42. Calls on the Commission to promote gender quotas in occupations that are traditionally considered as ‘male’ or ‘female’, since stereotypes also come from the scarcity of women or men in certain positions; notes that the presence of more women in traditionally ‘male’ occupations and vice-versa will therefore weaken the prevalence of such stereotypes and that a balanced workforce would lead to enhanced productivity; calls also for support to be given to initiatives and campaigns which break down stereotypes about the low effectiveness of female employees and their lack of management skills; calls, therefore, for women to be supporte ...[+++]d in their career development and efforts to reach managerial positions;

W. whereas gender stereotyping is counterproductive and contributes on the labour market to gender divisions within occupations, and thus to widening the gender pay gap;

Y. whereas gender stereotyping is counterproductive and contributes on the labour market to gender divisions within occupations, and thus to widening the gender pay gap;

It's a feature of a proactive regime, the idea being that proactivity does not make gender predominance a hard and fast cut-off, but makes it the basis of analysis.

These guidelines establish, among other rules, that in determining whether a wage-payment practice complained of is discriminatory on the ground of gender, one factor to be considered is whether the “job group” at issue is predominantly male or female.

Engineering, obviously, is associated with male rather than female stereotypes – hence professions in engineering are considered to be typically male in nature and tend not to be a woman’s first choice.