Women Teaching Languages in Higher Education: Voices from the European Union
The European Union and its predecessors have been active in the promotion of gender equality across the member states. However, studies looking at the position of women in academic and related professions in Europe often place their main emphasis on the s
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Women Teaching Languages in Higher Education: Voices from the European Union Elisabeth Lillie
Introduction The twentieth century saw the gradual enfranchisement and empowerment of women across the continent of Europe as they gained the right to vote, became able to avail of better educational opportunities and increasingly entered a wider range of employment. From an early stage the European Union (EU) and its predecessors have played a major role in supporting women in their search for equity in employment, social justice and an education commensurate with their abilities and adapted to the demands of the modern workplace. The economic imperative of developing fully the talents of citizens in all member states was certainly a key motivation. Yet the volume and scope of the work undertaken go beyond the purely economic. A crucial element was the establishment of a legal framework for enforcement. Largely launched in the 1970s, a range of directives, applicable in the member states, created a legal basis for equality of pay and treatment in employment and these have been subject to ongoing scrutiny, additions and amendment. From this period too, judgements on infringements of European Treaties or laws from the European Court of Justice (now Court of Justice of the European Union) have also been a major and ongoing factor in the implementation of equality measures. The 1980s saw the development of Action Programmes, each covering a span of years, to address in a more purposeful way the problems faced by women and promote and implement good practice, an approach which continues to be used to map out activities, strategies and forward looking plans. Also effective in fostering change
E. Lillie (*) Faculty of Arts, Ulster University, Coleraine, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 H. Eggins (ed.), The Changing Role of Women in Higher Education, The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective 17, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42436-1_13
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through the dissemination of information and communication with stakeholders in member states has been the setting up of specialist advisory groupings and networks. Regular evaluations of achievement have been undertaken by Europe and although they have shown progress, they also reveal the need for continued action and a more sustained approach in order to attain fuller gender equality. It was to address such concerns that, principally from the 1990s, gender mainstreaming, the ‘principle of integrating the equal opportunities dimension in all policies and activities’ at both Community and Member State levels was evolved and adopted as a more holistic approach to equality for both men and women (Council Decision of 22 December 1995 on a medium-term Community action programme on equal opportunities for men and women, 1996–2000: 95/593/EC, Article 2) (on the evolution of European strategies see, for instance, Burri and Prechal 2014; Earles 2014; Hantrais 2007; Rees 2005, 2007;
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