"Key findings:
• The European social turn following the development of the European Pillar
of Social Rights and continuing through the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond
produced a cluster of directives and policy programmes that were to have
positive impacts on women's labour market position. Nevertheless, this
review finds that much remains to be done and identifies three main risks
to gender equality that call for reinforced policy initiatives. This requires the
European Union (EU) to renew and fully implement its 30-year commitment
to gender mainstreaming.
• The first risk is that there may be further mobilisation of women into work
without a compensating increase in support for unpaid care work and changes
in the household division of care work. This requires full implementation of
the European Care Strategy.
• The second risk arises from a failure to assess the gender equality
implications of the major socioeconomic changes associated with both
the green and the digital transitions. Women face potential exclusion from
new green jobs and risk loss of access to standard equality rights, such as
maternity leave, if the digital revolution further expands gig work.
• The third risk is the threat of a further round of austerity policies. The EU
and its Member States need to learn lessons from the sovereign debt crisis
(Karamessini and Rubery 2014) and protect women against, for example,
major cuts to care services and the devaluation of public sector jobs, in
which women are concentrated.
• Welcome though the social turn was and the support provided for both
gender equality and a fairer labour market, there is an urgent need for a
renewed commitment to gender mainstreaming to guard against negative
impacts from forces for change that are often not considered to be within
the scope of gender equality policies. "

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ISBN (PDF) : 2031-8782