IR Share

Industrial
relations
Share

About us - Contact

Search an IRDoc

A knowledge agency :

IR Share is a provider that shares information, documentation and expertise for social partners. The IR Share website offers a single point of access to questions concerning labour law and industrial relations in Europe and the world. The IR Share agency operates by way of online publications, working groups, training devoted to relevant topics and a network of experts.
IR Share is responsible for the editorial content of the IR Notes review and is the national correspondent, for France, of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND).
Ouvrir/Fermer

Search an IRDoc

Keep up to date! RSS

European Commission: 2021 report on gender equality in the EU

Ahead of International Women's Day, the Commission published its 2021 report on gender equality in the EU, that shows the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between women and men in almost all areas of life, both in Europe and beyond, rolling back on the hard-won achievements of past years.

The report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a major challenge for gender equality:



  • Member States recorded a surge in domestic violence: For example, the number of reports on domestic violence in France increased by 32% during the first week of the lockdown, in Lithuania by 20% in the first three weeks. Ireland saw a five-fold increase in domestic violence orders and Spanish authorities reported an 18% rise in calls during the first fortnight of confinement.

  • Women were at the frontline tackling the pandemic: 76% of healthcare and social-care workers, 86% of personal care workers in health services are women. With the pandemic, women in these sectors saw an unprecedented rise in workload, health risk and challenges to work-life balance.

  • Women in the labour market were hit hard by the pandemic: Women are overrepresented in sectors that are worst affected by the crisis (retail, hospitality, care and domestic work), because these jobs cannot be done remotely. Women also had more difficulties re-entering the labour market during the partial recovery last summer 2020 with employment rates rising by 1.4% for men but only by 0.8% for women between the second and the third quarter 2020.

  • Lockdowns have significant impact on unpaid care and work-life balance: Women spent, on average, 62 hours per week caring for children (compared to 36 hours for men) and 23 hours per week doing housework (15 hours for men).

  • A striking lack of women in COVID-19 decision-making bodies: A 2020 study found that men greatly outnumber women in the bodies created to respond to the pandemic. Of 115 national dedicated COVID-19 task forces in 87 countries, including 17 EU Member States, 85,2% were made up mainly of men, 11.4% comprised mainly women, and only 3.5% had gender parity. At the political level, only 30% of health ministers in the EU are women. The Commission's task force for the COVID-19 crisis is led by President von der Leyen and includes five other Commissioners, three of whom are women

Information about this document

  • DownloadThis article has been downloaded 34 time(s)
  • Country/countries concerned : European Union
  • Type of document : Report
  • This article is relevant to the following topic(s) :
    • Legislation

The dates of the documents

  • Date of publication : 2021-03-07
Available document language:
English

Add to cart

Close