United Nations E/CN.6/2020/NGO/84

Economic and Social Council Distr.: General 29 November 2019

English only

Commission on the Status of Women Sixty-fourth session 9–20 March 2020 Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”

Statement submitted by European Union of Women, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council*

The Secretary-General has received the following statement, which is being circulated in accordance with paragraphs 36 and 37 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

* The present statement is issued without formal editing.

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Statement

Report of the European Union of Women (2002)

The European Union of Women has, through its research commissions undertaken an assessment of current challenges affecting the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. We have identified a continuing, and in some cases re-emerging gap between gender equality standards and their implementation. Our report concentrates on issues and initiatives that have put women and girls in a more disadvantageous position, decreased women’s rights or eroded and undermined any established entitlements. This analysis is based on small-group debate and discussion, seminars, desk research and literature review, as well as interviews made with expert speakers across the seventeen European Union of Women member countries (not all within the European Union). The present decade has seen a slight decline in gender equality and the women’s human rights agenda across Europe, with only marginal progress from 2007 to 2017. The main areas of this deterioration seem to be common across most countries, although the extent, intensity and effects may vary. Backlashes against women’s rights and gender equality can be seen from nearly all European states and in key areas such as preventing gender-based violence, employment rights, education, sexual and reproductive health and rights and political and economic decision-making. Physical and sexual violence against women and girls is common but hidden in all countries and much of it is at the hands of intimate partners. Prevalence is not a low-income country problem and whilst it is lower overall in Europe than the rest of the world, it is still unacceptable at around 10 per cent in most countries with available data. According to research, closing the gender gap by 2025 and promoting women’s equality in the public and private sector will positively affect the reduction of violence against women. Women across most of Europe still experience discrimination in terms of different pay for the same job. However they also suffer from differences in education, labour market experience, hours worked, type of job, etc. This leads to occupational segregation, whereby men and women are channelled into different types of occupational roles and tasks and part-time work. Societal assumptions and expectations of women’s roles as caregivers and mothers further curtail their income. There are important variations across Europe, including in levels of segregation within the same occupations. For example, in the case of managerial and supervisory responsibilities we find that these are highly concentrated in certain occupations and tend to be low in female-dominated occupations. Men are also more likely to be supervisors than women in every single occupational group, even the most female - dominated ones. This is strongly correlated with the gender pay gap. In fact, men tend to increase their share of better-paying occupations, as they get older, while women become increasingly excluded from the professional, white-collar occupations associated with higher pay. Similarly, we find that mothers of children under 15 are under-represented in male-dominated occupations. Mothers often earn less than women without children, depending on where they live and how many children they have and the motherhood pay gap increases with the number of children a woman has. In most European countries having one child has only a small negative effect, but women with two and especially three children experience a significant wage penalty.

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The economic recession in Europe and the imposition of budget cuts on public services, such as health and care, has produced a negative impact on the entire society, but especially on women. They have been hit in two different ways - on the one hand, given the higher level of segregation, women have lost their jobs in the public sector and on the other hand, they have been forced into an unpaid job, which are increasing as the provision of public care and health services is reduced. Sex discrimination in education is applied to women in several ways. First, the existing patterns of inequality, especially gender inequality, are reproduced within schools through formal and informal processes. In Europe, these processes begin in preschool and elementary education. Research has shown that children are aware of gender role stereotypes from a young age, with those who are exposed to higher levels of media, as well as gender stereotyped behaviour from adults holding the strongest perception of gender stereotypical roles, regardless of ethnicity. The early years of a child's education are some of the most formative for developing ideas about gender identity and can potentially be responsible for reinforcing harmful notions of disparity in the roles of males and females. Thus, although female pupils are generally gaining more and higher grade exam results, this is not translating to better university and workplace opportunities and a desire to enter traditionally male-orientated science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses and professions. Sexist hate speech, misogyny and online violence seem to become more and more socially accepted. The recent plans to repeal measures fighting gender-based violence in Spain and Poland, the high rates of conscientious objections to abortion in Italy and Ireland, the heated debate around medically assisted procreation in France or around the advertisement for abortion law in Germany are just examples of a general adverse trend in equality across Europe. Indeed, the area of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights is probably the most concerning. There are still countries in Europe with poor access to modern contraception, including lack of subsidization or reimbursement, poor quality information and misconceptions, and requirements for third-party authorisation. In some countries, for example, Northern Ireland there are highly restrictive laws that prohibit abortion except in strictly defined circumstances and criminalise abortion for women and those who assist them. Even in some of the European countries that have legalised abortion on a women’s request, women still face barriers in accessing safe and legal abortion care, due to the state’s failure to ensure services when medical professionals refuse care on grounds of conscience or religion. There is still a lack of adequate standards of healthcare and respect for women’s rights in childbirth in several areas of Europe, including in some cases coercive and discriminatory practices in maternal healthcare. The infringements are particularly acute for marginalised groups of women, including poor women, Roma women, undocumented migrant women and women with disabilities. Slow progress suggests that stronger political will and measures that are more ambitious are needed. They also call for a change of mindsets in European citizens, which requires a serious engagement of the media. In spite of their monumental achievements, women's representation in European media remains drastically different to that of their male counterparts. Women are the focus of only 10 per cent of news stories, comprise just 20 per cent of experts or spokespeople interviewed and a mere four per cent of news stories are deemed to challenge gender stereotypes. This must change if we are to hope and expect that societal attitude and girl’s aspirations are to improve. Achieving gender equality and the empowerment for European women and girls will require concerted efforts, including enforceable legal frameworks to counter

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deeply rooted gender based discrimination, resulting from patriarchal attitudes that reinforce the social norms. Effective policymaking to achieve gender equality demands broad political participation, yet women’s representation in single or lower houses of parliament in Europe is still only around 22 per cent. We should begin by improving women and girl’s participation in all democratic processes and their active participation in politics, starting in school.

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