European Trade Union Committee for Education

In November 2015, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the European social partners organised a joint conference to exchange views on ‘How Social Partners facilitate women’s and men’s employment and foster greater gender equality’. Over forty organisations, including the European Trade Union Committee for Education, from seventeen Member States participated in the conference to deepen their understanding of three gender equality topics: the reconciliation of work and family life, segregation in the labour market (and its ties with segregation in education) and the gender employment gap. This week, EIGE launched a report of this conference that summarises the main conclusions and most important features.

The report underlines the importance of social partners in tackling gender inequalities in the workplace and the labour market. EIGE acknowledges that the work of social partners “goes beyond formal equality to achieve substantive equality in that they can make change actually happen at work and in the labour market”. Furthermore, countries where social partners have a strong commitment to gender equality, tend to perform better in EIGE’s Gender Equality Index, which presents a comparison of the progress made in different Member States on the area of gender mainstreaming.

Considering the knowledge, data and resources EIGE has regarding gender equality, EIGE can be an important actor for social partners to reinforce and enhance the impact of their efforts for gender equality in the labour market. In this light, the joint conference provided useful information to strengthen the dialogue between EIGE and the social partners at European, sectoral and national level.

Updated information on EIGE’s cooperation with ETUCE will be provided at the Standing Committee for Equality on 2-3 March 2016 in Brussels.