Duncan Brown asks why the ‘unfinished business’ of equality isn’t higher up the election agenda
I was in Brussels last week at an EU policy forum on gender equality. But it wasn’t just another boring meeting of EU bureaucrats and policy wonks. There was lively participation and debate amongst the 250 delegates, ‘discussion islands’ on 35 possible topics for EU policy intervention, live cartooning and action planning.
EU commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality, Vera Jourova said while progress had been made on women’s position in Europe, there was still “unfinished business”, with the recession derailing and delaying significant moves forward. “The realities are too often ignored or denied,” she said, for example “the waste of female talent on the labour market”.
The reality is that the gender pay gap across the EU has plateaued to a 17.5 per cent average.
The latest annual progress report from Jourova’s department found that at the current rate of change, it will take almost 30 years to reach the EU’s target of achieving 75 per cent women in employment; over 70 years to make equal pay a reality; over 20 years to achieve gender balance on the boards of Europe’s largest publicly listed companies, and almost 40 years to ensure that housework is equally shared between women and men.
While the UK scores well on labour market participation, we have one of worst total earnings gaps – 46 per cent compared to the EU average of 37 per cent – with many women in low paid, low hours, low skilled jobs. And former member of the commission, Emma Bonino, says is it deplorable that women in Europe in 2015 are still having to choose between their “bosses and babies”.
The drive to mainstream equality has gained momentum and support in recent years. A special Eurobarometer survey on gender equality suggests that 76 per cent of Europeans think that tackling inequality between men and women should be an EU priority.
In the UK, the Liberal Democrats managed to successfully insert a new requirement on gender pay gap reporting for UK companies into the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill when it was passed last month. Equal pay auditing and publishing the results has been compulsory in Austria since 2013.
The commission estimates that the gains from full convergence in employment between women and men across the EU would be equivalent to 12.4 per cent of GDP and yet the absence of British government officials, employers and HR leaders at the EU forum raised some questions about where our priorities really lie.
Europe has received surprisingly little coverage in our mind-numbing election campaign thus far, especially given the potential for a referendum on EU membership in the next parliament. Aside from the inter-party bidding war on childcare, the only serious discussion of equality and women’s rights seemed to disappear on the Labour party’s pink female manifesto battle-bus.
No wonder 35 per cent of women are reportedly still undecided about who to vote for.
