The report was first conceived as an update of a report drawn up by the Council nearly ten years ago (Report 3/1994) on the situation of women in society and employment in Spain, but the changes of the last decade made it indispensable to include issues not covered by the previous report. The new report was therefore structured in eight chapters: introduction, demog-raphy, education, labour market, work at home, reconciliation of working and family life, participation in politics and society, and proposed conclu-sions.The Spanish socio-demographic situation coincides broadly with that of other Mediterranean countries, albeit with more pronounced characteristics: a late but sharp drop in the birth rate, a moderate fall in average household size, and a strong predominance of women in one-parent and single-family households, often with economic difficulties. Finally we should note the sharp growth in the presence of women in recent influxes of immigrants, forming the sole basis of population growth in Spain, and whose main mi-gratory strategy, especially in the case of extra-Community women, is to enter the labour market.The rise in women?s average educational standard is one of the variables that best help explain the changes that have occurred in the situation of women working in and outside the home. The growing importance of edu-cation for women is also apparent in their better performance in each stage of the education system, though the gender separation in educational pathways chosen by girls and boys remains. This circumstance results in a greater difficulty for women in progressing from education to employment, and in a less favourable employment situation. Remedying this will require more stimulating educational environments for both genders and a better gender balance in the integration into male-dominated occupations of those achieving good results in vocational training.As to women?s participation in the labour market, it remains, despite notable growth in the past ten years, one of the lowest in the EU, and is still lower than the male participation rate. The figures for Spanish women are also notable for lower rates of part-time work and wage-earning and a higher rate of temporary work, though the number of female employers has grown appreciably. Moreover, education does not seem to be sufficient to make women more employable, and though the sharp rise in women?s educa-tional standards coincides with a certain tendency towards diversification of professional activities, the dual pattern remains by which women, regard-less of their age, are more conspicuous and gender-typecast in both high-skill and low-skill occupations. The extraordinary influx of young female immigrants, who have tended to be employed in low-skill occupations in domestic service, hotels and catering, commerce, agriculture and other business services, may have blurred the age division in that duality. Finally the study notes the existence of a wage gap and points to the contribution of collective bargaining thereto, or at least in impeding its reduction, and its virtual influence on professional diversification, a vital factor in explaining the phenomenon.Women?s greater presence in employment and their release from work at home as a main activity has not been kept up with by development in the distribution of responsibilities in the family and at work. Women are still the main carers for children and dependent adults, and this entails a double burden of work for many of them. Their professional life continues to be af-fected by this double working day despite the progress made in labour law and the new emphasis on policy to reconcile working and family life. The elements impeding change include cultural prejudices, different career pat-terns and shortcomings in support services and infrastructure for carers of children and dependent adults.Finally, as to women?s participation in decision-taking, although this has in-creased and many initiatives to this end have been taken in various spheres over the last decade, these steps forward seem not to be have been enough to remedy the current imbalance. There is still no balanced representation of women in any of the three branches of national govern-ment, nor in the internal organisation of political parties, in organised civil society through organisations representing citizens? economic and social in-terests, or in academic and scientific institutions.
