - these were the topics being discussed with experts from different countries during the workshop. The experts analysed the situation and provided recommendations for action to be taken by the European Commission and other European actors. There was unanimous agreement that gender equality of women and men was still a long way off. The crisis in Europe seemed to have reduced the inequalities between the genders, but unfortunately only at first glance. University professor Marcela Corsi underpinned this statement with statistics and concluded that the crisis had the effect of making both genders worse off. Also, little progress had been made over the past years with regard to the gender pay gap, said Corsi. She therefore demanded that gender equality policy had to play a direct role in the EU’s crisis policy. The Green MEP Monika Vana addressed the problem that in Austria higher employment rates of women, which in itself were to be rated positively, were exclusively a result of an increased number of part-time jobs. A situation, said Vana, which in reality would not reflect the image of the apparent improvement of the position of women.
Gender equality policy has always been a concern of the EU Parliament
Gender equality of women and men has always been a long-standing concern of the European Parliament and belongs to the most important values of the EU. For example, in order to push forward gender equality, Parliament adopted a report on quotas for women on management boards. However, the workshop clearly showed that many problems have been known for years, but that actual progress has not yet taken place.
Further information:
Study of the EU Parliament “A new strategy for gender equality post 2015”
Presentations of panelists on a new strategy for gender equality post 2015