On 7-8 November 2005, the UK government hosted a conference on gender equality. The one-and-a-half day conference was entitled /What Works for women? Meeting the challenges, sharing the solutions/ and took place in Birmingham, UK. The event was held under the auspices of the UK’s Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. The conference focused on the economic empowerment of women, looking in particular at three areas:
An EU conference on gender equality, followed by a ministerial meeting on the same issue, was held in Birmingham, UK, in November 2005. Both events discussed the progress made so far towards achieving gender equality and debated how to move forward.
On 7-8 November 2005, the UK government hosted a conference on gender equality. The one-and-a-half day conference was entitled What Works for women? Meeting the challenges, sharing the solutions and took place in Birmingham, UK. The event was held under the auspices of the UK’s Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. The conference focused on the economic empowerment of women, looking in particular at three areas:
'breaking the barriers'- including issues such as skills, occupational segregation and women entrepreneurs;
'making work work'- including issues such as work-life balance, childcare strategies and flexible working; and
'getting in and getting on'- including issues such as education, the gender pay gap and 'women at the top'.
The event was run on an interactive basis and comprised a series of workshops focusing on the issues that face women in the workplace, including how work affects them, their families and society as a whole. Delegates were able to discuss their own experiences and share examples of good practice from across the EU and the rest of the world. The conference also marked the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action for Women and the mid-term review of the EU's Lisbon agenda (EU0504201F).
The conference was addressed by Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, who stressed that moving forward to more jobs, strong employment and a healthy social fabric in Europe is vital and that sex equality is a key factor in the EU’s social and economic success. He praised the progress that had been made in the areas of education, research and development, social policy and employment, but argued that much remains to be done. He added that it was vital that the European Commission takes gender equality on board in all its future policies.
Mr Špidla made reference to an announcement by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, in June 2005 that the Commission would be publishing a sex equality 'roadmap', designed to help promote equality in all EU policies, both internal and external. He confirmed that the proposal for a roadmap will be published at the start of 2006.
The Commissioner argued that the EU has a range of good tools that need to be put to full use to achieve sex quality. These include social dialogue, EU funding, intergovernmental coordination and legislation. He also argued that social partnership has a key role to play in implementing the EU-level social partners' cross-sector agreement on gender equality, concluded in March 2005 (EU0509203F). He also noted that dialogue with civil society, and particularly with young people, is vital to combat stereotypes, and that good cooperation between the Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Member States is essential.
The conference was opened by Odile Quintin, Director General of Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities at the European Commission. She stated that much had been done already in the area of equality between men and women and that the EU was on target to meet the Lisbon goal of an average of a 60% female participation rate by 2010. However, she also noted that much remained to be done. In particular, she stated that women still suffer labour market disadvantages and the gender pay gap remains at an average of 15% in the EU. She therefore called for the development of a new, integrated and global approach to achieving equality between men and women.
Ministerial conference on equality
The conference was followed by a meeting of EU gender equality ministers on 8-9 November 2005. As part of the conference, ministers visited a number of innovative community projects that are deemed to have empowered women from around the Birmingham region. These projects came from a variety of different cultures, illustrating the different contributions that a range of communities make to the city.
Ministers then held discussions on the issues raised by these visits, in addition to debating good practice from around the EU in the area of equality and the empowerment of women.
This ministerial conference was addressed by Ms Quintin, who stated: 'The EU Member States are currently facing a number of common challenges - an ageing population, a falling birthrate and a decline in the working population. In order to deal with these challenges, the European Union needs the contribution of everyone, both men and women: I am convinced that the issue of equality between women and men is therefore a central question for the future of Europe.'
Meg Munn, the UK's Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, also addressed the conference, stating: 'In certain aspects the experience of women in the European Union and in the UK is good. But we know that, particularly in the workplace, women are still too often working below their skills level; they’re disadvantaged in terms of their pay with men and often when they come back from having a child they find that they are in part-time work and really their career gets put on hold. And we want to do something about those issues. It’s not good for individual women and it’s not good for our economy.'
Commentary
The three-day event, incorporating a conference and a ministerial meeting on equality, was an important forum for ministers, social partners and interested parties to discuss the progress made so far in the area of sex equality and debate what remains to be done. It also constituted one of the UK Presidency’s major social policy events during its six-month term of office.
It is clear that the need to ensure women’s full participation in the labour market is greater today than it has ever been, if the EU is the face up to the challenges of an ageing population, a declining birthrate and a dwindling working-age population. In this context, the EU needs the participation of all eligible workers and it is therefore in the interests of all that women are encouraged to play a full role in the labour market. This dovetails with a range of other policies, such as ensuring adequate and affordable childcare arrangements, enabling all workers to balance work and private life effectively, offering appropriate training and maintain and update skills in a changing environment and eliminating all forms of discrimination based on sex. The EU institutions, policy makers and social partners are aware of the challenges in these areas and forums such as these enable them to exchange good practice and to discuss the best way forward. (Andrea Broughton, IRS)
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