60% by 2010

Still today, being a woman in Europe means having to accept a status far inferior than men in social, cultural and economic terms. Many surveys in recent years have confirmed this. VLADIMIR SPIDLA , the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, has himself confirmed that progress made in terms of equality between the sexes is still insufficient to guarantee women the same rights as men: “Things are better in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, but worse among the Czechs, Hungarians, Spanish and Italians. Indeed Italy holds the record for discrimination by sex”. The European Council held in Lisbon In March 2000 was aimed at boosting employment, economic development and social cohesion in the context of a knowledge-based economy. On that occasion European leaders aimed at turning the European economies into among the most competitive in the world. The objectives to be realized by 2010 include the growth of female employment to 60%. EQUALITY: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDES. The leading country in Europe in terms of equal opportunities is SWEDEN , where equality between men and women is not only an aspiration, or a matter of political debate, but also a well-rooted and widespread cultural phenomenon. In the Scandinavian country spouses enjoy the same right to divide their time between social and private life, the same economic conditions and opportunities on the labour market, even the same distribution of domestic chores. There’s a law specifically designed to protect women from acts of violence committed against them by men, while in July 2005 a provision was introduced, requiring all employers with a workforce of over ten to present an action plan to remove wage differentials by 2007.NORWAY is another country that for forty years has pursued a policy that has enabled women to scale the heights of political, social and economic life. By the end of 2007 all Norwegian companies, except for small family enterprises, will have to guarantee that approximately 40% of workers’ councils are women, while for the last twenty years half of the Norwegian cabinet has consisted of women.SpaIN too is making progress in terms of equal opportunities: the insertion of women in the world of work is the priority objective of the Spanish government. On 21 December 2006 the Spanish Parliament approved a bill for effective equality between men and women: the government’s guarantees on this front include the possibility for all workers, regardless of sex, to gain easy access to public and private employment, obtain promotion and benefit from vocational training.In FRANCE women are especially lacking in the real estate, building and financial services sectors. Only since 2000 have innovative policies been introduced to foster the involvement of women in politics: the parties can now present the same number of men and women candidates in regional, municipal, senatorial and European elections. The latest legislative reforms in 2003 increased female quotas in Parliament to 43%, while a proportional voting system has been introduced for elections to the Senate, whereby each département may put up a man and a woman as candidate wherever there are four or more candidate senators.While Sweden, Norway, Spain and France grant women in politics a quota respectively of 47.2%, 37.7%, 36%, and 12.1%, the other countries of Europe lag far behind: only 11.4% in ROMANIA , 17.3% in AUSTRIA and in ItalY, 22.1% in BULGARIA , and 13.3% in IrEland.A EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES. Spidla maintains, however, that legislative measures in themselves are not enough and that efforts must be made to change mentalities. “The activism of civil society is needed; men and women are not yet equal from an economic point of view”. The latest proposal advanced by the European Council to guarantee the equality of the sexes is significant. The European Institute for Gender Equality was established on 20 December 2006. This is an independent body with its seat in Vilnius, in Lithuania, which will advise member states on gender equality, and technically support them in the pursuit of this end, by conducting analyses and surveys on the situation of equal opportunities. The Institute will become operational from January 2008, for an initial term of roughly three years, and has a budget of 52.5 million euros. Its objectives will be equality between men and women, equality of representation in decision-making processes, the ability to balance private and professional life, the elimination of any form of violence based on “sexist stereotypes” and the promotion of participation in development policies outside the Eu.STILL FAR FROM THE OBJECTIVES. “Women are demonstrating in all fields, starting out from that of social action, that they have acquired full consciousness of their own role on the public scene and in work. But we are very far from the objective Europe has set of increasing female employment to 60% by 2010, because there’s a failure to understand that this concerns the entire economic development of a country, and because women’s skills are not being adequately promoted and exploited”, says MARIA GRAZIA FASOLI , who is responsible for the coordination of women in the Italian Christian Workers Associations (Acli) and is also involved at the European level. “It’s not just a problem of mentality – she maintains -. Contributing factors include the difficulty of reconciling family with professional life. The priority is the development of social services, in particular kindergartens, to enable women not to have to choose between family life and work. Policies of conciliation are also needed, beginning with the need for more flexible working hours, and a greater development of part time, though on condition that it be not penalizing for career promotion: women need to be placed in a condition of being able to opt for a professional career”. Another suggestion concerns the “social responsibility of business, in other words making employers understand that they need to invest in the female presence. Some entrepreneurial projects to this end are very interesting, because they have developed contractual forms and child-care services within the workplace itself, to facilitate the employment of women”. Within the female world, adds Fasoli, immigrant women are especially disadvantaged, subjected as they are to twofold discrimination: “both as women and as immigrants. They should be seen, on the contrary, as a further resource to ensure integration, because women are more in contact with social structures, services and families”. The EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LOBBY , an NGO that brings together some 4000 women’s organizations throughout Europe that campaign for equal opportunities, hopes that Women’s Day on 8 March will be “an occasion to remind political leaders of their pledges, such as the European Pact for men and women, adopted at the Summit in the spring of 2006”. “Equality between men and women ought to be celebrated each day – concludes the European NGO – and the rights of women ought to be on the order of the day of political leaders”. Fact FileWorrying situation. Raising the female employment rate to 60% by 2010: that’s one of the objectives adopted at the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000. There are only three years left before this deadline expires and the situation in Europe remains worrying. Data relating to September 2006 register an unemployment rate among women of 9.6%, to which another disquieting figure should be added: namely the average 15% gap between men’s and women’s wages. That means, in practice, that for the same hours of work and the same job, if a man earns 100, a woman will only earn 75, simply because she is female. Analysing the situation in further detail, we find that Malta, Portugal and Belgium claim the lowest wage differential, 5%, in contrast to the 20% or more in Cyprus, Estonia and Slovakia; in Italy the differential is 7%. The low number of women managers is also cause for concern; with its 31.9% Italy is below the average.The French bid. In February 2006 the European Commission denounced the failure to implement laws on equality of pay and inequalities in working hours and access to training. But even before the Lisbon Strategy, art. 141 of the European Community had sanctioned equality of remuneration. France is a pioneer in the bid to solve the problem: the “Loi sur l’égalité”, i.e. equality of pay, has as its goal the elimination of wage differentials between the sexes over the next five years; and there are financial sanctions for firms that fail to comply. The situation in Italy is ambiguous: here the employer is legally bound to pay the same wages to all workers, for the same tasks; but the legislator admits the possibility of disparity of treatment.A Roadmap . To achieve gender equality in the short term, the European Commission has presented a Roadmap: between 2006 and 2010 the target is to achieve the same degree of economic independence between men and women through the promotion or reform of laws to ensure they facilitate professional, family and private life. Brussels has appealed for measures to promote women’s employment in all age groups and equality of pay for equal work.