The Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Estonia is holding an international conference on the gender pay gap “Let’s Talk About the Gender Pay Gap!” on Friday, 13 May 2011 in Tallinn. The target group of the conference encompasses policy shapers as well as employees from Estonia and other European Union member countries.

For some time now, Estonia has been engaged in active debate over the gender pay gap. There are several myths and opinions on the topic and many of these are not substantiated by facts. With this conference, the Ministry of Social Affairs aims to elevate the ongoing debate and bring into the limelight variety of arrangements applied in other countries.

In addition to the statistical aspects of the gender pay gap, the conference focuses on the historical and cultural context of the development of the gender pay gap and aims to examine the reasons behind the evolvement of traditional jobs for men and women and how the situation could be amended.

Besides Estonian presenters, the experiences are shared by researchers and practicians from Norway, Iceland, Sweden and other European countries.

In the first plenary session Pirjo Turk, labour and social policy analyst from Praxis Center for Policy Studies, makes the presentation “What is the gender pay gap?”