Care on the Move: Addressing the Gender Gap

EU free movement rules constitute, today, a cornerstone aspect of the EU citizenship regime. However, in the context of the gender care gap, where unpaid care work concerns mostly women, EU free movement isn’t enjoyed equally between men and women.

Mothers, and, more generally, women with caring responsibilities, encounter difficulties, when moving to an EU host Member State, in accessing and securing EU free movement rights and protections, such as residence and equal treatment rights. Care work is therefore even more challenging in the framework of intra-EU mobility, since EU citizenship and free movement rules neglect that reality. It leads to adverse consequences, notably in terms of legal and physical insecurity and precariousness, both for those with caring responsibilities and those being cared for, like children.

Highlighting the urgent and critical need for considering the gender care gap issue in relation to intra-EU mobility and free movement rights and protections, is fundamental. It is also in line with what we at Make Mothers Matter have long advocated: the inequitable distribution of unpaid care work and mothers’ struggles to freely choose and be supported when conciliating their family and professional lives.

The conference will address :

• The EU free movement law’s forgotten angle and, more precisely, the Citizens Rights Directive not addressing the care work reality and its consequent impact on women’s ability to work, further exacerbating the difficulties they face in qualifying for rights and protections under the EU free movement law
• How full-time caring responsibilities or a combination of unpaid care and economic activity induce a decrease in the quality of EU free movement rights and protections
• Legal and practical consequences for mothers and women with caring responsibilities and for those being cared for, such as children
• Recommendations to tackle the gender care gap in the context of intra-EU mobility

Program & Speakers

Keynote statements : 

MEPs Christine Schneider and Maria Noichl
Dr. Nina Miller from Glasgow University¹

• Prof. Nicole Busby, University of Glasgow, Law School
• Prof. Charlotte O’Brien, University of York, Law School
• Dr. Adrienne Yong, City University of London, Law School
• Prof. Anna Maria Konsta, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Law
• Dr. Alice Welsh, York University, Law School
• Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP European Parliament
• Katarina Ivankovic-Knezevic, Director for Social Affairs and Inclusion, DG EMPL, European Commission
• Marion Finke, Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, European Commission
• Jolanta Reingarde, EIGE
• Representatives from Make Mothers Matter, European Women’s Lobby, COFACE Families, European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) & Eurocities

Registration

To register email: eudelegation@makemothersmatter.org
Invitation

Agenda

For more information

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1. Author of “Caring on the Move: The Forgotten Angle. The Gender Care Gap and Intra-EU Mobility” (2022) https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/ninamillerwestoby/