Gender equality has been talked about for decades, so why is there still a pay-gap?
By Jennifer Rankin
Gender equality has been part of the European project from the start: an equal pay clause was written into the 1957 Treaty of Rome. But it would be a mistake to conclude that Europe’s founding fathers – and they were all men – were ardent feminists. It was not until 1975 that the equal-pay directive came into being. A generation later, the gender pay gap remains stubbornly high. Women earn 17.5% less than men across the EU’s 27 member states, a gap that has remained constant for the past 15 years.
Earlier this year, Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, promised to re-double efforts to close this gap and she did not rule out legislation if other measures fail to deliver.
The pay gap varies across the EU and throws up some surprising results. Sweden, renowned for its family-friendly policies, has a pay gap just shy of the EU average (17.1%) because many Swedish women work part-time. By contrast, Italy, a country associated with a more traditional stance on the family, has one of the narrowest pay gaps in the Union, 4.9%, which probably results from the relatively low number of unskilled women in the workforce.
Gender segregation
Why does the pay gap persist? Employers argue that discrimination is not the main issue. Steven D’Haeseleer, director of social affairs at BusinessEurope, an employers’ organisation, says that the true cause of the gender pay gap is segregation in the labour market. This gender division between certain jobs – for instance, the male-dominated world of engineering and female-dominated caring professions – is a problem for employers as well as workers, according to D’Haeseleer, who says that “more gender-balanced structures produce better results”.
But Alexandra Jachanová Doleželová, vice-president of the European Women’s Lobby, says it is too soon to say that the battle against old-fashioned discrimination has been won. “It is still a very big issue that companies are discriminating in the wages they pay.”
In her native Czech Republic, women can earn 11% less than men despite being in the same position doing the same work.
The same is true in other member states, regardless of how long they have been part of the EU, she says. The only answer, she thinks, is to set up monitoring systems to oversee pay and perks.
Stereotypes
Both employers and women’s rights campaigners agree that gender segregation is also a cause of the pay gap.
“We really have to break down the gender stereotypes that women are the main carers and men are the main breadwinners,” says Jachanová Doleželová.
However, the two sides differ on how to solve the problem. Designing more family-friendly policies has proved contentious, as shown by arguments over a draft EU law to extend basic entitlement to maternity leave from 14 to 20 weeks.
Advocates of the proposal – which faces fierce opposition from national governments – say that the plans will contribute to gender equality in the workplace.
But businesses say that the law would make young women less attractive recruits for employers, especially small and medium-sized businesses. Even countries known for strong gender-equality policies, such as Sweden, have doubts about the plan.
The debate on maternity leave suggests that it will be increasingly difficult to draw up rules at EU level to cover 27 different national welfare systems, where differences in gender inequalities abound.
© 2010 European Voice. All rights reserved.
