8 March is International Women’s Day and is generally marked by a more prominent focus on gender equality issues. In order to make information more accessible, Equinet has gathered the latest publications and material issued on gender equality at European and national level.
Equinet’s publications on gender equality
The working group Gender Equality is Equinet’s permanent platform for staff members of equality bodies working on gender equality. The working group reflects on and seeks to identify good practices to tackle current challenges in the field of gender equality both at national and European level. Contributing experiences from the ground through publications, oral and other written interventions, the working group aims to improve the effective promotion of gender equality and to combat gender discrimination. Recent publications include:
How to build a case on equal pay (2016)
The Persistence of Discrimination, Harassment and Inequality for Women (2015)
Harassment on the basis of Gender and Sexual Harassment (2014)
Equinet’s work on gender equality in 2018
In 2018 the Working Group on Gender Equality will:
- Discuss the proposed Work-Life Balance Directive and its implications for equality bodies.
- Support the preparation of the seminar on dismissal protection for parents and carers, including pregnancy and motherhood related discrimination in the field of employment.
- Discuss recent development in the field of trans* rights, which is characterized by a changing legal landscape. Working group members will map challenges and share good practices on how to address these in cooperation with external partners for the purposes of capacity building during one of the working group meetings in 2018. The bridging function of trans* rights, straddling both gender equality and LGBTI rights, will be addressed.
- Support the discussions of the Policy Formation Working Group on hate speech by addressing sexist hate speech as a specific form of hate speech, mapping its characteristics and prevalence and considering intersecting forms of vulnerability to hate speech.
- Ensure gender mainstreaming in the regular work and activities of Equinet.
- Support dissemination, follow-up and use of previously published outputs of the Working Group, including the Handbook on Equal Pay and the upcoming report on Gender Equality in Education.
National Equality Bodies – Equinet’s Members
- Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, Portugal: Minutes of Equality campaign, combatting Sexual Harassment, promoting Work Life Balance & Equal Pay For Equal Work (in Portuguese)
- Defender of Rights, France: Campaign for gender equality (in French)
- Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), UK-Great Britain: Employers in the dark ages over recruitment of pregnant women and new mothers
- Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, UK-Northern Ireland: All women should know, understand and exercise their rights
- Equality Ombudsman, Sweden: Salary survey to detect, remedy & prevent unreasonable differences in pay between men & women (in Swedish)
Institutions and Bodies
This section provides links to material and statements on gender equality, particularly by European Institutions and bodies:
- European Commission: Gender Equality focus on International Women’s Day. Includes amongst other links: 2018 Report on Equality between Women and Men, press statements, a summary of the Annual Fundamental Rights Colloquium on Women’s Rights in Turbulent Times.
- Eurostat: Women in the EU earned on average 16% less than men in 2016
- Directors of EU Agencies: Joint statement on stepping up their commitment for zero tolerance towards sexual harassment in the work place
- EIGE: Women in the Digital Age
- EIGE: Gender Equality Index 2017
- Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA): Call to help eradicate discrimination and violence towards women
- European Parliament: Report calls for measures to promote gender equality in the media sector
- Council of Europe: Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023 adopted
- Council of Europe: Istanbul Convention – clearing away the fog of misconceptions
- Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks: Women’s Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In Europe
- OSCE: Call for strengthening women’s participation in all areas of public life
- UN: International Women’s Day
Civil Society Organisations
- ENAR: Intersectionality – Why EU policy makers should adopt an intersectional approach
- European Anti-Poverty Network: Gender and Poverty in Europe
- European Women’s Lobby: “EmpowerMap” gathering information about grassroots women’s organisations in Spain, France, Romania and Poland which have on-the-ground programmes aimed at the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable women
- PICUM: Factsheet on the Istanbul Convention