Online event

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: Gender equality – It’s not all about pay

Hot on the heels of the European Parliament’s Gender Equality week 25-29 October 2021 and to mark European Equal Pay Day on 10 November 2021, Eurofound and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) organised a joint webinar: Gender Equality – It’s not all about pay.

Go to event agenda

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: Gender equality – It’s not all about pay

When?

Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Irish local time

Start

14:00

End

15:00

Online

Organised by

Eurofound in cooperation with the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

Event background

Date: 10 November 2021 - Time: 14.00 – 15.00 GMT (15.00 – 16.00 CET)

Watch the video

The debate

Moderated by Maria Jepsen, Eurofound's Deputy Director, and drawing on the latest research findings, Martina Bisello, Research Manager at Eurofound, and Blandine Mollard, Researcher at EIGE, examined the root causes of the EU’s gender pay gap. Together with Frances Fitzgerald, Member of the European Parliament, they explored the importance of pay transparency and addressed critical questions such as:

Why does the gender pay gap continue?
Which aspects of gender segregation in employment persist in the EU?
How can we address gender differences at work and at home?
What are the patterns of convergence in gender equality?
What do we see emerging from EIGE’s latest Gender Equality Index?

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on gender equality in a number of areas with women’s mental well-being and work-life balance more negatively affected than men’s. In addition, the gender pay gap persists in the EU with women’s earnings lagging behind men’s. A higher percentage of minimum wage earners among female employees (8.7%) than among male employees (5%). In almost every EU country, more than half of minimum wage earners are women.

The panellists

Moderator: Maria Jepsen, Eurofound

Maria Jepsen is Eurofound’s Deputy Director, appointed on 1 November 2019. Prior to this, she was Director of the research department at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), and assistant professor and research fellow at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). She is currently also associate professor in labour economics at ULB and external lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL). Her main research interests include gender studies, the impact of welfare states on labour supply, wages and working conditions, and more recently the development of the European social dimension. Ms Jepsen has been a member of various committees, councils and advisory boards at national and international level on employment, social, gender and research issues. She has also served as a coordinator on the European Commission tripartite advisory committee on health and safety at work. She holds a PhD in Economics and a Master’s degree in Econometrics from the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

Webinar speaker image: Frances Fitzgerald

Speaker: Frances Fitzgerald, Member of the European Parliament

Frances Fitzgerald is an Irish MEP from Dublin. A parliamentarian for over 20 years, she served as Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) from 2016-17, one of only four women to have ever held this position. She has also served as Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation (2017); Minister for Justice & Equality (2014-17) and was the State’s first Minister for Children & Youth Affairs (2011-14). Prior to her election to the Dáil (Irish Parliament), Frances served as Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-92) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby. Frances was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She is a full member of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and a substitute member of the Development Committee (DEVE) and the Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE). Frances was elected Vice Chair of the EPP Group in March 2021, and EPP Coordinator of the FEMM Committee in July 2019.

Today’s webinar has hammered home more than ever that gender inequalities, such as the gender pay gap - where a woman earns 86 cent for every euro a man earns - continues to be unacceptable, even more so in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker: Martina Bisello, Eurofound

Martina Bisello is a research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. Her research interests include gender gaps in the labour market, occupational change and the impact of technology on work. Prior to joining Eurofound in 2014, she was visiting researcher at the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol and at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. She holds an MSc in International Economics from the University of Padova and a PhD in Economics (Doctor Europaeus mention) from the University of Pisa.

The story of women in the labour market is a story of success in the last decade, but it is incomplete and fragile - the COVID-19 crisis shows us that. We have challenges to deal with, we need a comprehensive set of measures to tackle the root causes of gender inequality on the labour market.

Speaker: Blandine Mollard, EIGE

Blandine Mollard works as a researcher in the Research and Indices Team of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in Vilnius. She recently coordinated the 2021 edition of the Gender Equality Index with a thematic focus on health. One of the co-authors of the 2020, 2019 and 2017 editions of the Gender Equality Index, she also coordinated EU-wide research on unpaid care work, youth and digitalisation and violence against women. Before joining EIGE in 2016, she worked on Research and Statistics on gender issues in the Pacific Island Region for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and in the Gender Coordination Unit of the International Organization for Migration in Geneva.

The gender pay gap, as useful as it is, should not be looked at in isolation. We also need to look at gender gaps in earnings and the pension gap. These three indicators together give us a fuller picture, in all its complexity.

— Blandine Mollard, EIGE

Agenda

Series: Ask The Expert webinars

Join our interactive Ask the Expert webinars, where Eurofound researchers present our latest findings and answer your questions in real time. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage directly with the people behind the research.

See all events in this series

Online event

Own event

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Beyond the data - Uncovering persistent inequalities in European working conditions

DateWednesday, 24 September 2025

Time15:00h‒16:00h (Irish local time)

LocationOnline

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: Gender equality – It’s not all about pay

Event background

Date: 10 November 2021 - Time: 14.00 – 15.00 GMT (15.00 – 16.00 CET)

Watch the video

The debate

The panellists

Recent links

Agenda

Series: Ask The Expert webinars

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Beyond the data - Uncovering persistent inequalities in European working conditions

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Are robots revolutionising work in Europe?

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: Facing the future - Exploring the key challenges for Europe in election year

Watch the webinar - AskTheExpert: State of play of social dialogue in Europe

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: How to help workers struggling with inflation?

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert - Key ingredients for the future of work: job quality and gender equality

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: Making telework work for everyone – lessons from the pandemic for a digital age

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert: Reassessing gender inequalities in the labour market: impact of COVID-19 pandemic

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert: The rise of the telework generation – What impact for working conditions?

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert - EU citizens experience deep fatigue and frustration as pandemic enters second year - New survey findings from Living, working and COVID-19

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert - Addressing the social and employment impact of the pandemic - Living, working and COVID-19

Watch the webinar: #AskTheExpert - Game-changing technologies - How will they impact Europe’s economy, work and employment?

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: the European Company Survey 2019 findings on skills

Watch the webinar - #AskTheExpert: the European Company Survey 2019 findings on employee involvement

Webinar: #AskTheExpert - The impact of COVID-19 for people living and working in Europe: How can policymakers respond?