An important aspect of women's involvement in the labour market is the provision of more child care facilities. Without sufficient high-quality, affordable care provision, many women will be forced to make unacceptable choices between work and family life, to the detriment of the women themselves, their families, and the economy. The EU approach is not merely to encourage success for women in a man's world, but to have society provide for their full and complete emancipation as women. A democracy where one half of the population cannot make its voice fully heard is hardly a democracy at all. And as for efficiency, no modern, successful organisation can afford to waste the talents and skills of its female workforce as extravagantly as many political institutions do, or fail to recruit enough women in the first place.
More equal representation is a key issue here.
The full participation of women in political and civil life is fundamental to good governance. The situation is improving in the EU, but only slowly. In the EU's national parliaments, for instance one in every five members is now a woman. In France a law has now been passed to give women equal representation with men in parliament, with the French Prime Minister predicting that more women will breath new life and diversity into politics. The European Commission itself is committed to tackling its own gender imbalance through a thorough review of its recruitment procedures.