Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

European Union Policy on Gender Equality: The Scope and Limits of Equality in the Single Market

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Reducing Inequalities

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    General data on employment (full-time and part-time) for people aged between 20 and 64 across all 28 EU Member States.

  2. 2.

    Especially the preamble to the Constitution of 1946.

  3. 3.

    This term, which is a contraction of ‘feminist’ and ‘bureaucrat’, refers to the female advocates who laboured for women’s rights in state institutions (see Mazur and Stetson 1995).

  4. 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. 5.

    This subsection draws its inspiration from the chapter written by Jönsson and Perrier and published in a book in 2009.

References

  • Daly, M. (2005). Gender mainstreaming in theory and practice. Social Politics, 12(3), 433–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Defraigne, J.-C., de Meulemeester, J.-L., Duez, D., & Vanderborght, Y. (Eds.). (2013). Les modèles sociaux en Europe: quel avenir face à la crise ? Bruxelles: Bruylant.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, S. (1996). Obstacles to a successful equal opportunities policy in the European Union. The European Journal of Women’s Studies, 3, 399–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. (2015). Report on equality between women and men 2014. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraisse, G. (2003). L’Europe, un moteur pour l’égalité des sexes. L’Humanité, 12 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskyns, C. (1996). Integrating gender. Women, law and politics in the European Union. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacquot, S. (2009). La fin d’une politique d’exception. L’émergence du gender mainstreaming et la normalisation de la politique communautaire d’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes. Revue française de science politique, 59(2), 247–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jönsson, A., & Perrier, G. (2009). Les politiques de conciliation de l’Union européenne : dépassement ou déplacement de la dichotomie genrée public-privé ? In R. Sénac-Slawinski & P. Muller (Eds.), Genre et action publique: la frontière public-privé en questions (pp. 57–99). Paris: L’Harmattan, ‘Logiques politiques’.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karamessini, M. (2015). Les enseignements de la Grande Dépression grecque. Travail, genre et sociétés, 33, 141–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marty, C. (2015). Les Françaises ne sont pas épargnées. Travail, genre et sociétés, 33, 127–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maruani, M. (2011). Travail et emploi des femmes. Paris: La découverte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazey, S. (1988). European community action on behalf of women: The limits of legislation. Journal of Common Market Studies, 27(1), 63–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazey, S. (1998). The European Union and women’s rights: From the Europeanization of national agendas to the nationalization of a European agenda? Journal of European Public Policy, 5(1), 131–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazur, A., & Stetson, D. M. (1995). Comparative state feminism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostner, I., & Lewis, J. (1998). Geschlechterpolitik zwischen europäischer und nationalstaatlicher Regelung. In S. Leibfried & P. Pierson (Eds.), Standort Europa, Sozialpolitik zwischen Nationalstaat und Europäischer Integration (pp. 196–239). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otaegui, A. (2015). L’Espagne: un pas en avant, deux pas en arrière. Travail, genre et sociétés, 33, 133–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perrier, G. (2013). Le gender mainstreaming, entre objectivation institutionnelle et apprentissage de l’égalité. Lien social et politiques, 69, 35–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perrier, G. (2014). l’objectif d’égalité des sexes dans la mise en œuvre des politiques d’emploi en Seine-Saint-Denis et à Berlin: entre prescriptions communautaires, dynamiques nationales et initiatives locales. Revue internationale de politique comparée, 21(3), 111–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philipps, A. (2000). Espaces publics, vies privées. In T.-H. Ballmer-Cao, V. Mottier, & L. Sgier (Eds.), Genre et politique. Débats et perspectives (pp. 397–454). Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossilli, M. G. (1997). The European Community’s policy on the equality of women. The European Journal of Women Studies, 4(1), 63–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubery, J. (2002). Gender mainstreaming and gender equality in the EU: The impact of the EU employment strategy. Industrial Relations Journal, 33(5), 500–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, B. (2000). Geschlechterpolitik und disziplinierender Neoliberalismus in der Europäischen Union. In H.-J. Bieling & J. Steinhil (Eds.), Die Konfiguration Europas. Dimension einer kritischen Integrationstheorie (pp. 131–161). Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Paris 13, Villetaneuse, France

    Gwenaëlle Perrier

Authors
  1. Gwenaëlle Perrier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lisbon, Portugal

    Renato Miguel Carmo

  2. Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Paris, France

    Cédric Rio

  3. TÁRKI, Social Research Institute and Institute for Sociology, CSS Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Márton Medgyesi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

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

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65006-7_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65005-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65006-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation