Building a gender just society. A common European Agenda for gender equality.

Inequality is a reality in Europe and even rising, espe- cially for women. This is a structural trend driven, among other factors, by our economic system. As the index of the European Institute for Gender Equality shows, we are only halfway to achieving gender equality in Europe. Gender gaps still persist.

Gender equality policies in the European Union face multiple challenges. The economic and nancial crisis and ongoing austerity measures are widely used as an excuse for cuts in public spending. They tend to slow down or even put on hold national and European gender equality legislation. Moreover recovery and in- vestment programmes are predominantly gender blind. As a consequence the economic situation for women and men has deteriorated since 2009. Further the rise of far right parties has given ground for anti-feminist movements and a discourse on “Gender Ideology” in Europe.

To foster a debate on these issues, the Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung (FES) EU Of ce organized an international conference in Brussels entitled “Building a gender just society – A common European agenda for gender equality“ in November 2014. The conference continued a dialogue on feminist economics between academics, civil society and politicians, established at a previous FES conference in Athens in 2013. With these annual experts meetings the FES wants to contribute to a continuous exchange on how to achieve more equitable, inclusive and sustainable societies.
Experts from Europe and the US developed visions and recommendations to make our societies more gender just. Core questions were: How will alternative macro- economic policies and models for sustainable and fair growth look? How are national and European (gender) policies contributing to more gender just societies, and which priorities are core for a new EU gender equality strategy after 2015?

In parallel workshops gender-speci c challenges in areas such as care economy, digital economy and society, migration as well as the criteria of EU funding instruments were examined in depth. Further inter- ventions focused on modern family policy models oriented at current needs of parents as well as new concepts for family working time schemes.
The promotion of gender equality should not be seen as a cost but as an important investment in our future and the economic prosperity of our societies. The im- portance of cultural and social reproduction for our societies and economies are not suf ciently taken into consideration by conventional indicators for growth. We need new indicators to measure gender equality and well being in our societies. As Associate Professor for International Macroeconomics, Gender and De- velopment at Colorado State University Elissa Braun- stein, underlined in her intervention, we have to identify sustainable growth paths that promote gender equality and support social reproduction.

The basic principle of gender equality is a fundamen- tal right and not just a “luxury” in good times. Gender equality is a question of justice and not of growth. Therefore politics are crucial and an important actor for change. Senior economist Helene Periver pointed out in her speech that Europe has a central role to play in a new articulation between market, welfare state and the family. “Public Policies and regulation of the labour market are the necessary condition to make the market a tool for empowering women”. Europe has the choice between “black austerity and a pink new deal”!
Concrete recommendations to this end were formu- lated during the workshops. State-driven investment in professional childcare facilities has to increase considerably, in order to provide better conditions for reconciling work and family life and to improve early childhood education. Moreover the need of a better protection of the rights of domestic workers was underlined. The experts asked for rati cation and im- plementation of the ILO convention 189 on domestic work in due time.

With this conference documentation the FES presents the main outcomes and recommendations discussed during the meeting. We would like to thank the authors Professor Alison Woodward (Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Petra Ahrens (Researcher, Humboldt University Berlin) and Serena D’Agostino (Researcher, Institute for European
Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) as well as the speakers and participants of the conference “Building a gender just society – A common European agenda for gender equality” for their contributions and support.