ABSTRACT
The European Union’s policy towards equal opportunities between men and women stands at the cross roads. Promoting equality in the economy will be tackled by the integration of women’s issues into all aspects of employment planning and the ‘information society’ and by tackling the issue of the desegregation of labour markets. The idea was incorporated into the Third Action Programme which stressed the importance of integrating equality issues into government decision-making. The monitoring and evaluation process of equal opportunities policy is given a higher profile in order to redress the fragmentation of policies which has occurred in previous Action Programmes. One advantage of a general equality/non-discrimination clause would be the recognition of multiple forms of disadvantage allowing for a more holistic view of women’s position in European society. Some social policy law commentators have already marginalized the significance of the equal opportunities policy, while others have subjected it to searching criticism.
