Overall assessment

• Author: Natalie Videbaek Munkholm
• Pages: 62-62

62

12Overall assessment

The following transposition problems were mentioned in this report:

1.There could be a potential issue with the recognition of the discrimination form of

indirect discrimination by association. There is no case law addressing the question

explicitly, but as discussed in Section 3.9, it could be argued that there is a reluctance

of the Supreme Court towards indirect discrimination by association, indicating that

also for protection against indirect sex discrimination, the victim has to belong to the

disadvantaged group.

2.Both the Act on Gender Equality and the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination in

the Labour Market usethe term ‘just and proper’ rather than ‘legitimate’in the

definition of indirect discrimination.

Beyond those two examples, the author can point to no other transposition problems.

As stated in this report, Denmark has implemented the EU gender equality directives in

national law. In the opinion of the author of this report, the current status of the

implementation is satisfactory and there are no gaps due to a lack or poor implementation

of EU legislation.

The major issue regarding gender equality in Denmark is the gender segregation of the

labour market, both vertically and horizontally. Women tend to work in the public sector

and women are still significantly underrepresented on management boards, in top

management posts and at professor level inuniversities. A significant pay gap between

men and women is one consequence of the segregated labour market. In addition, due to

lower pensions, women are at higher risk of poverty in their old age than men.

Women also take on the largest role in caring for children and progress on this issue has

been very slow. In Denmark, more women than men work part time. However, the unequal

sharing of care-related activities offers only part of the explanation for this phenomenon.

The general situation for gender equality in Denmark isnot specifically tied to non-

compliance with EU legislation.