The Open Society Institute’s Network Women’s Program has released a report entitled, Equal Opportunities for Women and Men: Monitoring Law and Practice in New Member States and Accession Countries of the European Union. The report is based on monitoring reports from experts and local NGO representatives in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey and explains national mechanisms, policies, programs, and highlights of shortcomings within each country. Those shortcomings, the report finds, are often due to a lack of awareness about how gender inequality affects men and women’s daily lives, and notes that despite the existence of gender equality policies at both the national and European Union level, there is a general lack of political will to properly monitor and enforce them.
From the gender pay gap, under-representation in decision-making processes, and lack of consistent policy-oriented strategies in regards to violence against women and trafficking in human beings, the report states that:
"The EU integration process has clearly been a catalyst for improvements in the legislative framework on gender equality in the new Member States and Candidate Countries. However, these 2004 monitoring reports reveal that this legal change has not been translated into a meaningful impact on the daily lives of men and women."
The report is available online as the full report, an overview which contains legislative reviews as well as recommendations and in-depth country reports, or as individual country fact-sheets.
Download the overview here: Equal Opportunities for Women and Men: Monitoring Law and Practice in New Member States and Accession Countries of the European Union. (PDF 104 pages)
Compiled from: Equal Opportunities for Women and Men: Monitoring Law and Practice in New Member States and Accession Countries of the European Union, Open Society Institute, 9 May 2005.