Restricted call for proposals to address gender gaps over the life-cycle
The aim of the call is to support projects by Member States that analyse existing gender gaps and develop effective measures to tackle them, in particular the gender gap in pensions. The underlying reasons for women’s lower income and women’s greater risk of poverty are manifold: women participate less in the labour market, they work fewer hours, and they are paid less than men on average. Also the take up of family-related leaves and time spent on care work have an impact on women’s earnings. There are inequalities in study subject choices and careers patterns, and women often face glass ceilings when it comes to accessing decision-making positions. Gendered patterns in education partly explain the gender segregation in the labour market. All this leads to the persistence of the gender pay gap, the gender earnings gap and the gender gap in pensions. Gender gaps in pay, pensions and participation hinder women’s economic independence.
The expected impact of the projects is to contribute to reducing the gender gap in pay, earnings and pensions and the higher risk of poverty faced by older women, for example by supporting men and women to make informed choices throughout their life and by combatting obstacles to the economic independence of women. At aggregate level, tackling the gender gap in pensions and its underlying causes contributes to the sustainability of social protection systems: equal economic independence at all ages means that each individual woman/man is able to live out of its own work and is able to fully contribute to the social protection system.
This specific call will also respond to the call of the Council of the European Union to raise awareness on the gender pension gap and to ensure that women and men „remain in quality employment over the whole life cycle, resulting in higher labour force participation and fuller careers and thus an earnings history that will result in an adequate pension“ (Council conclusions adopted in September 2015).
This call for proposals aims to achieve the objectives defined in the Strategic engagement for gender equality 2015-2019 and the European Pact for gender equality.
Applicants shall explain and demonstrate how their proposal is aligned with EU policies and with the documents referred to below.
- The annual Report on equality between women and men which takes stock of the EU’s achievements and highlights the remaining gender gaps.
- The opinion of the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men delivered on „reducing the gender gap in pensions“, which was delivered in 2014.
- The Council Conclusions “Equal income opportunities for women and men: Closing the gender gap in pensions„.
- The 2015 Pension Adequacy Report which dedicated a special section to the gender gap in pensions.
Eligibility and admissibility conditions
2.1 Admissibility requirements are described under point 1 of part C of the Guide for applicants
2.2 Eligibility criteria
To be eligible, grant applications must comply with all of the following criteria:
(a) the application must be submitted:
(i) by the national authority in charge of the policy on equality between women and men (if an application is submitted by this authority, applications submitted by other entities will be ineligible); or
(ii) by the body responsible for gender equality at national level (i.e. body referred to in Art. 20 of the Directive 2006/54/EC) (if no application is submitted by the national authority under (i), an application submitted by the body responsible for gender equality at national level will be eligible); or
(iii) by another national authority (only if no application is submitted by the two entities under (i) and (ii), will an application submitted by another national authority be eligible);
Co-applicants must be public entities or private organisations, duly established in one of the countries participating in the Programme, or international organisations;
(b) the EU grant applied for cannot be lower than EUR 100 000;
Zdroj: European Commission
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