Furthermore, the EU must ensure that women and men can have an equal and fairly balanced approach towards sharing paid and unpaid work 

(such as a care responsibilities). A more ambitious European legal framework, such as the envisaged by the Work-Life Balance Directive, would enable the EU and its Member States to eliminate the underlying causes of the pay gap, including situations where women are forced into part-time work or career breaks. The lack of the leave schemes and infrastructures – like affordable and high – quality childcare facilities for all children from birth to schooling age and care services for dependent people, that would allow women and men to combine work and life responsibilities – lead towards continuous gender segregation in lower-paid sector (which begins at a very young age) and maintaining the glass ceiling. In addition, specific measures to provide active support to women´s employment are needed such as formal and non-formal education and programs that encourage young people to opt for jobs free form any gender bias, while guaranteeing living wages and decent active ageing. Loop-holes in national tax-systems need to be bridged to reduce economic inequalities between women and men. Moreover, Europe urgently needs to increase and guarantee the political participation of women and foster equality role – models for young girls in all sectors through targeted actions. Europe needs to encourage national and European parties and institutions to reach parity democracy, and to develop more gender-sensitive political programs.

To achieve these objects and to challenge and change gender norms, gender mainstreaming remains crucial, as it concerns the society as whole. Therefore, an intersectional approach of gender equality is inevitable. Every step in the policy-making process needs to consider gender representation and gender responsive content, including gender budgeting. This said, we must hold the EU and its Member states accountable and safeguard the financing of women’s movements´ projects such as through the new Daphne Program. Only through this we can achieve an equal and active representation of 52% of the world´s population, so that women not only gain power but also own it to reach sustainable gender equality.