Gender Statistics Database
Between June and July 2021, EIGE conducted an online survey on gender equality and the socio-economic consequences resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was gathered in all EU Member States, reaching a total of 42,300 participants between 20 and 64 years of age at the EU level, with typically around 1,500 individuals per country[1] (depending on its population size).
More than 25 years ago, 189 countries around the world signed up to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), which committed them to work towards a set of strategic objectives and actions for the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equality in 12 critical areas of concern.
Gender-responsive Public Procurement (GRPP) is procurement that promotes gender equality through the goods, services or works being purchased. GRPP can be a driver towards promoting equal employment opportunities and social inclusion for women and men, providing equal opportunities for women and men at all stages of the supply chain and addressing gender pay gap inequalities in the labour market.
- Health
Monitoring progress in gender equality is key to support better informed policy-making and ensure its effectiveness and accountability. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) monitors the distribution of power in the European Union (EU) through regular collection of data on women and men in key decision-making positions.
- Environment and climate change, Transport
Despite efforts to improve gender equality, EU labour markets are still characterised by persistent horizontal segregation, whereby workers in particular sectors are predominantly women or men. According to 2020 data, only four in ten workers in the EU are employed in a gender-balanced sector, where the workforce comprises at least 40 % of each gender.
- Environment and climate change
Environment and climate change is a hot topic across the globe and it is crucial that related policy decisions serve women and men equally. To make that happen, women need to be adequately represented in decision-making processes.
- Economic and financial affairs
The share of women in decision-making positions is one important element in assessing the level of gender equality. That’s why the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) measures how much power women hold in politics, economics and finance, research, sports and the media.
- Health, Justice, Violence
Spikes in domestic violence reports during Covid-19 lockdowns have been a sad reminder that, across the world, women frequently face the most danger from people they know. Yet when it comes to intimate partner violence, each EU Member State collects data in a different way.
The gender pay gap in the EU stands at 16 % and has barely changed in the last decade. In most EU countries, the gender pay gap is slowly reducing but in Malta, Portugal and Slovenia, the gap has increased by more than 3.0 % since 2007. There are big differences across the EU, with the gender pay gap ranging from 3.5 % in Romania to 25.6 % in Estonia.
EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database has expanded beyond the current EU Member States. We can now monitor how gender-balance in decision-making is developing also in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey, which are part of the EU programme called the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).
- Economic and financial affairs, Entrepreneurship
Over the last nine years, the proportion of women on the boards of the largest listed companies across the EU has more than doubled: from 12 % in October 2010, to 28 % in April 2019. The countries that introduced legislative quotas were driving the progress, but soft measures have also worked in some countries.
- Regional policy
The share of women in single/lower houses of national parliaments in the EU has increased in the last 10 years from 24 % to 31 % in 2018, yet the rate of change is slow. Without further action, it would take another 12 years to achieve gender-balance (at least 40 % of either women or men) in national parliaments across the EU. This is the story that EIGE’s data tells on women in politics: