It is with pleasure that I continue this column after Maud de Boer-Buquicchio on a subject matter that is close to my heart both personally and professionally: the contribution of equality between women and men to our societies and the economy. From time to time I hear the argument in public discussions, that while gender equality may well be an important aim to achieve, our societies should concentrate on more urgent needs in times of crisis, such as generating economic growth.
The underlying conviction for this reasoning is that the equal treatment of men and women is an accessory to our social and economic life, something 'pretty' for the 'good times'. Furthermore, following this line of reasoning, the equal treatment of men and women would even be considered as a hindrance to economic recovery.
Well, as you can imagine, I do not buy into that argument. In fact, I would like to explain in three steps why it is in our interest to make gender equality a reality any time, irrespective of the economic climate and that our societies and economies will benefit from it.
1.) My first point is that, as Maud de Boer-Buquicchio aptly stressed, gender equality is a fundamental right and a common value of the European Union. The development of EU gender equality law and its transposition in the Member States has been a step-by-step process, starting, at least for the 'oldest' Member States, in the early sixties. In 1957, the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, which was the origin of the current EU, contained only one single provision on gender discrimination, namely the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work. Interestingly enough, the motivation for including this Article (then article 119 of the TEEC, today article 141 of TEC) into the Treaty was purely economic: The Member States, in particular France, which was one of the pioneers on the issue at the time, wanted to avoid distortions in competition between enterprises in different Member States. At the time, France had already put in place legislation on equal pay for men and women. The French simply wanted to avoid a situation where cheaper female labour in other Member States could put the French economy at a disadvantage.
Since the 1970s, a whole plethora of directives – a specific form of binding EU legislation – which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sex in particular, have been adopted and the European Court of Justice has played an instrumental role in two ways. First, it has ensured that individuals can effectively invoke and enforce their right to gender equality. Second, it has delivered important judgements interpreting EU equality legislation and relevant Treaty Articles.
It is important to note that the promotion of equality between women and men is one of the essential tasks of the European Union, as laid down in article 3 of the Treaty on the European Union. According to another article, article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality between men and women in various activities. This obligation of gender mainstreaming means that both the EU and the Member States shall actively take into account the objective of equality between men and women when formulating and implementing laws, regulations, administrative provisions, policies and activities.
I think this short explanation makes it clear that equal treatment of men and women is a fundamental right and a common value of the EU to which all the Member States have committed.
2.) Second, if we were to draw up a balance sheet of the previous decades, we could say that, broadly speaking, there has been continuous progress for gender equality. Before the current crisis started, female employment in the EU was close to the objective of 60% that the Member States had set themselves for 2010. That objective, which is one of the objectives of the Lisbon-Strategy for Growth and Jobs, means that 60% of all women at working age should be in employment. (For the EU the female employment rate was 59.1% in 2008; for Greece it was 48.7% with an increase of more than 5 percentage points from 42;9% in 2002). Also, women have made progress in education: they account for almost 60% of university degrees in the EU.
A new strategy for Equality between Women and Men
However, there is still a lot to be done. Even if more and more women in the EU have had a job in recent years, the employment rate of women falls sharply as soon as they have children. And it is the other way round for men. While the employment rate of women falls by 11.5% when they have children, it rises by 6.8% for men with children. The unequal sharing of care responsibilities and a lack of childcare facilities is also reflected in the fact that around 31.1% of women employees worked part time in 2008 - four times more than men (7.9% for the EU).
And the positive development in higher education, where young women outnumber their male fellow students, is not directly reflected in the positions held in the labour market. Women are mainly working in 'feminised' sectors and professions and remain in lower job categories with less access to senior positions. On average, in the private sector in Europe, men still account for nine out of 10 board members in European blue-chip companies, and women head the top decision-making bodies in only 3% of such companies (none in Greece). In politics and the public sector, the situation is better, but there is still room for improvement. On average, female representatives in national parliaments now make up 24% instead of 16 % in 1997. And their share varies a lot, from 47% in Sweden to only 9% in Malta.
Given this situation, it is no surprise that, on average, women earn approximately 17% less than men. This so-called 'gender pay gap' is the result of continuing discrimination and inequality on the labour market, which in practice mainly affects women.
3.) Thirdly, we must ask the question: how can gender equality benefit our societies and economies? First of all, let's consider the economic upswing we experienced between 2005 and 2008. This was also the time when female employment was soaring. In fact, many of the newly created jobs at the time were taken by women. This is partly due to the ageing of our societies, and the ageing effect, a combination of longer life expectancy and low birth rates will certainly become even more pronounced over the next 10 years. Therefore, to say it in plain language, our ageing societies can no longer afford to do without the skills and competences of women. If we look across Europe we can see that in previous years often those economies that had the highest female employment rates tended to be the most successful in economic terms.
And why should this not hold true also in times of crisis? In order to rise from the recession, our economies will need a skilled workforce. As I said earlier on, women account for almost 60% of university degrees in the EU. We must not waste this potential; in addition we should also take care to increase the share of female graduates in technical and science professions, where they are traditionally underrepresented. Having more women in the field of finance could also be beneficial.
The Commission is now preparing its new strategy for Equality between Women and Men. The new strategy will have to renew and strengthen the policy commitments for gender equality to fulfil the Lisbon Treaty requirement of promoting real equality between women and men. It should push the gender agenda forward and provide a new momentum for gender policy developments after 2010. This multiannual strategy for equality between women and men will build on the results of the current Roadmap that covers the 2006-2010 period and of the EU’s collective work over 15 years to implement the Beijing Platform for Action. It will be based on a dual approach of gender mainstreaming and specific actions and will involve actions within the EU and will also address gender equality in the European Union’s external policies and actions. The strategy will provide a framework for pursuing efforts towards gender equality in all EU policies. It will define the priorities and actions to be taken by the Commission in support of gender equality via a range of policy instruments during its mandate.
In my capacity as Deputy Director-General of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities with special responsibility for the European Social Fund Directorates, I will do my best to contribute to this goal by ensuring that the European Social Fund's contribution to gender equality is fully exploited in the Member States and that the preparation of the ESF legal framework for the period after 2013 fully supports equality between women and men.
To sum up, I would like to stress once again that gender equality is not an accessory to our social and economic life. On the contrary - it has been shown to go hand in hand with smooth functioning economies and societies and successful democracies. And in a democratic society, real equality means that women must also have a genuine opportunity to take on a leading role in the economic and political decisions that have a direct influence on their daily lives. And this equality of opportunity at every level is what we are aiming to achieve throughout the European Union.