On Thursday 5 September, the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) welcomed the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Carlien Scheele, and the Director General of the European Commission’s DG JUST, Ana Gallego Torres, to take stock of legislative progress and future challenges in the field of gender equality.
Carlien Scheele stressed the urgent need to tackle gender-based violence, pointing out that “we are still 60 years away from reaching full gender equality in the European Union”.
Welcoming recent legislative initiatives, in particular the directive against gender-based violence (see EUROPE 13406/23), she issued a reminder of the role of the data collected by the EIGE: “Behind every piece of data are real people, families that we must protect”. She added that this would enable a better understanding of the scale of the problem and help Member States to put in place effective prevention and protection policies.
During the exchange of views, the issue of equal pay was raised by Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (S&D, Polish), who called to set up a working group to monitor the implementation of the directive on pay transparency (see EUROPE 13107/14).
Ana Gallego Torres pointed out that this directive “now allows workers to find out their relative pay and to demand accountability if they are discriminated against”. She also emphasised that equal pay is a priority, while stressing the need for rigorous application of the laws to reduce the pay gap between men and women.
The issue of online violence was addressed by Alexandra Geese (Greens/EFA, German), who pointed out that this problem particularly targets women in positions of power.
“Online hate campaigns discourage women from engaging in public life”, she said.
Ana Gallego Torres announced a “code of conduct for digital platforms, to better protect them”.
Ms Geese also spoke of the importance of intersectionality, pointing out that some women, particularly those from minority backgrounds, suffer intersecting forms of discrimination.
Ms Gallego Torres pointed out that the directive on equality bodies now incorporates this approach: “Equality is not complete if we don’t take account of intersectional discrimination”.
Mélissa Camara (Greens/EFA, French) spoke of the violence faced by migrant women: “Migrant women face particular violence during their journey and on arrival, and we need to improve data collection to protect them effectively”.
Carlien Scheele called for greater recognition of the situation of these women in public policy.
While Ms Gallego Torres presented a positive assessment of recent achievements, she warned that: “It is crucial to ensure that these laws do not remain on paper, but are translated into real changes on the ground”. The Commission will present a roadmap for women’s rights on the occasion of the next International Women’s Day while preparing a new post-2025 strategy. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)