ABSTRACT
Progress towards higher levels of female employment was evident in all EU member states during the 1990s, except for those countries such as Sweden and Finland which had already achieved a high level of female employment by the end of the 1980s. While the direction of change towards greater integration of women into the wage economy is clear, some important issues remain to be addressed regarding the prospects for integration with equality. In particular we need to consider whether there is a glass ceiling to the improvement and advancement of women’s position in the labour market, such that full equality cannot be achieved in the labour market if there is no change in the traditional gender division of labour in the home and a low representation of women among decision-makers; whether there will be a convergence between EU member states in the levels of gender equality and in particular between less developed and more developed parts of the EU; and whether there will be increasing divisions between women, between the less and the more educated or between women with and without children, or whether current differences between women are more indicative of change in attitudes and aspirations between generations of women.
