Gender equality: How can the European Pillar of Social Rights make a difference?
The reality of gender equality in Europe
It is widely known now that women in the EU earn on average 16.3% less than men. However, what is not always clear is that this gap is not down to employers paying them less for doing the same job as men. Recent data shows that women earn roughly 98% as much as men when doing the same job for the same employer. The real explanation is that women are, on average, more likely to be unemployed, or stuck in part-time, low-paid jobs, with little chance of promotion.
While more girls are now completing higher education than boys, not enough of them are entering fields of education that result in higher-paying occupations, such as science, technology or engineering. At the same time, female-dominated jobs, such as teachers, nurses, or secretaries, tend to be less well remunerated and offer fewer career development perspectives. Finally, even though women are increasingly present in the workforce, they are still more likely to put their careers on hold to take up family or caring duties in a world that is still tailored for families with one parent that stays home.
Source: EPSC
Imperceptible biases
Despite progress on gender equality, western societies remain governed by invisible norm perceptions and unconscious gender biases that influence how both men and women behave. These biases are everywhere — in the media, in stock photography or in children’s toys.
Even the European Commission’s Eurobarometer on Gender Equality as such contains a bias when it asks respondents to agree or disagree with the statement: ‘All in all family life suffers when the mother has a full-time job’ but stays silent on the question of whether family life suffers when the father has a full-time job.
Worryingly, recent studies show that these biases are now being translated into artificial intelligence and algorithms. This clearly points to the need for more research (and policymaking) on the use of artificial intelligence systems, in particular in workplace and human resource management, to avoid unintended reinforcement of gender bias in hiring and promotion.
See also:
Can the EU’s ‘New Start’ initiative make a difference?
One of the deliverables of the European Pillar of Social Rights is the ‘New Start’ initiative to address work-life balance challenges faced by working parents and carers — and women in particular. Within this package, the proposed Directive on Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers includes:
- At least 10 working days of paternity leave, compensated at least at the level of sick pay.
- Strengthened parental leave by making the 4 months period compensated at least at sick pay level and non-transferable from one parent to another.
- 5 days carers’ leave, compensated at least at sick pay level, for workers caring for seriously ill or dependent relatives.
- Extension of flexible working arrangements for all working parents of children up to 12 and carers with dependent relatives.
The proposed measures are an important step towards strengthening the role of fathers in parental care and recognising the social value of other caring duties often carried out by women. However, with paternity leave remaining limited and parental leave staying voluntary, will men have a real incentive to start taking on more of the burden of household and care duties?
To keep moving towards gender equality, wide engagement is needed.
This is why, by re-enshrining the principle of gender equality across the board, the European Pillar for Social Rights is more than a symbolic step — it reaffirms the EU’s continued engagement towards maintaining pressure at all levels — from government to private and non-profit sectors — to fight back against all forms of gender stereotyping, at all ages and in all fields, from education to employment, as well as in social protection and access to goods and services available to the public.
