ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) goal of gender equality has largely focused on questions of employment and discrimination in and outside of the workforce. It has also raised the question of who does the household care work and other household labour. But these academic and policy discussions focus on individual men and women, or on couples. This chapter will add another issue to the discussion of gender equality – that of the economic consequences of divorce and separation. Gender equality in this research is measured by comparing the pre- and post-separation household-equivalent income of women to the pre- and post-separation household-equivalent income of men. 1 These household-equivalent income measures are calculated for four EU countries: France, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Although this measure of gender equality only takes income into account, income is critical for achieving equal economic independence for women and men as set forth in the Lisbon Roadmap 2006–2010 (Europa, Summaries of EU Legislation). A separate analysis is required for couples with children compared to couples without children. The chapter will give special attention to understanding gender equality for couple households where there are children.
