in order to overcome the problems, and a project on the gender segregation of the labour market had recently been finished. The project on equal pay was new and, therefore, no results could be reported yet. 265. In response to a question regarding part-time workers, the representative said there was no discrimination against part-time workers and that their working conditions were the same as those of full-time %,orkers except for She reported that 36 per cent of those who worked less thau 15 hours a week. the female employees were in part-time employment and most OE those were elderly women. Young women could not afford to be in part-time employment because of the high cost of living. The standard working week for full-time employment was 31 hours. The representative informed members that sexual harassment did occur and that it was against the provisions of the Act on Eyual Treatment between Men and Women. She said that a victim could claim Three cases had been brought before the compensation in cases of harassment. In Denmark, the proportion of the female population in the labour courts. force aged between 15 and 74 years had increased from 49.1 per cent in 1967 to During the same period, the percentage of male 68.5 per cent in 1988. participation had fallen from 86 per cent in 1967 to 81 per cent in 1988. In The data on 1988, women represented 45.6 per cent of the total labour force. unemployment showed that the average number of unemployed persons had ris-en over recent years. In 1987, 87,257 men and 126,154 women (representing 5.9 per cent and 9.8 per cent in the labour force, respectively) were unehlployed. BY 1959, those figures had risen to 120,000 men and 145,000 women (8.0 per cent and 11.1 per cent, respectively). Women’s participation in the labour market was increasing, but the risk of unemployment was for women to a question on whether any special larger than it was for men. Reeponding measures existed to reduce the higher percentage of women who were unemployed, the representative said that several programmes had been set up for both women and men to improve their qualifications in order to reduce the risk of unemployment. Such programmes had had some success but, in general, there was an insufficient number of jobs. 266. Improvements to the Equal Opportunities Act and the Equal Pay Act, in 1908 and 1909 respectively, had been introduced to safeguard the interests of pregnant women employees and to prevent their dismissal solely on the grounds of pregnancy. An important condition of employment for women was the availability of entitlements in connection with confinement. In Denmark, women had the right to a maternity leave of 4 or 8 weeks before childbirth and of 24 weeks afterwards, in accordance with the recommended B-month breast-feeding period. In addition, a father had the right to a leave of 14 days after the birth of the child; approximately 50 per cent of the fathers took that leave. The last 10 weeks of the leave could be shared between the parents or be taken only by the fathers however, the representative reported that only 3 per cent of the fathers took advantage of their right to take such leave. The entitlement to full salary during maternity leave had recently become part of the collective agreement for civil servants and was also the case in several areas in the private sector. Social benefits wers available to those who did not have the right to full pay during maternity leave. The provision of full salary during maternity leave was considered a way of encouraging men to take paternal leava and of avoiding a loss of income to the family. The issue of parental leave, in connection with the question of combining work and family life, was very important in Danish society. If women were to obtain equality in the labour market, men had to participate in -53-