Eurofound celebrates International Women's Day 2007: gender gap still wide for working women in the EU

Citation

(2007), "Eurofound celebrates International Women's Day 2007: gender gap still wide for working women in the EU", Women in Management Review, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/wimr.2007.05322dab.002

Eurofound celebrates International Women's Day 2007: gender gap still wide for working women in the EU

Despite advances in women's employment in recent years, Europe's labor markets and workplaces remain largely unequal. The gap in pay levels between men and women is still wide; few women make it to top management positions, and women in part-time jobs work more than men in full-time jobs. In the light of International Women's Day on Thursday 8, March 2007, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) is highlighting its recent research and work on women and equality issues.

The amount of time that Europeans spend in paid work has consistently declined over the past 15 years, according to the recently published fourth European Working Conditions Survey. However, working women spend more time in unpaid work than do working men in all European countries, when weekly working hours are combined together with time spend commuting to and from work, caring for children and the elderly, and doing house work.

Jorma Karppinen, Eurofound's Director says:

While our research shows that men work longer hours than women in paid employment in all countries, women in fact work more hours than men when paid and unpaid working hours are combined.

Employment levels in Europe won't increase unless we solve the issues of care for children and the elderly, address gender inequalities in domestic tasks and improve working time options that promote better work-life balance for both women and men.

Recent research findings from Eurofound have also illustrated a positive trend of women moving into high management or decision-making positions in European workplaces. Over the past 15 years, the percentage of women superiors has risen from 20 percent in 1995, to 23 percent in 2000, to 25 percent in 2005. However, there are still substantial differences between countries. The highest proportions of women in supervisory and managerial positions are in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands as well as in the Eastern European countries, reaching nearly 40 percent in Finland and Estonia. In contrast, Southern European countries and some continental countries, have the lowest proportions – less than 20 percent in Germany and Italy.

Women continue to be paid less than men, despite collective agreements and minimum wage legislation that is in principle gender-neutral. The gender pay gap is, however, smaller in the new EU member states than in the former EU15 countries. The difference between the gross hourly pay of men and women in the former EU15 and Norway, for example, was 18.1 percent in 2005, down from 20.4 percent in 2001. In the new member states, the difference in hourly pay is somewhat more equal and has remained broadly stable at around 17 percent over the period 2003-2005. In the European Union of 27 countries, the lowest hourly-wage pay gap is found in Malta (4 percent, i.e. where a woman on average earns 96 percent of a man's salary). The widest gap is in Germany where the figure is 26 percent. All in all, there are still more women in the lower earning categories than men.

Although the right to parental leave has been established in all EU member states, important differences continue to exist between countries with regard to policy provisions and take-up patterns. Just over half of Europe's companies and public authorities with ten or more employees have had staff on parental leave in the previous three years. Not surprisingly, the take-up rates of parental leave are high in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) where existing schemes are flexible and underwritten by high earnings replacement levels. In these countries, most women choose to benefit from parental leave and return to employment afterwards, with comprehensive childcare services and other reconciliation measures as support. Take-up rates are more moderate in France, The Netherlands and Spain where between one-third and two-thirds of mothers make use of their parental leave entitlement. Elsewhere, take-up rates of parental leave by mothers are much lower, including in five of the countries – Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and the UK – where parental leave is unpaid, but also in Belgium where a flat-rate payment is available. In Luxembourg and Austria, parental leave take-up is at best moderate.

For further information, contact Måns Mårtensson, e-mail: mma@eurofound.europa.eu