COFACE: COFACE joins forces to achieve gender equality
The glass ceiling is well and truly there for many women and the lack of solid reconciliation policies and measures at the workplace means that women have no other choices than reducing working hours or dropping out from paid employment.
While women reduce their working hours after the first child, men tend to work more hours once they become a father. On the other hand, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that after each birth the salary of women decreases by 12% approximately. The gender pay gap widens significantly after each child.
In its European Reconciliation Package, COFACE presents concrete recommendations of what needs to be done at EU and national level to empower women and contributing to care and pay equality, increased employment, improved childcare and care infrastructure as well as better well-being overall.
In cooperation with the UN Focal Point on the Family, COFACE is organising the conference ‘Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] and Gender Equality: the role of family policies and exchange of good practices’ on 19-20 April in Amsterdam. We will put a spotlight on the role of family policies in the implementation of the SDGs and specifically engage in one of the most important and holistic targets of the SDGs: to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (Goal 5).
COFACE takes this opportunity to join forces and insist by the European Commission for a legal, policy and infrastructure environment that helps all families, and especially women to overcome the challenges of balancing their family life and their work responsibilities.
