• Stronger together: EU Agencies join forces to respond to COVID-19

    Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, nine Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) agencies (CEPOL, EASO, EIGE, EMCDDA, eu-LISA, Eurojust, Europol, FRA and Frontex) have been supporting the Member States and EU institutions in meeting the unprecedented challenges resulting from the outbreak of the virus - each agency in its respective area of work, in both the short term and...

    European Union flags
  • Gender Equality Index 2020: work in a digital world

    It is time to start the countdown for the Gender Equality Index 2020. Has the EU gone forward or backward when it comes to gender equality? Which country will win the award for the most improved? Find out on 29 October when EIGE gives its annual update on the state of gender equality in the EU. This year, the Gender...

    EIGE's Gender Equality Index 2020
  • Europe needs to care more about care

    The EU is facing a shortage of carers, and the demand is growing as the population ages. Most professionals in the formal care sector are women and their working conditions are often very demanding. Heavy workloads, night shifts and low pay characterise their work. These factors will not attract more people to a sector that is already overburdened and under-resourced...

    Woman carer assists an older woman in a wheelchair
  • Gender equality and long-term care at home

    This research note focuses on formal homebased care across the EU. In terms of the care recipient’s perspective, it looks at different aspects of long-term care that determine women’s and men’s opportunities to access long-term care services. Children with disabilities, adults with disabilities and older people are the three groups of (potential) care recipients covered in this study. In terms...

  • The EU is inching towards comparable data on intimate partner 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.

    Woman forensic analyst
  • People in vulnerable situations

    Certain groups of people are particularly vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic due to their disadvantaged situation in society. Refugees and migrants Women and men living in refugee camps are especially vulnerable to Covid-19 and other diseases as a result of living in overcrowded conditions, lack of sanitation, and lack of access to decent healthcare or vaccination programmes. Physical distancing and...

    A group of migrants sitting on the ground with bags
  • Economic hardship

    The coronavirus pandemic has led to an economic downturn. This has different consequences for women and men in the labour market. Covid-19 led to the largest drop in working hours in the EU-27, since 2006, even greater than the one registered after the 2008 financial crisis. The fall in hours was greater for women than for men in almost all...

    A middle-aged woman walking past closed business doors
  • Unpaid care and housework

    The closure of many workplaces and schools during lockdowns increased women’s share of unpaid work, despite men sharing the workload more than before. Time spent on cooking and housework increased for both women and men, during the lockdown period. During lockdowns, European women dedicated 18.4 hours per week on cooking and housework, compared to 12.1 hours for men [1]. Before...

  • Health

    While women and men make up an equal share of those infected with Covid-19, men are more likely to die from the disease. [1] Biologically, this could be because females tend to have stronger immune responses. However, other factors may also be at play, including gender differences in behaviour that affects health, such as smoking. While women have a longer...

    An older man focused on drawing an image of a landscape
  • Essential workers

    To contain the virus, millions of people were confined to their homes, either unable to work or continuing virtually. This excludes workers categorised as ‘essential’, who continued their jobs on the frontline of the pandemic. This group includes workers in the health and care sector, victim support services, education, supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. EIGE’s research shows that women are over-represented...

    Female medical worker taking off a face mask
  • Beijing +25 policy brief: Area C - Health of women: achieving gender equality in treatments, services and outcomes

    Gender stereotypes and socioeconomic inequalities continue to impact on access use of preventative and curative health services. For example, while the EU has done work to increase the access of girls and women living outside the EU to sexual and reproductive health services, there has been limited action to promote access to such services within the EU. To date, important...

  • Grey literature on health

    Health policy needs to adequately explore and address the combination of social and biological sources of differences in women’s and men’s health. An understanding of the interaction between sex and gender in the development and management of health can be beneficial in terms of prevention, intervention and outcome.