Kick Off Meeting Presentation Kethi

Research Centre for Gender Equality (KETHI)GREECE

Vicky Germotsi and Asimina Gioldasi

INTERREG IVC PROJECT”G4G”

Research Centre for Gender Equality

The Research Centre for Gender Equality (KETHI) is a Legal Entity under Private Law. It is supervised and funded by the General Secretariat for Equality of the Ministry of the Interior. KETHI functions centrally in Athens and regionally in Alexandroupoli, Amfissa, Heraklion, Kalamata, Komotini, Patras, Preveza, Thessalonica and Volos. We are dynamically activated in enabling the advancement of women in all areas of social, political and economic life and we aim at contributing decisively in the elimination of discriminations against women. We carry out researches and studies and implement national and European action projects on gender equality issues.


The basic aims of our activities are:• to conduct and carry out research and scientific studies on

gender equality • to implement national policies and EU programmes regarding

gender equality • to release and publish research, studies and other information

material and make it available to the public • to provide information on women rights and gender equality

issues.• to share know-how and expertise on issues regarding women

counselling in employment, entrepreneurship and social integration.

• to co-operate with European and international organizations to promote mutual exchange of information on gender equality policies.

The gender economic gap in Greece

In the Greek labour market a considerable portion of the wage gap between males and females is due to discrimination in the labour market. This gap is found to be one of the largest in Europe.

Over the last few decades, female labour market participation has increased significantly in most OECD countries and specifically in Greece, this trend has been amongst the strongest observed. However, female participation in Greece is still low and is actually amongst the lowest within the European Union.


In addition high rates of female unemployment are one of main characteristics of the Greek labour market. Greek female unemployment is higher than the average EU level. Another key characteristic of the Greek labour market is the high number of self-employed females. Rates of female self-employment in the Greek labour market are high, reflecting the structure of the Greek economy, where production activities generally take place within small family businesses which females either run or are employed within.


In Greece, the increase of female participation has occurred much more recently. In particular, while the contraction of the primary sector during the 1960’s reduced female participation and increased their rates of unemployment, the expansion of the tertiary sector in the 1990s has offered females many employment opportunities and has increased their employment levels


Regarding institutional factors and their impact on the Greek female labour market, changes in the Greek Constitution in 2001 had important implications for female employment. In particular, the new Constitution encourages governmental actions aiming at the “The adoption of positive measures for the promotion of equality between men and women” (Article 116, Greek Constitution).

Anti-discrimination Law: The first anti-discrimination legislation in Greece was introduced by the Article 22 of the 1975 Constitution, which established that “All workers have the right to equal pay for work of equal value”. In 1997, antidiscrimination was reinforced by the adoption of the Amsterdam treaty that inspired most of the institutional changes recently adopted in Greece, such as the reform of the 2001 Constitution


Gender Mainstreaming of Employment Policies

A clear example of gender mainstreaming in employment policy is provided by Greece. All employability schemes are open to both the unemployed (on benefits or not) and the inactive, provided they register with the public employment service. In line with the female share of the unemployed, a 60% quota for women in all employability schemes was announced in the NAP on employment for 1999. Since 2000, the quota has been continuously implemented on the announced numbers of all training, job creation and work-experience schemes. Since 2004 it also applies to the unemployed hired for part-time jobs in the public sector.



There are several examples of gender mainstreaming in active labour market policies. These include female quotas for the beneficiaries of all employability measures that are open to both the unemployed and the inactive, higher subsidies for women than for men belonging to socially vulnerable groups, special job creation schemes for mothers with children, higher subsidies to employers hiring lone parents and returnees, inclusion of all women or special female groups among the target groups of integrated programmes for regional development and wide-ranging national programmes for the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups.



Policies to reduce vertical segregation generally aim to increase the number of women in high-level and/or management jobs. A number of policy measures have been implemented in Greece since the beginning of the 2000s aimed at equality in career opportunities. Most of them are still in operation and funded by the European Structural Funds.

Another example is the scheme of “positive actions in favour of women in large firms and SMEs” that aims at supporting the career advancement of women in firms and the upgrading of their skills. Eligible actions include information and sensitisation of female workers regarding the goals of the programme, counselling and training, improvement of educational attainment, teleworking and the creation of a care infrastructure.



There has never been any attempt to gender mainstream wage policy. However, a number of measures deployed in the field of career policy are expected to have an indirect positive impact on tackling the gap through their direct effect on desegregation of employment by gender.

The gender mainstreaming in Greece is not applied in the case of childcare leave, since the underlying logic of leave is to enable mothers (and not parents) to cope with care duties’.

Reconciliation policies focus on the creation of a publicly funded infrastructure for the care of children, the elderly and the disabled, and the extension of the schedules of public nurseries, kindergartens and schools.

The actors involved

General Secretariat for Gender Equality –Ministry of Interior


Ministry of Employment and Social Protection

Ministry of Development

Regional Committees for Gender Equality

Greek Ombudsman

Trade Unions of Employees and Employers

Current projects

KETHI does not currently implement any project related to the issue. However we are very experienced in the implementation of this kind of projects. Some of our recent projects include the project tilted: “Integrated Interventions in favor of women”, in the framework of the Operational Programme “Employment and Vocational Training 2000-2006” of the 3rd Community Support Framework coordinated by KETHI and the General Secretariat for Gender Equality. The specific project did not only support unemployed women in finding work, but also facilitated the reconciliation of family and working life.

Current projects

KETHI also implemented the European project: “Localising Gender Equality through Development” in the framework of the 5th Community Action Programme relating to the Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality. The project aims were to empower women, in order to seek greater participation in economic and political structures at local level and to improve the knowledge among women in local societies regarding developmental local policies and initiatives

The main obstacles against removing the economic gap

Traditional type of Greek families and strong family bonds in the Greek society.

Gender stereotypes.

Availability of childcare facilities. In the last years, the availability of childcare facilities in Greece has increased significantly. However, the institutional measures in Greece are lagging behind the European standards in creating favourable conditions for the employment of females with children while public support for childcare is very low.

The main obstacles against removing the economic gap

Flexible forms of work. The availability of some flexible forms of work, such as part-time, seasonal work, and work from home facilitates a balance between work and family, and thus increases female participation. However, this type of work is not very common in Greece.

Desegregation of female and male professions. For example, the profession of the teacher is overrepresented by women.

Kind of support needed in order to remove the gender economic gap

Greece in order to remove the economic gender gap needs a combination of funding, know-how and political support. In this context, the General Secretariat for Gender Equality has been actively participating in the preparation of the 2007-2013 NATIONAL STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN. To that effect, an ad hoc Group has been set up to plan GSGE interventions the said Group elaborated and forwarded proposals to consolidate Equality as a sectoral policy with a horizontal nature of intervention.


They achieved the following:

a. General Target 11: promotion of the economic, social and developmental character of gender equality matters by directly linking them to dominant national political priorities (development-employment-social cohesion) was integrated in the NSDP.

Moreover, General Target 12: Improvement of the quality of public policies etc includes the explicit reference: A significant horizontal target is to effectively integrate the national policy on Equality in the entire public action spectrum etc


b. Funds have been reserved, as explicitly cited in all (Sectoral and Regional) Operational Programmes: “To promote gender equality and achieve the targets of the Operational Programme in this sector, a specific percentage out of the programme’s budget is going to be reserved in the most convenient way. This percentage will be specified by decision of the monitoring committee”.

c. The implementation of specific actions in favour of women/and actions to support women’s entrepreneurship and employment have been planned, including to incorporate equality in the planning and to implement all axes, actions and priorities of all Operational Programmes.

What do we hope G4G will bring us

G4G will bring us experience exchange in European level and

we hope it will contribute to the whole national effort for the

reduction of the gender economic gap in Greece.

Thank you for your attention

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Kick Off Meeting Presentation Kethi