Uguaglianza di Genere e il Mercato del Lavoro Europeo: una panoramica storica

This thesis investigates gender equality in the European labour market and its development starting from an analysis of concepts that are crucial to understanding the topic, such as gender discrimination, the gender pay gap, the gender employment gap, and gender mainstreaming. Equality between women and men is one of the European Union’s founding values, which goes back to 1957 when article 119 of the Treaty of Rome introduced the principle “equal pay for work of equal value.” From this moment, the issue of gender equality gained increasing importance year after year.<<Since the 1970s, many directives on gender equality have been enacted by the European Union using the legal basis provided by the Treaty of Rome. These key pieces of legislation have guaranteed many fundamental rights regarding equal pay and equal treatment in access to employment, training, working conditions, promotion, or dismissal, including social security benefits and the right to parental leave. To understand how these rights have been achieved, the thesis provides a historical overview that addresses the evolution of women’s participation in the European labour market and their respective rights in the 20th century through the present, taking also into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.