Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Poverty among women in Europe
Date: 2005-09-29
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: European social policy, education, labour market, marginalisation, penalty, poverty, woman

31.1.2006

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Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Poverty among women in Europe

(2006/C 24/18)

On 28 April 2005 the European Parliament decided to consult the European Economic and Social
Committee, under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on Poverty among
women in Europe.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 5 September 2005. The rapporteur was Mrs King.

At its 420th plenary session, held on 28 and 29 September 2005 (meeting of 29 September 2005), the
European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion with 79 votes in favour, no
votes against and two abstentions.

1. Background

1.1 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

The UN General Assembly has designated 17 October as Inter-
national Day of Eradication of Poverty to promote awareness
of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries.

In 1999, the Council adopted a concerted strategy for moder-
nising social protection. Social protection is one of the impor-
tant means to fight poverty and social exclusion in EU Member
States. The strategy focuses on three themes — social inclusion
policies, reform of the pension system and reform of healthcare
systems. Gender equality is not included.

Given the results of the recent referendums on the EU Constitu-
tion, the UK Presidency has announced a communication on
social protection systems to take place in October 2005.

1.2 Women and Poverty in the EU

The Committee of the Regions, the EESC and the European
Parliament are each producing a paper on Women and Poverty in
the EU to coincide with this day to contribute to the wider
debate about the nature of poverty in the EU today. There has
been a high level of coordination between these EU institutions
although each paper is written from a different perspective.

1.3 Definition of At-Risk-of-Poverty

This is defined as the share of persons with an income below
60 % of national median income.
Income is defined as the
household's total disposable income divided and attributed to
each household member.

1.5 Legal framework

Most policies addressing poverty and social exclusion remain
within the competence of each Member State. However, under
Articles 136 and 137 EC of the Treaty, the EU has an active
role in supporting and complementing the activities of Member
States in order to combat social exclusion.

Article 13 of the Treaty gives the EU competence to take
actions, including legislative measures, to combat discrimina-
tion based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief,
disability, age or sexual orientation.

1.4 Framework for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in the

EU

In 2000, the Member States agreed to establish a European
strategy to combat social exclusion and poverty (2000) using
the open method of coordination. This strategy includes agreed
objectives and the obligation for each Member State to present
biennial National Action Plans in accordance with these objec-
tives. The indicators include four dimensions of social inclusion
— financial poverty, employment, health and education.
Equality between women and men is not included as an over-
arching objective of this EU strategy.

1.6 Level of poverty in the EU

In 2001, the numbers affected by relative income poverty is
very significant with more than 55 million people or 15 % of
the EU population living at risk of poverty (1). More than half
of them lived persistently on low relative income. This propor-
tion varies considerably across Member States, with the share
of the population at risk of poverty ranging from 9 % in
Sweden to 21 % in Ireland. Generally speaking, this affects
women to a significantly greater degree.

(1) Indicators of poverty risk are derived from European Community

Household Survey.

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1.7 Level of social exclusion

2. General comments

The longer the length of time someone has to live on low
income the greater the risk of deprivation and exclusion from
social, cultural and economic activity. In all Member States, half
or more of those at risk of poverty in 2001 have been living
on low income for an extended period of time, that is, they
had an equalised income below the 60 % threshold in the
current year and at least two of the preceding three years (i.e.
1998-2000). On average in the EU, 9 % of the population have
been persistently poor in 2001. Here too, this affects women to
a significantly greater degree.

1.8 Demographic and societal context in the EU

2.1
The EESC welcomes the opportunity to present its views
on this topic but feels that the focus should have been ‘Gender
and Poverty’ as opposed to ‘Women and Poverty’ because this
would focus attention on the relationship and differences
between men and women with regards to the causes of
poverty.

The Committee strongly recommends that
the Commission
revisits the definition of poverty as it only highlights the overt
causes of poverty and underestimates the level the poverty of
women and the impact of that poverty. The definition assumes
that household resources are shared equally within the family
but it can be argued that poverty is experienced at an indivi-
dual level and should be analysed at that level if the gender
dimension is to be understood.

The demographic context in the EU is changing dramatically
with the century-long growth in the size of Europe's working
age population soon going into decline. People aged 65 and
over represent 16 % of the total population while those below
15 represent 17 % and life expectancy is growing. Over the
next 15 years, the number of people aged over 80 will rise by
almost 50 % (2).

2.2
The EESC welcomes the UK Presidency's announcement
to relaunch a debate on the social protection systems and
strongly recommends a gender impact analysis is done to
ensure that these system takes account of the needs of women
and men. There is an implicit assumption that women have a
man's income to fall back on. This assumption, which is out of
touch with the reality of today's society, is a key reason for the
greater risk of poverty faced by women.

At the same time, developments in household structures are
changing. There are fewer and later marriages, more marital
breakdowns and also a fall in the number of couples with chil-
dren. These developments have led to a trend towards smaller
households, across all age ranges. Nobel Prize winner econo-
mist, Gary Becker and his colleague Judge Richard Posner, state
that
these changes can largely be explained in economic
terms (3). They state that the increase in women's financial inde-
pendence through job opportunities outside the home means
that there is a move from the ‘patriarchal marriage’ — with the
male as earner and the women as dependent — towards
‘marriage as a partnership’. There is also an increase in the
the higher a woman's
opportunity costs of childbearing:
income and job status, the more she gives up,
in terms of
if she leaves the
potential career progression and income,
labour force, whether temporarily or permanently, to have chil-
dren.

3. Specific comments

3.1 The Incidence of Poverty Risk

Women are generally at greater risk of living in a poor house-
hold: in 2001, 16 % of adult women (aged 16 years or more)
had an income below the threshold, against 14 % of men in
the same age group (4). This pattern is consistent across all
Member States. The risk of poverty is highest among single
parent households (35 % of the EU average), 85 % of which are
headed by women. Female heads of household who are 18 and
under are particularly at risk of poverty.

The other major change is the phenomenal rise in the number
of children living with one adult. In 2000, 10 % of children
aged 0-14 years were living with just one adult compared with
6 % in 1990. This is the result of the rise in the number of
marital and relationship breakdowns and in unplanned preg-
nancies.

(2) Joint report by the Commission and the Council on social inclusion

– 5 March 2004.

People aged 65 years and over suffer from relatively high risk
of poverty. Two-thirds of the over 65s are women. Single
female pensioners, especially those over 80 or without an occu-
pational pension have a much higher poverty rate. A key
reason for this is that the older a pensioner becomes, the
greater his or her expenses, mainly relating to increased health-
care costs with regards to disability and mobility needs.

(3) ‘The Sexual Revolution’ by Gary Becker and Richard Posner, 10
April 2005. Available on http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
archives/2005/04/index.html.

(4) Eurostat 2001; except for single households, gender gaps in poverty
risk need to be interpreted with caution, since they rely on the
assumption of equal sharing of income within the household.

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Research shows that women who face multiple discrimination
— for example, older women, women belonging to ethnic
minority or migrant groups, women with disabilities, lesbians
— are at even higher risk of social exclusion and poverty.

3.2 The labour market dimension of poverty and social exclusion

among women

Employment is seen as a key factor for social inclusion and
considered the single most effective route out of poverty, not
only because it generates income but also because it can
promote social participation and personal development. This is
reflected in the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy which states
that by 2010 ‘The European economy will be the most compe-
titive and dynamic of all the economies based on knowledge in
the world, with a sustainable economic growth capacity, with
more and better jobs and greater social cohesion,’ and, for this,
the participation of women in the labour market will be neces-
sary and essential, with a concrete objective to achieve in
2010: a female employment rate of 60 %. Although women's
participation levels in the labour market are moving closer to
those of men, women in paid labour are not free from the risk
of poverty. This is because the participation of women in the
labour market is accompanied by important difficulties such as
the high unemployment rate of women in the EU25 (5) as well
as a difficulty in balancing domestic and work responsibilities,
the tendencies toward segregation and sectorisation of female
employment, the prevalence of precarious forms of employ-
ment with limited social protection and the pay gap between
men and women that exists in all European countries.

the male pattern has generally been a continuous and full-time
labour market attachment
from leaving full-time education
until retirement. The break from the labour market, can have a
detrimental effect on earnings. The interruption for childcare
can mean shorter job tenure, less accumulated experience and
less access to training. This is because pay increases are often
awarded to those who stay in continuous employment for
many years. Indeed, the more lengthy the break, the greater the
cash penalty.

3.2.2 M oth e r 's le v e l of e du ca t i on

The employment profile of a lengthy break whilst caring for
young children is more likely for mothers with low educational
qualifications. Whilst graduate mothers have shortened the
length of time they break from the labour market, the beha-
viour of women with no qualifications has not changed.
Mothers with no qualifications are more likely to break from
the labour market until the child goes to school whereas those
with a degree are more likely to only take maternity leave and
pay for their child to be looked after by someone else.

Therefore, women with lower educational qualifications, who
are more likely to take longer breaks (and who also have the
lowest earning potential before having children), are most
heavily penalised financially.

3.2.3 L on e p a r e nth ood

3.2.1 Pa y g a p

Thirty years after the 1975 Directive on Equal Pay women in
the EU still earn on average only 85 % of men's wages, hour
for hour (6). In many countries, the discrepancy is much wider,
and can reach up to 33 %. The EESC concurs with the EP
FEMM Committee's indignation that this gap still exists and
agrees with its recommendation that the Council and Commis-
sion take appropriate steps ‘to put an end to this iniquity’.

3.2.1.1 O p p or tu n i ty Cost of Ch i ldb e a r i ng

Many studies have attributed this to the fact that women bear
children and disproportionately spend more time than men in
caring for those children. Most women will break from the
labour market for at least some part of their life. In contrast,

(5) Eurostat 2004.
(6) Eurostat 2003.

As mentioned in paragraph 1.8, the number of lone parents
has been increasing and the data shows that lone parents have
a particular risk of suffering from poverty. Because 85 % of
lone parents are women this risk of poverty is gender specific.
Much of the risk can be attributed to low participation in the
work force: only 50 % are in work compared with 68 % of
married women (7). In contrast to mothers' increasing employ-
rates have hardly
ment
changed.

lone mothers' employment

rates,

Studies suggest that the lack of affordable childcare is not the
only barrier to work for lone parents. Others include:

— Lone parents out of work generally lack marketable qualifi-
cations (8). The fewer qualifications they have, the weaker
their chances to get back into the labour market. These
depend crucially on the availability of affordable options for
further training during time out
for
parenting.

from employment

(7) Eurostat 2003.
(8) Finch et al. (1999): New Deal for Lone Parents: Learning From the
Prototype Areas. DSS Research Report No 92. Leeds: CDS; Lewis et
al. (2000): Lone Parents and Personal Advisers: Roles and Relation-
ships. DSS Research Report No. 122. Leeds: CDS; Dawson et al.
(2000): New Deal for Lone Parents: Report on Qualitative Interviews
with Individuals. Research and Development Report ESR55. Shef-
field: Employment Service; Holtermann et al. (1999): Lone Parents
and the Labour Market. Results from the 1997 Labour Force Survey
and Review of Research. Employment Service Report 23. London:
The Stationary Office.

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— Lone parents tend to be concentrated in the geographical

3.2.4 In-w or k p ove r ty

areas which experience lack of labour demand.

— Lone parents out of work are more likely to be in ill-health
and they are more likely to have a child or someone else in
the house whose illness or disability restricts opportunities
to work (one in ten of all out-of-work lone parents).

— Lone parents in severe hardship are more likely to experi-
ence low morale, which can in turn become a barrier to
work.

The increase in women's participation in the labour market is a
result of the increase in non-standard types of work, such as
part-time, flexible hours, shift work and term time. Part-time
employment among women is 27 % on average against just
4 % for men (10).
In fact, the part-time gender wage gap is
greater than the full-time one: the female part-time average
hourly wage is close to 60 % of
the male full-time wage
compared with the 82 % for the female full-time hourly wage.

Also many lone parents have to look after their children them-
selves and look for jobs with hours that enable them to spend
as much time with their children as possible, and thus to
combine parenting with employment. As a result, many of
them are forced to settle for precarious, low-paid employment
with a lower level of social protection.

Those who have low educational qualifications, undeclared
workers, minorities or migrants with little or no independent
legal status are particularly at risk of poverty because the jobs
they have tend to be low paying and low status with no job
security. Research shows that in extreme cases these women
face the risk of trafficking, prostitution and violence.

3.2.3.1 Te e n a g e p r e g na n cy

Female heads of lone parent household who are 18 and under
are particularly at risk of poverty. In the EU, 6 % of young
women were parents by the age of 18, although this varies
from 3 % in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden to 12 %
in Hungary and the Slovak Republic and 13 % in the UK (9).

Teenage parents are more likely than their peers to be living in
poverty and unemployment and have difficulty escaping mainly
due to the lack of education and the other reasons given above.
For example 45 % of women in the EU-15 who were teenage
mothers are in households with income in the lowest 20 %,
while only 21 % of women who had their first child in their
20s are in this income group. 90 % of teenage parents receive
welfare support and teenage mothers are more likely than
other lone mothers to rely on benefits alone and to be on bene-
fits for longer spells.

Member States have made reducing the incidence of teenage
parenthood a priority as it offers an opportunity to reduce the
likelihood of poverty and of its perpetuation from one genera-
tion to the next. How to reduce teenage births is subject to
much debate with a broad range of solutions: from more sex
education to less sex education; from abstinence education to
free contraceptives in schools; from dispensing morning-after
pills to reviewing the welfare benefits to encourage co-habiting
and marriage among teenage parents.

3.2.5 Unp a i d w or k

Women remain unpaid for the work in the home. Even for the
enormous number of women who are in paid employment,
shopping, eldercare and childcare is still perceived as their
responsibility as men do less than 40 % of all domestic work
and only 25 % to 35 % of childcare work (11). This unpaid work
is not systematically recorded in national statistics, which
means it is invisible to policy makers.

It should be stressed that balancing family and employment
responsibilities is a real challenge for men and women. Women
with children under 12 show employment rates over 15 points
lower than childless women — 60 % versus 75 %. For men
with children under 12, however, the employment rate is 91 %,
five points above the rate for men without children.

3.2.6 L on g -te r m u ne mp loy me nt

The four EU Member States with the lowest teenage birth rates
could be used as a benchmark for the other Member States
tackling this issue.

This is very closely associated with social distress, as people
who have been jobless for a long time tend to loose the skills
and the self-esteem necessary to regain a foothold in the labour
market, unless appropriate and timely support is provided. For

(9) Innocenti Report Card, Issue No. 3 July 2001: A League Table of

Teenage Births in Rich Nations (UNICEF).

(10) Eurostat European Labour Force Survey 2003.
(11) How Europeans spend their time, Eurostat 1998-2002.

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the EU as a whole, long-term unemployment rates are higher
than for men (3.6 %) (12). Despite this,
for women (4.5 %)
programmes aimed at getting the long-term unemployed into
paid work tend to benefit men as women are offered more
restricted training and gender-stereotyped, and therefore lower
waged, employment.

likely to be in an occupational pension scheme. As men earn a
greater income than women during their working lives, their
final pension will be higher for men than for women. More-
over, pension assets have previously been linked to the prin-
ciple wage earner, the one who has accrued the asset, who is
usually the man. Increasing divorce rates have called this into
question, with the woman usually disadvantaged in the event
of a partnership breakdown. However, a number of member
states have introduced legislation in which courts are now able
to split assets at the point of divorce in whichever way they
deem appropriate.

3.2.7 Pe nsi ons

3.2.7.1 Women's disadvantages in the labour market and
the resultant pay gap extends into retirement. This is because
the pension model in many Member States was developed from
a male perspective, discriminating against women as many take
career breaks, work in non-standard employment or have
periods of unpaid work. As a result many face disadvantage in
building up the necessary rights and savings to enjoy security
in older age. Two-third of pensioners are women, and their
average income is 53 % of that of a man, which can impact on
their health, housing and quality of life. 75 % of pensioners
receiving income related welfare payments are women. The
result is older women, including widows and divorcees, make
up the poorest pensioners and with the long-term societal
consequences of aging of the EU population this trend will
continue to rise unless it is addressed.

In an earlier opinion (13)
the EESC recommended adapting
pension systems to ensure gender equality with the long-term
goal being the individualisation of pensions. The EESC further
recommended that the experience of Member States should be
shared so that certain women, namely those with career breaks,
were not left with inadequate pensions.

This earlier opinion also noted that some Member States
support their elderly people in other ways in addition to the
provision of a pension. This includes,
for example, more
favourable taxation, free electricity, free or reduced fares for
public transport and tax relief for rent. This recommendation is
welcomed as women are more likely to be older (due to greater
longevity) and to live alone (they outlive their partners) than
men which means that
they are more likely to face the
problems encountered by older pensioners. Generally, older
pensioners' incomes from earnings and investments are lower
while at the same time they may be facing greater expenses,
related to disability, mobility needs and depreciation of assets.

3.2.7.2 Women,
legally resident and
including minorities,
undocumented immigrants, who are in non-standard type of
employment are further disadvantaged because these are less

3.3 The education dimension of poverty and social exclusion among

women

3.3.1
Job choices and entry into employment are controlled
by qualifications. The data shows this is especially the case for
women. Women who are better qualified (defined as having a
level of education ISCED 5 and 6) more often have a job than
those who are less well qualified (having a level of education
ISCED less than 2) (14). In the EU-25, 49 % of women aged 20-
49 who are less well qualified have a job compared with 84 %
of better qualified women. It should be pointed out that this
difference of 30 percentage points in the case of women is
only 10 points (83 % compared with 93 %) in the case of men.
Better qualified women with children generally remain in
employment. In the EU-25 the comparison between these two
groups of women is as follows: no children (88 % vs. 57 %); 1
or 2 children (80 % vs. 43 %); 3 or more children (63 % vs.
22 %).

3.3.2
The curriculum encourages subject choices that are
heavily gendered with girls choosing subject courses and
careers that are poorly paid with teachers and career advisers
not trained to consider or acknowledge the importance of
gender issues. Those most at risk from this segregation are girls
within households already at risk of poverty as research (15) this
group are disproportionately represented in low status jobs due
to their low educational attainment. Part-time manual work is
the most disadvantaged employment category for women,
more so than other part-time and manual
full-time jobs,
because these women have very low levels of education. These
women are constrained in their job choices due to the interac-
their educational
tion of poverty and gender
careers, which not only impacts on their working lives and
retirement but can result
intergenerational
poverty.

in a cycle of

throughout

(12) Eurostat European Labour Force Survey 2003.
(13) Opinion of the EESC of 29 November 2001 on ‘Economic Growth,
Taxation and Sustainability of Pension Rights in the EU’. OJ C 48
of 21.2.2002. Rapporteur Mr. Byrne, co-rapporteur Mr. Van Dijk.

(14) EC Statistics in focus – Population and social conditions, 4/2005.
(15) Warren, T.: ‘Divergent Female Part-time Employment in Britain and
Denmark and the Implications for Gender Equality’. Sociological
Review 2001, 49(4), 548-567.

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in the objectives of

The EESC welcomes the focus on jobs, and in particu-
3.3.3
lar women's employment,
the Lisbon
Strategy but notes that for women at risk of poverty this is
insufficient. Member States have the opportunity to work with
civil society, and NGOs, especially those who work in the area
of gender equality and poverty eradication, to break this life-
long and intergenerational poverty by addressing the stereo-
typing in educational
institutions with regards to girls' and
boys' career choices and by developing effective adult educa-
tional courses that are accessible, develop marketable skills and
meet the needs of these women.

3.4 Criminal

justice dimension of poverty and social

exclusion

among women

3.4.1 Women are a minority of those accused or convicted
of criminal offences, representing around one in five known
offenders and only 6 % of the prison population. The last
decade, however, has seen a steep rise in the number of
women in prison, although there is no equivalent rise in
women offending (16). Most women are sent to prison for non-
violent offences and they go for less than a year. Almost a
quarter of women in prison are on remand, not convicted of
any offence.

this was the case, as the research findings show, it is difficult to
see how prisons alone can be expected ever to provide the
majority of prisoners with effective training, sustainable drugs
rehabilitation, emotional support or marketable skills after
release.

to their

incarceration, and it excludes

3.4.5
Prisons are primarily for punishment. The research
found that prisons exclude women who were not excluded
prior
the socially
excluded still further. Imprisonment is even more costly for
women than it is for men as the damage done to children
when their mothers go to prison. For example, in the UK 25 %
of imprisoned women declared that the father of their children,
their husband or partner, was taking care of their children. For
imprisoned men this proportion rose to 92 %. This well
outweighs any gains thought to have been made in terms of
criminal justice, deterrence or diminution of risk.

3.4.6
Foreign women and women from minority groups are
doubly discriminated against and as a result there is a dispro-
portionately high ratio of them within the criminal
justice
system.

The same research indicates that a high proportion of
3.4.2
women sent to prison have no financial security prior to their
imprisonment, have either never worked or have only worked
in low-paid jobs with no job security, have no secure accom-
modation, very little education and have been victims of either
physical and/or sexual violence from family members or non-
family male predators. Therefore women's
imprisonment
further excludes those who are already socially excluded.

The EESC agrees with the recommendations of the
3.4.7
report that action should be taken to drastically reduce the
number of women who are sent to prison especially as many
are in prison on remand and have not been convicted of any
crime, and where a crime has been committed it is usually for
a non-violent offence. Some Member Sates have introduced less
damaging alternatives to imprisonment and with the right kind
of care and support, women lawbreakers with many problems
can achieve rehabilitative integration into the community.

3.4.3
The steep rise in the number of women in prison
could be explained by the sentencing studies in some of the
Member States covered by the research which suggest that
women are often sent to prison because they are already socially
excluded (e.g. homeless, unemployed, drug users); and that
judges and magistrates think that because they are already
socially excluded they are more at risk of committing a crime
in the future and that imprisonment can and will, through its
rehabilitative regimes and programmes, reduce the likelihood
of already excluded women returning to crime (or drugs) once
they are released from prison.

3.4.4
The research reveals the impossibility of rehabilitation
and reintegration of women prisoners given the adverse
employment and educational backgrounds of these women, the
high proportions (50 % in England and Wales) (17) of whom are
sentence
mentally ill, combined with the relatively short
lengths of most
is debatable
female prison populations.
whether prisons are institutions of rehabilitation but even if

It

(16) Comparative Report based on National Reports' Fieldwork Findings
prepared by the Central European University Team. Data is from
six EU Countries: Spain, Germany, England & Wales, Italy, France
and Hungary.

(17) UK Women National Commission, March 2005.

3.5 Combating Trafficking in Women and Children

Trafficking in women and children is a consequence of struc-
tured gender inequality and is a form of violence. Trafficking
thrives on poverty and victims suffer from multiple forms of
poverty resulting in forced labour, sex slavery, physical and
mental health problems, social exclusion among others. Preven-
tion strategies of countries of origin must reflect and be
reflected in poverty reduction and social development strategies
with specific reference to economic opportunities for women.
Long term prevention strategies must address the root causes
of trafficking and these include poverty, discrimination, racism,
patriarchal structures, violence against women, fundamental-
isms, gender inequality, lack of social safety nets, money laun-
dering, corruption, political
instability, conflicts and uncon-
trolled zones, barriers and disparities between countries. All
recognise the
introduce measures
governments must
unequal power relations between women and men and must
introduce positive measures to promote the empowerment of
women in all areas of life.

that

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4. Recommendations

4.1
The EESC welcomes the Joint report by the Commission
and the Council on social inclusion dated 5 March 2004. It
commends the six key policy priorities
they have urged
member states to give particular attention in their National
Action Plans (see Appendix). However the EESC believes there
is a glaring policy omission, namely the identification and
monitoring of gender-specific indicators. The EESC strongly
recommends that these are included as there are significant
differences between men and women with regards to poverty,
and without addressing the gendered nature of poverty or
monitoring the impact of policies upon women and men alike,
it is possible that many policies designed to alleviate poverty
will meet with only partial success. Addressing the gendered
nature of poverty will be in keeping with the commitment on
poverty eradication made at
for Social
Development held in Copenhagen in 1995 where it was agreed
that special priority will be given to the needs and rights of
women and children, who often bear the greatest burden of
poverty.

the World Summit

4.2 Many Member States have significantly strengthened
their institutional arrangements for mainstreaming poverty and
inclusion into their national policy making. However
social
more should be done by including social partners,
including
NGOs, at a local, national and regional level into policy devel-
opment and implementation, especially in the area of educa-
tion, employment and pensions.

4.3
The EESC strongly recommends that the Lisbon Strategy
objectives on increased employment for women is accompa-
nied by strategies to ensure that women at risk of poverty
develop marketable skills which lead to their financial indepen-
dence. In addition, initiatives and measures must be stepped up
to ensure women's livelihoods throughout their lives; these
should aim to raise the quality of employment and close the
earnings gap. In a recent opinion on the integrated guidelines
for growth and jobs, the EESC expressed its surprise that the

Brussels, 29 September 2005.

current package of employment policy guidelines does not
include specific guidelines on female employment.

The EESC believes that there is much to be gained by
4.4
Member States sharing experiences in the areas that impact on
women and poverty — pension provision, social protection
systems,
teenage pregnancies, eliminating violence against
women, including trafficking, and female imprisonment.

4.5 Many Member States have signed up to the Beijing Plat-
form for Action (September 1995), which called for govern-
ments to assess the value to the economy of unpaid work.
However 10 years on Member States have not yet developed
the measurement and monitoring systems to do this. They
should be encouraged to do so and record it as part of their
national statistics.

4.6
The European Institute for Gender Equality is to be
opened in 2007. As gender is neglected in policies aimed at
addressing poverty in the EU, it follows that the relationship
between gender and poverty has been relatively neglected in
research and statistical literature. The Institute can only bring
is equipped with adequate budgetary
about change if
resources. In a separate opinion on the Institute for Gender
Equality, the EESC has already expressed its concern that these
are not fully provided for in the relevant proposal for a regu-
lation.

it

4.7
The EESC therefore suggests a few areas of priority. The
new institute should conduct an in-depth analysis of existing
data sets from a gender perspective.

Another area of gender and poverty that calls for special
4.8
attention is the issue of the impact of poverty on women's
physical and mental health.

4.9
Thirdly there also appears to be little research on what
women think and feel about being poor and whether they
experience poverty differently from men.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND