ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether the European Employment Strategy may effectively promote gender equality in the context of the reorganization of European labour markets. By adopting a gender audit approach it identifies synergies and conflicts between measures aimed at encouraging the adaptability of businesses and their employees to structural, economic and industrial change and measures aimed at promoting gender equality in the labour market. In particular, the chapter examines the implementation of the EES as a New Governance tool and uses a comparative analysis approach to evaluate how effective it is to implement and enforce social policy measures. The countries selected are Italy, Denmark and the Czech Republic representing ideal-type southern Mediterranean, Scandinavian and Central Eastern European social policy systems.
