Sex-Segregated Services: Their Place in EU Anti-Discrimination Law and their Relationship to Positive Action Measures.

This article examines the legal nature of sex-segregated services as provided for in the Equal Treatment Directive 2004/113 and its positioning in relation to positive action measures. The Directive prohibits discrimination in the access to goods and services on the grounds of sex, while allowing the provision "exclusively or primarily to members of one sex " under certain conditions (art.4(5)) and positive action measures to promote equality between the sexes (art. 6). This raises questions: do these provisions differ and, if so, how? How do they fit into the system of equality law? The analysis sets off with a general investigation into the principle of equality and then locates positive action measures and sex-segregated services within the equality law structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]