Preliminary findings from Eurofound's project looking at the challenges and costs of Europe's gender employment gap were presented today to EU Labour Ministers and Ministers for Gender Equality on the second day of the informal EPSCO meeting under the Luxembourg EU Presidency.
Increasing labour force participation and raising the employment rate of women is increasingly high on the agenda for Europe, for the individual and for society. In 2014, the employment rate for men across the EU28 was 70.1%; for women it was 59.6% with labour market participation of women varying across Member States, from 41.1% in Greece to 73.1% in Sweden. A gender employment gap exists however in every Member State of the European Union. This has both social and economic implications.
Eurofound's current project has evaluated the estimated cost of the current European gender employment gap at more than € 300 billion a year, with the cost of lifelong exclusion of women estimated at above € 1 million per individual (see presentation by Eurofound's Director). Final results of this project will be forthcoming in the second part of the year. On this occasion and based on four decades of work in this area, Eurofound also highlights the wide range of material it has available on gender inequality, including pay and working conditions and on labour market participation of men and women, as well as issues of work-life balance and care responsibilities.
Download: Gender equality in the EU: Priorities for EU strategy