Abstract
Gender equality is among the fundamental principles and the common values of the European Union. In the 2nd Article of the Treaty of the European Community, it is even mentioned as a "task" to perform for the Community, and again in Article 3(2) TEC. But two questions already appear: what can the European Community do exactly? And is the task performed well, is the goal achieved? Equality between men and women can concern several fields, but we shall focus here on the working conditions and incentives to work for women, in other words gender equality at work. Why is it a topic very much tackled during the recent years? The Lisbon Summit in 2000 underlined the question of women labour force, as a source of growth that the EU strongly needs, as a purpose in itself, but also in order to achieve other economic goals like full employment or European competitiveness in the world. The year 2007 is for the European Commission the "European Year of equal opportunities". In this framework many surveys have been made and the Commission itself has broadly and deeply stated on the situation of women and employment in the EU. When studying the issue of gender equality at work, one would not avoid dealing with other issues as reconciliation of family and work life and family policies in general, but also the questions of gender pay gap or women and their access to top-management positions. The challenges faced by women are very well summed up in the Commission's "Road map for equality between men and women 2006-20101": "Many women have attained the highest levels of education, entered the labour market and become important players in public life.
