Poverty, gender and intersecting inequalities in the EU : review of the implementation of Area A, Women and Poverty of the Beijing Platform for Action : report

The Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995 marked an important step in addressing the gender dimension of poverty. 'Women and Poverty' was identified as the first area of concern of the BPfA. In 2007, under the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, the Council agreed on three indicators, including two sub-indicators, to measure progress in this area (Council of the European Union, 2007). The indicators measure income poverty, making use of a calculation of risk of poverty by age, sex and household structure and economic inactivity rates. In the context of Europe 2020, additional indicators have been developed that cover not only income poverty (risk of poverty) but also non-income poverty (severe material deprivation) and labour market-related poverty (low work intensity) in order to better capture the complex nature of poverty and social exclusion. Following the request of the Slovak Presidency of the EU (2016), the present report explores the progress between 2007 and 2014 in alleviating poverty in the EU.