RECONSIDERING WORK-LIFE BALANCE, PREREQUISITE OF DIMINISHING THE WAGE DIFFERENTIAL AND ATTAINING GENDER EQUALITY WITHIN THE EUROPEAN AREA

Some realities of social life within the European room such as individualising life styles, patterns of low fertility in all Member States, and demographic ageing amplifying care services’ requirements for the “fourth age” and some major objectives of the European policy like the target of 75% employment for individuals between 20 to 65 years of age, and the objective of “demographic renewal” have imposed reconsidering the work-life balance. The balanced division between the responsibilities of family life, including the ones between family and society is regarded as prerequisite of increasing integration of women into the labour force, allowing the transition from “male breadwinner model” to “dual earner model”, and at social scale same contribution to economic growth and sustainable development. This would unburden women from excessive weights in private life thus combating horizontal and vertical segregation on labour market and, consequently, diminishing wage differentials and attaining gender equality. This turned into a topic of concern for the European policy already since the nineties, making the object of several communications of the European Commission, decisions of the European Council and resolutions of the European Parliament which together represent a true political European commitment regarding gender equality.