European Commission adopts new strategy on gender equality

In September 2010 the European Commission adopted a five-year strategy for promoting equality between women and men in Europe which aims in particular to make better use of women’s potential by applying specific measures.

In times of crisis the strategy can contribute to economic growth by making a better use of women’s talents; specifically:

• Getting more women into the labour market and helping to reach the Europe 2020 target employment rate of 75% overall for women and men;
• Putting forward targeted initiatives to get more women into top jobs in economic decision-making;
• Promoting female entrepreneurship and self employment;
• Instituting an annual European Equal Pay Day to raise awareness of the fact that women continue to earn an average of nearly 18% less than men across the EU;
• Working together with all Member States in combating violence against women, especially eradicating female genital mutilation in Europe and beyond;
• Setting up a yearly top-level Gender Equality Dialogue involving the European Parliament, the Council presidencies, European social partners and civil society to assess progress in implementing the strategy.

Also if recent trends about gender equality in the EU are encouraging -more women are in the labour market; education and training have been improved and young women (10-24) represent 59% of university graduates in the EU- gender gaps remain in many areas.

Women are still over-represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions. Furthermore, parenthood keeps female self-employment rates down (only 33,2% of the self-employed) and women continue to work more unpaid hours than men at home.