Seminar: Gender equality in the Baltic states

Women have still not achieved equality in the labour market. Although in many instances their qualifications are superior to those of their male colleagues, they rarely rise to higher management, their pay is generally lower and on retirement they face a higher risk of poverty. Removing such inequalities is one of the main aims of the trade unions. Representatives of the Latvian and Lithuanian trade union federations (LBAS and LPSK) came together at this seminar convened by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung to debate what can be done to tackle this inequality in the labour market and what they can learn from one another. They discussed the implementation of the EU directive on the reconciliation of work with family life, the ETUC campaign to raise wages and salaries and the European Commission’s Action Plan 2017–2019 to tackle the gender pay gap. Within the framework of the seminar a visit was made to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) so that participants could learn about its work. The focus here was the Gender Quality Index and the Institute’s studies on gender-specific wage gaps, women’s involvement in decision-making processes and the reconciliation of work and family life.