University of Twente Student Theses
European Union's contribution to resolving gender inequalities on the German labour market : a case study in NRW
Jansen, Judith Ariane (2020) European Union's contribution to resolving gender inequalities on the German labour market : a case study in NRW.
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| Abstract: | Women in the European Union earn on average 16 percent less per hour than men do, although the principle of equal pay was introduced with the Treaty of Rome in 1957. To combat inequalities in employment, the EU has mainly introduced soft forms of governance in the last years, like the European Employment Strategy or the European Social Fund. Other studies have already looked at the effectiveness of these forms by quantitively measuring newly introduced laws and regulations in the member states. However, there is a lack in literature on financial tools, such as the European Social Fund, in which gender equality is explicitly mentioned as an objective. To fill the gap, this study aims to learn which priority gender equality has within the European Social Fund and how the objective is implemented. Therefore, it asks: How does the European Union with the European Social Fund contribute to resolving gender inequalities on the labour market in North Rhine-Westphalia? Using an exploratory, qualitative analysis of a single case, the influence of European interventions on promoting gender equality is investigated in this study. North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous federal state in Germany and thus, has a large administrative apparatus, which makes it particularly interesting to study. In-depth interviews with policy makers and experts help to understand the implementation process. The results show that with setting gender equality as a horizontal objective within the ESF, the EU contributes to achieving this goal in the labour market. However, the issue does not maintain its emphasized status in the policy implementation process. Due to vague and very open guidelines, the main responsibility currently lies with the local policy makers. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 70 social sciences in general, 88 social and public administration, 89 political science |
| Programme: | Management Society and Technology BSc (56654) |
| Link to this item: | http://purl.utwente.nl/essays/82367 |
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