A “wave of feminism” in the EEC. The origins of European equal opportunity policy (1969-1978)

di Federica Di Sarcina
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 30 (2009), p. 59

This paper focuses on the birth of the acquis communautaire on equal pay and treatment between women and men in the second half of Seventies, after the approval of the first Social Action Program (1973). Fundamental component of the EEC equal opportunity policy as well as of the current “European social model”, the three directives adopted in this period marked a crucial step towards a more balanced labour market for women, notoriously affected by pay discriminations and occupational segregation. Thanks to this legal acts, EEC/EU member States adapted their internal legislation, recognizing and protecting – from a legal point of view – the equality principle between women and men workers established at the European level.