Annex: Questionnaire

• Author: Sansonetti, Silvia; Davern, Eamonn
• Pages: 49-54

Study Report on PES approaches to the promotion of gender equality

49

2020

ANNEX:QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire to support small-scale study - PES approaches to combat

Gender inequality in the labour market

The EU has made significant progress in gender equality in recent decades. Encouraging

trends are the higher number of women on the labour market and their progress in securing

better education and training. Unfortunately, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis is

endangering the improvements achieved in women’s labour market participation and now

more than ever PES commitment is needed in this area of intervention.

Additional shortages in labour demand to those already present before the crisis have

worsened women’s conditions. Statistics show that before the COVID-19 crisis compared

to men, women were less likely to work full-time, more likely to be employed in lower-paid

occupations, and less likely to progress in their careers. As a result, gender pay gaps were

persisting and women were more likely to end their lives in poverty. Expectations are now

even worse as in many Member States women have been most affected by the crisis: they

are more likely to work in part-time, fixed term and precarious forms of work and in the

sectors most affected such as the hotel restaurant and catering sector, culture and

communication, childcare/family/domestic care activities. Furthermore, the interruption of

schooling and childcare services during the lockdown has further hindered women’s

participation more than that of men, as family and care commitments are still primarily

considered women’s duties in most of the EU countries. The overall impact of the crisis has

been to push women out of the labour market: consequently, the number of inactive

women has increased.

The Commission 2020 PES Work Programme therefore included a Gender Equality Strategy

to address the key challenges that women still face, including a lack of economic

independence and reduced access to the labour market. PES can contribute to reducing

gender gaps by applying a gender lens in their services such as career guidance,

counselling, ALMPs and raising the awareness of stakeholders (in particular employers)

and wider society.

The aim of this small-scale study is to explore the role and activities of PES in: alleviating

labour market gender inequality, contributing to national gender equality strategic

frameworks and applying measures which address women’s labour market integration and

enhance their employability. The study is also intended to identify promising and good PES

Practices.

Thank you for agreeing to contribute to this study by filling in this survey. It will take you

a maximum of approximately 30 minutes. Your response will be central to obtaining an

overview on existing measures for alleviating labour market gender inequalities. Please

provide as much detail as is needed to explain your approach.

Queries: For any queries that may arise while completing the questionnaire, please

contact Ms Silvia Sansonetti atpesnetwork@fondazionebrodolini.eu and copying to PES-

BL-team@icon-institute.de .

Deadline: Please email your response to the questions as soon as possible and not later

than 15 July 2020topesnetwork@fondazionebrodolini.eu and copying to PES-BL-

team@icon-institute.de .