International and national frameworks of equal economic independence for women and men

Abstract

Economic independence enables individuals to have control over their own life for the purpose of personal and professional prosperity. The principle of equal pay and equality in work engagement is included in the EU treaties, respectively the equality is one of five values on which the European Union has been founded. In this paper we tried to answer the question whether 'equal pay for work of equal value' is applied in practice? For that reason, the subject of our research is the analysis of the problem of gender inequality in order to point out the differences in employment rates and salaries in Serbia as well as in the EU countries. We analyzed the key documents, proposed some measures and pointed out the strategies that aim to support and address issues of gender inequality. In order to build an economically and socially developed society, Serbia, being on its path of European integrations, should pay particular attention to the issue of gender equality, further amending the legal framework and ensuring the inclusion of all aspects of gender equality in development policies.

Keywords

• gender equality
• gender inequality
• economic independence
• employment rate
• pay gap