The Equal Pay Between Men and Women for the Same Work or for Work of Equal Value Law, 2002 the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Law, 2002, the Parental Leave and Leave on Grounds of Force Majeure Law, 2002, and The Equal Treatment of Men and Women in Professional Social Insurance Schemes Law, 2002 among others. Furthermore, all National Development Plans since 1979 have declared as part of their objectives the improvement of women in economic activity and society and the combating of discrimination against women.
There has been, as is outlined below, some important efforts in Cyprus aimed at combating discrimination, creating the infrastructure for childcare facilities, providing training programmes, as well as improving institutional mechanisms to increase women’s participation and status in economic activity and society as a whole.
Specific targets have been set through the National Action Plan for Employment 2004-2006 for increasing the number of children in childcare, for example, and special committees have been set up to promote gender equality, including a special committee for battling sexism in the workplace in the ombudsman’s office. Moreover, statistics show that women’s labour participation has increased significantly in the last two decades
(although it remains much lower than men’s).
Despite these reforms, however, challenges remain and statistical evidence demonstrate that, although on paper Cyprus’ gender policies seem excellent, little has been done to actively promote these policies and generate awareness such as disseminate information to citizens relating to this new legislation or provide information and training to employers, policy makers, and decision-makers to effectively implement these measures.
Furthermore, a report by Dr. Alexia Panayotou entitled Gender Assessment of the National Action Plan on Employment – Report on Cyprus (2004) demonstrates that the National Action Plan on Employment 2004-2006 does not employ gender mainstreaming and the gender dimension is often absent form the targeted measures proposed and policies discussed
