1

Addressinggender
roles

Traditional gender roles and stereotypes continue to have a strong influence on the division of labour between women and men in different spheres: at home, in the workplace and in society at large. Cultural barriers and labour market segregation need to be tackled.

2

Promoting women in decision-making

Women are under-represented in positions of responsibility in all fields. Increasing women’s proportion in decision-making positions and leadership will ensure fairer and better performing labour markets.

3

Supportingwork-life
balance

There are persistent difficulties to reconcile family and private responsibilities with employment. Successful policies to support work-life balance need to be tailored to the needs of the employees and enterprises, bearing in mind different situations in the life course.

4

Tackling the gender pay gap

The gender pay gap has narrowed in the last decade in terms of average at EU level. In 2012, it stood at 16.2%. There are important variations between the Member States (from 3% to 30%). The pay gap has multifaceted underlying causes which provides to social partners a broad range of possibilities to address it at national, sectoral and/or company level. Further progress is needed.