employment development consultant

In response, the Lisbon European Council in March set ambitious new targets for women: most importantly, measures should be take to increase the female employment rate to 60% by 2010 from today's 53%.

Emphasises that the family is a cornerstone of our society and is inherently associated with the transmission of values and with cooperation in a spirit of solidarity; underlines that introducing flexible working hours and providing teleworking opportunities, as well as extending child care and professionalising home help for the elderly, represent an important step towards making it possible to combine work and family life and to enhance equal participation of women and men in the labour market and in education and training; regrets the fact that the lack of adequate leave schemes, parental leave schemes and flexible working arrangements for both parents often prevents women from participating actively in the labour market or from workin ...[+++]g full time; considers that this also requires a change in corporate cultures with regard to the appointment and employment of women; calls therefore on the Council, the Commission and the Member States to prevent cuts in benefits or social services in the field of childcare, care of the elderly and vulnerable people as a result of the economic and financial crisis;

Enhancing female participation in economic decision-making, on company boards in particular, is expected to have a positive spill-over effect on female employment in the companies concerned and throughout the whole economy.

Underlines the need to provide women in precarious jobs with the option of protection of entitlements such as decent pay, maternity leave, fair and regular working hours and a non-discriminatory working environment, which are crucial for these women; calls on the Member States to penalise the imposition of obstacles to trade union participation and in general encourages the Member States, moreover, to provide low-threshold advisory services for women who cannot receive support from a works council, for example employees in private househol ...[+++]ds; calls on the social partners to improve gender parity in their bodies at all levels;