Rachel Silvera

Equal opportunities policies for women and men : a critical analysis of the 1998-1999 Employment Action Plans

Equal opportunities for men and women are one of the express objectives of the employment guidelines. Apart from measures to combat sexual discrimination in employment (unemployment, earnings, occupational segregation, etc.), it is now a declared objective to introduce an integrated approach through mainstreaming, making equality cut across all the employment pillars. This article seeks to highlight the innovative measures taken in this field and the advances as compared to 1998, but also to show where ground has been lost and where the various European plans are silent. The article falls into two main parts. We begin by looking at Guidelines 20 and 21, which are characterised by the importance they give to reconciling work and family life through specific new measures affecting the labour market. We then describe in detail the different approaches developed by the European countries to the concept of mainstreaming and draw up a typology of them, which will be something original since it does not entirely follow the traditional divides (between northern and southern countries, etc.).