A/HRC/44/51/Add.1 sectors which have a higher share of female workers. The informal sector appears to be an understudied sector, requiring further attention by the Government.22 24. The Working Group was unable to obtain meaningful sex-disaggregated data about the employment and representation of women in the private sector. However, discussions held during the country visit revealed that discrimination against women was present in the public sector and also evident in the private sector and that it contributes to a national mindset that women should exit paid work earlier than men. 25. The proportion of women on the boards of the largest publicly listed companies registered in European Union countries reached 26.7 per cent in October 2018. In Greece, women account for less than 10 per cent of board members,23 a marginal increase from 7 per cent in 2005. In the same period, the European Union average has increased from 15 per cent to 26.7 per cent. 26. The new law on substantive gender equality (Law No. 4604/2019) encourages the development of equality plans by both the public and private sector to prevent all forms of discrimination against women and to ensure their promotion to senior roles. However, the plans are voluntary in the private sector, with the incentive of an “equality medal” for driving progress. The Working Group’s research reveals that mandatory interventions, and not voluntary ones, are the most effective way to increase the number of women at the decision-making level.24 The requirement to regularly report and publish data on women in leadership roles is another effective strategy. 27. The Working Group was told by interlocutors that, in recent years, owing to the economic context, women have increasingly been employed in part-time or casual employment, with reduced pay and poor conditions and security, as well as in precarious work. In the private sector, the rapid growth of flexible forms of employment, as well as the replacement of contracts of indefinite duration by fixed-term contracts, has led to a reduction in wages and created a context in which women are more fearful to report genderbased violence, including sexual harassment, at the workplace. 1. Unequal share of unpaid care work and domestic work borne by women 28. In addition to the loss of jobs associated with the crisis, the unemployment and underemployment of women in the labour market is due in part to the unpaid care burden that falls largely on women. 29. A major issue of concern for gender equality is the severe reduction of Stateprovided care services for children and dependents, including care for older persons and persons with disabilities. That intensifies the level of unpaid care work done by women, limiting their ability to take up even low-paid forms of employment, in order to better balance their care work responsibilities. In parallel, rigid stereotypes perpetuate the idea that care work is largely, if not exclusively, the domain of women. In Greece, 85 per cent of women do cooking and housework every day for at least 1 hour, compared with only 16 per cent of men. Greece has very low rates of use of childcare services compared with other European Union countries.25 Men’s time caring for children and grandchildren in Greece is among the lowest in the European Union. 30. Childcare is costly in Greece, with 61 per cent of households citing “economic difficulty” as a reason for not using childcare services. 26 School timetables do not 22 23 24 25 26 8 See, for example, ILO, Diagnostic Report on Undeclared Work in Greece (Geneva, ILO, 2016). Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/--ed_emp/documents/projectdocumentation/wcms_531548.pdf. European Commission, 2019 Report on equality between women and men in the EU (Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union, 2019), figure 8. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/aid_development_cooperation_fundamental_rights/annual_re port_ge_2019_en_1.pdf. See A/HRC/26/39. Ministry of the Interior, General Secretariat on Gender Equality, “E-bulletin No. 18 on love as labor”, figure 2. Available at www.isotita.gr/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Observatory-18th-e-bulletin-Loveas-labor.pdf. Ibid., table 3.