Page 5 - Social_Diversity

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Chapter 1 Sustainable Development

1.1 The concept of Gender equality

Equality between women and men is one of the European Union’s founding values. It goes back to 1957
when the principle of equal pay for work of equal value became part of the Treaty of Rome. Over the past
few decades, the EU has notably worked for:

• Equal treatment legislation;
• Gender mainstreaming (integration of a gender perspective into all policies);
• Specific measures for the advancement of women 1

Promoting equal economic independence for women and men, closing the gender pay gap, advancing
gender balance in decision making, ending gender based violence and promoting gender equality beyond
the EU . Although inequalities still exist, the EU has made significant progress in gender equality over the
2
last decades. This is the result of equal treatment legislation gender mainstreaming, integration of the
gender perspective into all other policies specific measures for the advancement of women. Encouraging
trends are the higher number of women in the labour market and their progress in securing better
education and training. However, gender gaps remain and in the labour market women are still
over-represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions. In this chapter
you will get to know how the gender equality term applies in different aspects of our society.

Source: Gender equality is the 5th of the 30 Sustainable Development Goals

1 (2020). [Ebook] Retrieved from The European Union and Gender Equality - Observatory of the European Charter https://char-
ter-equality.eu/the-charter/the-eu-and-gender-equality.html
2 https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality_en