Children – Care – Career

A whole series of studies and investigations at the economic and social levels show quite clearly that one of the decisive prerequisites for enabling women to decide to pursue a career, thereby increasing participation of women in the labour market, lies in improving the possibility of combining working life with bringing up and caring for children as well as, increasingly, caring for mostly elderly family members.[1]

These theses are confirmed as regards the chemical industry through the 2010 study conducted by the project partners, which determined that "women's participation in the labour market [is] lower, the more children a woman has." Further studies prove that the situation for most women is still critical despite the progress achieved in the last few years with regulations and statutory measures in the EU's 27 states regarding parental leave, maternity rights and childcare. There is still not enough being done to enable women, whose employment potential is so urgently needed, to combine careers, bringing up children and caring for family members.

The finding as described in the two projects conducted in the years 2010 to 2012 therefore requires further intervention, without further delay, in terms of sensible and lasting initiatives - not least because the "window of opportunity" identified by the European Commission for the timely adoption of measures against the effects of demographic change is only open until 2017.

This project's aim is therefore that employees, trades unions and managerial staff jointly develop and communicate good and best practices as well as measures and strategies to help combine careers, bringing up children and care of the elderly. FECCIA, ECEG and industriAll Europe have achieved the following results:

Preparation of a study to provide a comparative overview of existing statutory stipulations and other initiatives at the national level in a selection of relevant states in the EU's 28
Drawing up of good and best practice examples in the chemical industry
Development of the e-platform "Children - Care - Career" with results and notifications updated regularly
Discussion of all issues at the international conference "Children - Care - Career: Equal Participation of Women in the European Chemical Industry", from 26 – 28 June 2014 in Copenhagen with management and employees, human resources personnel, employee councils and managers in the chemical industry.

[1] Examples that should be mentioned include