It also points to other areas where new initiatives would be needed. For some of the policy areas, there is still some way to go. I said mainstreaming was a long-term notion and, indeed, we are only at the beginning of the process of changing culture and changing approach. The European employment strategy is one. 25 million fewer women than men employed across Europe.
Women lack equal access to qualified jobs and career paths.
And they take on a much greater share of responsibilities for family and household tasks than do men. The great breakthrough of the 1999 Employment Guidelines was two-fold. Not only was equal opportunities confirmed as the fourth pillar, but we also saw the addition of a specific Guideline aimed at ensuring that gender mainstreaming would be applied across all four pillars. While the objectives of the equal opportunities pillar in the employment guidelines will be pursued in their own right, equal opportunities for women and men will also be addressed as an integral part of actions relating to the other three pillars. This is, I would argue, our single biggest achievement for mainstreaming equal opportunities in the last year.