There is a direct link between the unequal division of unpaid care in households and gender inequalities in the labour market. The bulk of unpaid care work is done by women, and this hinders their access to employment. The paid care sector has a large share of women employees who are often in low-income, precarious jobs, with few career prospects...
With a score of 67.9 out of 100, the EU is at least 60 years away from reaching complete gender equality, if we continue at the current pace. The latest Gender Equality Index from the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) shows that the EU is improving by just half a point each year.
It is time to start the countdown for the Gender Equality Index 2020. Has the EU gone forward or backward when it comes to gender equality? Which country will win the award for the most improved? Find out on 29 October when EIGE gives its annual update on the state of gender equality in the EU. This year, the Gender...
The EU is facing a shortage of carers, and the demand is growing as the population ages. Most professionals in the formal care sector are women and their working conditions are often very demanding. Heavy workloads, night shifts and low pay characterise their work. These factors will not attract more people to a sector that is already overburdened and under-resourced...
This research note focuses on formal homebased care across the EU. In terms of the care recipient’s perspective, it looks at different aspects of long-term care that determine women’s and men’s opportunities to access long-term care services. Children with disabilities, adults with disabilities and older people are the three groups of (potential) care recipients covered in this study. In terms...
EIGE is looking into the opportunities and challenges for gender equality in labour markets transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) and platform work, as requested by the Slovenian Presidency of the...
EIGE is looking into gender inequalities in pay and unpaid care, as requested by the German Presidency of the EU. The study is part of EIGE’s review of the Beijing...
This re-edition of the original toolkit was published on 23/03/2022 Gender budgeting is a strategy and a process with the long-term aim of achieving gender equality goals. A tool to track resource allocation for gender equality in the EU cohesion policy funds (Tool 8) has been added to this step-by-step toolkit. The toolkit aims to assist managing authorities in the...
EIGE has developed an online toolkit to apply gender budgeting as a gender mainstreaming tool in EU Funds processes. The first three sections introduce the concept of gender budgeting and examine its relevance for the EU Funds. Section 4 offers 11 practical tools on gender budgeting, related to: the EU regulatory framework; national/sub-national programming and project-level support; reporting, monitoring and...
This report proposes a model to advance gender equality in Member States by transforming roles and responsibilities in care work. The model supports innovative practice and gender analysis to realise the potential of the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund in the promotion of work–life balance in the EU. This model encourages policymakers, programme managers and project...
What is work–life balance and why does it matter? Work–life balance is about striking a balance between ‘work’ and ‘life’. Here, ‘work’ means paid work and ‘life’ means everything else – including, but not limited to, unpaid work, domestic work (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.), care work (taking care of children, older people, people who are ill, persons living with disabilities...
Women’s economic empowerment has long been a feature of EU policy, but the shift in priorities in the aftermath of the economic crisis has left the employment policy largely gender blind. Thus the Europe 2020 strategy includes a target of having 75 % of the working age population in employment by 2020 but does not distinguish between women and men...
