A warm welcome to the new Members of the European Parliament!
As you settle into your new posts and become familiar with the network of EU agencies, we take this opportunity to offer you a ‘starter kit’ to the European Institute for Gender Equality.
We will walk you through what we do and how we can support you in achieving a gender equal Europe.
Who are we?
We are the EU’s only agency working on gender equality.
We combine research, data and tools to help policy makers design policies and measures to promote gender equality in all areas of life.
We communicate our expertise and evidence in a hope-based manner and with a solution focused angle.
We work closely with partners to raise awareness. We do this at EU and national level, as well as with EU candidate and potential candidate countries.
Gender equality: a bird’s eye view
We are more or less 60 years away from reaching full gender equality. This is what our Gender Equality Index tells us – the most widely used tool by our key stakeholders.
It provides an annual snapshot of the state of gender equality at the EU and national levels through six core areas of life: money, health, knowledge, power, work, and time. Two additional areas cover violence against women and intersecting inequalities.
Gender equality has catch-all benefits for our societies and economies.
Because when you achieve gender equality in one area – say in political representation – there is enormous potential for a positive spillover effect in other areas such as climate change or health care accessibility and quality.
By 2050, improving gender equality would lead to €3.15 trillion Gross Domestic Product.
However, unless appropriate measures and action take place, this bright future remains a pipedream. In the next 15 years, our stakeholders predict that digitalisation, the future of work, shifting values, diversifying inequalities and the green transition will be the key trends impacting progress in gender equality.
Top tools
Before implementing appropriate measures and taking action, it’s important to know the status quo.
Our Gender Statistics Database is a comprehensive hub for statistics highlighting various (in)equalities between women and men.
It’s a reliable resource to facilitate effective policymaking.
The work we do supports gender mainstreaming in all strands of work, including in the political sphere.
We offer a range of step-by-step guides and toolkits to help institutions mainstream gender into their compositions.
One toolkit that would be most relevant for you is our Gender-sensitive Parliament toolkit.
It provides a framework to help you assess the state of gender equality within parliament. From there, we show you how to develop a gender equality action plan with specific measures to take to advance gender equality.
How do we work with you?
Over the years we have enjoyed strong and evolving cooperation with the European Parliament.
We primarily engage with committees relevant to our mandate such as the FEMM Committee, EMPL, BUDG, and the DG for Communication.
We have a small liaison office in Brussels where we gladly welcome you.
At the top of each year we present our annual work programme to the FEMM Committee and by the end of the year, our Gender Equality Index results.
In between, for occasions such as Gender Equality Week or International Women’s Day, we share our most relevant data and insights to support the theme of said events. You can deep dive into Director Carlien Scheele’s speeches such as how gender equality can change the game in sports and why we need to commit to gender budgeting for gender equality.
We look forward to continued cooperation!
How can you reach us?
Here are some key contacts for your little black book.
EIGE Brussels Liaison Office: EIGE.liaison@eige.europa.eu
EIGE Stakeholder Relations: stakeholders@eige.europa.eu
EIGE Media Officer: georgie.bradley@eige.europa.eu