Subject files

Gender mainstreaming is firmly established in Article 8 of the TFUE: "In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between men and women." Gender mainstreaming represents the integration of the gender perspective into every stage of policy processes with a view to promoting equality between women and men. As a monitoring tool, the FEMM committee draws up a regular report on gender mainstreaming in the work of the European Parliament.

You will find here the latest briefings and studies produced by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs and by the European Parliament Research Service (EPRS).

Despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still exist in our social, cultural, political and economic life where women are not equally treated. Our general concerns are voiced namely over gender pay gap, women's economic independence, female poverty, women's underrepresentation in decision making, sexual and reproductive health and rights, trafficking and violence against women and girls. We want to bring a change and mainstream gender into all EU policies.

According to Eurostat the gender pay gap (difference between average gross hourly earnings of male and female employees as a percentage of male gross earnings) is 16 %. The gender pay gap increases with age, showing the impact of career interruptions women experience during their working life, particularly due to maternity (the so-called motherhood pay gap).

Violence against women and gender-based violence, both physical and psychological, are widespread and affect women at all levels of society, regardless of age, education, income, social position or country of origin or residence. Combatting and preventing violence against women and gender-violence is one of the key goals of our Committee.

Reconciliation of professional, private and family life is an important issue for FEMM and in 2015 it re-launched attention to an holistic approach in reconciling work-life balance and to prompt the EU to step up its work in this field. There is a need to modernise the existing EU legislation, as well as to strengthen the coordination between Member States in order to ensure a level playing field regarding the costs and benefits of reconciliation policies.