Abstract
Of the many inequalities that exist in Europe, those involving gender are as significant as ever. According to the 2014 European Commission report on equality between men and women, the percentage of women in employment was 11.5 points lower than the percentage of men, and the difference in earnings was 37% in 2010. Of the elected representatives in European Union (EU) state parliaments, only 28% were women, and the figure for European corporate boards was 20%. European society also comprises a range of inequalities that cut across the likes of social class, ethnic background and country of origin, and place women in a very heterogeneous group which is itself characterised by marked inequalities.
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Notes
- 1.
General data on employment (full-time and part-time) for people aged between 20 and 64 across all 28 EU Member States.
- 2.
Especially the preamble to the Constitution of 1946.
- 3.
This term, which is a contraction of āfeministā and ābureaucratā, refers to the female advocates who laboured for womenās rights in state institutions (see Mazur and Stetson 1995).
- 4.
Judgement of the Court of 27 June 1989. J.E.G. Achterbergte Riele and other v Sociale Verzekeringsbank. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:61988CJ0048&rid=1
- 5.
This subsection draws its inspiration from theĀ chapter written by Jƶnsson and Perrier and published in aĀ book in 2009.
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Perrier, G. (2018). European Union Policy on Gender Equality: The Scope and Limits of Equality in the Single Market. In: Carmo, R., Rio, C., Medgyesi, M. (eds) Reducing Inequalities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65006-7_10
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