Description

As a result of the Amsterdam Treaty, equality between the sexes is now a principle to be promoted by the European Union (EU). Accordingly, one of the four pillars of the European employment strategy (pillar four) tackles the question of equal opportunities. The Commission’s evaluation of the first national action plans on employment (NAPs) – for 1998 – having identified a serious lack of national policy actions under the fourth pillar, in its guidelines for the 1999 NAPs, the Commission introduced the concept of “gender mainstreaming”, according to which equality between the sexes must be a component of every employment policy conducted under all four pillars of the strategy.

The extremely ambitious goal represented by this gender-mainstreaming approach is to achieve equality between women and men in all spheres of work, both on the labour market (public sphere) and in the home (private sphere). As such, it confronts the different national welfare and employment systems of the EU member states with a range of challenges that vary depending on the specific gender arrangements and contracts in place. This book gathers together expert contributions to the debate on these issues covering developments in a range of countries. Subjects discussed include the main approaches to equal opportunities policy on employment devised and implemented in the last twenty years; the evaluation of the impact of such policies; changes in gendered labour market participation rates and the impact on the division of labour in the home; application of the concept of gender mainstreaming under the different guidelines and the impact of the EU concept of gender mainstreaming in the countries concerned.

This book is also available in French
Now also available in Japanese: http:www.akashi.co.jp

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