STRATEGIC LITIGATION FOR WOMAN'S RIGHTS AT THE WORKPLACE: A LAW AND ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE.

Strategic litigation for woman‘s rights at the workplace: a Law and Economics perspective Despite comprehensive legal frameworks protecting gender equality in the workplace, significant disparities persist between men and women in pay, promotion opportunities, and career advancement across Europe. This thesis examines whether Strategic litigation can effectively address these enduring inequalities. While existing scholarship focuses on formal legal protections and policy implementation, this thesis identifies a critical gap in understanding how informal institutions—cultural norms, stereotypes, and social expectations—perpetuate workplace discrimination despite robust legal frameworks. The research addresses how Strategic litigation can target these deeper institutional barriers that traditional legal approaches fail to address. This thesis employs comparative legal analysis of Italy and Germany's gender equality frameworks, combined with game theory and institutional analysis to examine the interaction between formal and informal institutions. This interdisciplinary approach analyzes landmark Strategic litigation cases alongside contemporary workplace equality challenges. The research demonstrates that Strategic litigation's effectiveness lies not merely in enforcing existing legal rights, but in its capacity to reshape informal institutions and cultural norms through public engagement and media attention. The thesis reveals that while European legal frameworks provide adequate formal protections, strategic litigation can create new social equilibriums by challenging deeply embedded gender stereotypes and expectations. The study concludes that Strategic litigation offers a promising mechanism for achieving substantive gender equality by targeting both legal compliance and cultural transformation, particularly when supported by NGOs and backed by comprehensive public campaigns that shift societal attitudes toward gender roles in the workplace.