European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Gender - Overview

The Foundation maintains a long-standing commitment to the issue of equal opportunities for women and men in their social and working life. In recent years, the Foundation has devoted even greater attention to gender-based inequalities, including pay, through studies on equal opportunities, through its European Working Conditions surveys, and by mainstreaming a gender perspective across its other activities.

Despite advances in women’s employment in recent years, Europe’s labour markets and workplaces remain largely unequal, and the gender pay gap is still important. Previous research on equal opportunities and collective bargaining is still relevant today. It is widely believed that employment levels in Europe will not increase unless we solve the issues of care for children and the elderly, and improve working time options that promote better work-life balance for both women and men.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2007, the Foundation presents an overview of some recent research findings on gender and equal opportunities.