Employment Equality in the Corporate World: Opportunities and Constraints to the Full Implementation of the Equality Agenda in a Comparative Setting

Abstract

The gap between the ratification of equal employment policies and the full implementation of those rights has been driving feminist scholarship for the last couple of decades. Despite the development of a significant body of legislation protecting women’s access to the labour market in most advanced industrialised countries, there remains a significant gap between formal and substantive rights. Equality outcomes are lagging behind the formal legal framework. This project seeks to outline impact of equal employment policies on equality outcomes in the corporate sphere. The focus of the analysis is on vertical segregation, as this is one of the main barriers to women’s career progression in a corporate setting. Vertical segregation feeds into key indicators for gender equality in employment as it contributes to the gender pay gap, organisational mechanisms for promoting women and work-life balance choices. We are looking for country case studies exploring the impact of vertical segregation on employment structures and equality outcomes. The aim of this panel is to explore national and cross-national trends. In so doing, the papers will provide important insights into political mechanisms, key actors, and the overall position of employment equality on the national policy agenda. The analysis of vertical segregation also provides an important platform for the discussion of increasing women’s representation of corporate boards. National approaches and mechanisms for dealing with the problem of women’s under-representation within decision making structures allows for a detailed investigation of the transformative potential of key policies as well as the impact of direct and indirect discrimination on equality outcomes.

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