In a continent like Europe advanced at present employment status of women relative to men is not equivalent. The entrance to the woman in the labor market is near the end of 1997 close to 45% (on all women between 15 and 64). This participation is however not equally distributed across countries, regions and age groups.

Increasing feminization of the workforce:

In the last two decades there has been a sharp increase participation of women in the labor market, known as dynamic increasing feminization of the workforce in OECD countries the female employment rate increased in the period 1992/1983 at a rate of 2% annually, while the share of men made it to 0.8%. Despite the economic recession and labor market reforms including its flexibility, in Central and Eastern European women’s participation in the labor market has suffered just as well in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, the participation of women in paid employment has remained stable since 1991.

Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the UK stand with percentages above 53% of the female participation rate, while at the opposite end are Spain, Greece, and Luxembourg with levels below 40%. Between Denmark and Italy there are 15 points apart. When compared with the participation of men, this presents average levels of 65%, implying a gender gap of 20 points in countries like Spain, Greece, Italy and Ireland and in over 25 countries in the North is less 10. Therefore, a clear connection between countries with lower participation rates and increasing difference between the rates by gender.

The European Commission is making significant research efforts to understand the characteristics of women’s employment in the European Union especially because it has assumed responsibility in the implementation of active employment policy to ensure economic and social cohesion and equal opportunities.

The Lisbon Summit:

The European Employment Strategy adopted at the Luxembourg summit in 1997, in a context of high unemployment was revised in 2000, by the Lisbon Summit, which set targets for employment in the short and long term. The Council of Nice, called for a review of the EES in 2002. In this context is to assess the employment situation in Spain from a gender perspective, taking as reference the European context.

The Lisbon target of increasing the quantity and quality demands of our government employment, employment policies conceived in order to improve the results of the quality of work and achieve high employment rates for women and men simultaneously.

Reduction in the differences between employment rates:

In 2001, the differences between activity rates and employment of women and men have continued to decrease. In 2001, the difference between the activity rate of men and the participation rate of women in the European Union was close to 18%. The most significant reductions in disparities between the employment rates of men and women have been observed in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. In these three countries, this decline is explained by the poor performance of the men access to employment.

Activity rates of women in the European Union increased to reach about 60%, while the men remained stable at 78%. The growing participation of women in working life has been more significant in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Ireland.

Comparing the Spanish situation with the EU average, it appears that the activity rate of Spanish women is much lower than the benchmark rate in Europe. The data relating to the Spanish male population, both in activity, employment and unemployment are very similar to those of the European male population.

Currently, more immediate in the context of crisis we are living world, Spain can not get away with in European statistics. The 66’4% of the Spanish male population (those who want and are willing to work) have a job. While in the case of women, are only 53%, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), reflecting the inequalities that still persist. This difference of 13.4 points above the EU average, which is in a 12’3%. The second member of the EU more imbalance between male and female occupation (23 points), second only to Malta (33’7 points), according to Eurostat data.

In countries such as Poland and Slovenia, there is also a gap in employment between the sexes (in all cases unfavorable to women) than in Spain, but are close to average. The Nordic countries are examples of social progress lesson in the field of equality: Sweden, Holland and Denmark are working with more parity, with an employment gap between the sexes of around four points. The average Spanish occupation of women is therefore far from the targets set for 2010 by the Treaty of Lisbon (60%).

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