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| Προσθήκη λεζάντας |
Martine Reicherts
Justice Commissioner
Gender Equality in Europe – An unfinished Business?
Rome, 24 October 2014
Ministers,
Excellences,
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of
all, I would like to thank our hosts, the Italian Presidency, for making
this conference possible. A broad range of EU and national
representatives have shared their experiences and ideas here over the
last two days – and there is a lot to reflect on.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, we can't deny that we have made huge progress on gender equality.
Social patterns are moving away from a male bread-winner model to
double-income families. Young women remain in education or vocational
training for longer. Women have entered the labour market in great
numbers and are contributing to Europe's economic growth and
competitiveness. Many of these changes have been aided by political and
regulatory pressure.
Over the
last decades, equal treatment legislation has grown into a coherent
legal framework. We have advanced gender equality in employment,
research, and development cooperation. We have put money into promoting
gender equality through financial programmes, such as the new Rights,
Equality and Citizenship Programme, and also through the Structural and
Investment Funds. We have worked closely with Member States, social
partners and NGOs. The European Parliament has been an important partner
for change.
We have
worked hard and we have results to show for it. Just look at our host
country. Italy is one of the EU countries that has made great progress
when it comes to women in decision making. Since 2010, the share of
women on boards has risen by more than 14 percentage points to 18.6 per
cent in April of this year, thanks to quota legislation that requires
one third of board members to be women. This is a significant
improvement in the position of women in business – and a good example
for a lot of other Member States.
The need to stay positive
At this
point, the question is: Can we be satisfied? Should we be satisfied?
After all, we have come a long way and we are much better off today than
we were 20 years ago.
Let us put
the question differently: can your daughter be happy about being paid
16% less than her brother? Should she continue to spend on average 26
hours per week on care and household activities, compared with the 9
hours of her brother? She studied hard, possibly outperforming her
brother. Should you not tell her not to invest too much because she will
most likely work part-time, interrupt her career to care for others,
have little chance to climb the career ladder, and might well end up with a pension 40% lower than that of her brother?
It is tempting to despair when you
consider that this is still the reality for too many women. But I would
like say to you today: Let us stay positive, and let us keep working.
Entrenched attitudes and systemic prejudice will not disappear
overnight. The kind of change we are striving for takes time.
I believe
what we need most is perseverance – and optimism. Take the example of
the top jobs in the economy. True, far too few women make it there: only
18.6 per cent of board members in the largest publicly listed companies
across the EU are female, and less than 4 percent of companies have a
female Chief Executive Officer. This is shameful – especially when you
consider that 60 per cent of university graduates today are female...
But then look at where we have come
from. In October 2003, only 8.5 per cent of board members were women.
And change has accelerated considerably since a number of Member States
started to promote gender equality in the boardroom, usually through
legislation, and the European Commission announced that it was looking
to do the same at EU level.
The glass ceiling may still be there,
but it is starting to crack. Of course more progress is needed. That is
why I have used the past few months to work hard to advance the proposed
women on boards directive, together with the Italian Presidency. And I
know that the incoming Commission will continue this effort.
Old and new challenges
This
example, like the many others you have been discussing here over the
past two days, shows that we need to be tenacious in tackling old
challenges – as well as new ones.
We need a
combination of childcare facilities, quality jobs with flexible working
arrangements and parental leave that can be equally shared between women
and men. We also need to address the gender pay gap and the gender
pension gap.
It is
necessary to anchor gender equality into the Europe 2020 Strategy which
will be revised in 2015. This is a simple question of mathematics: to
achieve the 75 percent employment target, we need more women in the
labour market. But it is not only a question of quantity: it is also
about quality jobs. Jobs that allow both women and men to be
economically independent throughout their lives.
And finally,
we need to step up our efforts to tackle a phenomenon that is as
persistent as it is unacceptable: violence against women. In
Europe, one in three women suffers physical and/or sexual violence at
least once in her life. And female genital mutilation remains a big
issue – we have to keep fighting to eradicate this barbaric practice.
Besides
these old challenges, we have gained some insight into new ones. For
example, new challenges arising from the digitalisation of our society.
Violence, bullying and sexual exploitation of women and children are no
less harmful online than they are offline. We need to find effective
means of combatting these issues. At the same time, the digital economy
also presents new opportunities, not least for a better reconciliation
of work and family life.
Promoting gender equality on the global stage
Our ambitions will not stop at EU borders: this is a clear message from this conference, and I would like to thank Ms. Lakshmi Puri, the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, for emphasising this point.
The 20th
anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action which we will celebrate
next year, and the on-going negotiations on the post-2015 global agenda
are a unique opportunity. An opportunity for the EU to affirm that it will continue to promote gender equality and human rights for every girl and woman in the world.
There is indeed still a lot to do, both in the EU and beyond its borders. Let us stay positive – and let us get to work!
Thank you.
