Patchy progress on gender-equal access to financial and economic resources

With a score of 80.4 points in 2017, the domain of money showed continuing improvement from 2005 (73.9 points). This rating places the domain of money second only to health in surpassing 80 points in the Gender Equality Index. This suggests that, although significant gender gaps still exist on financial and economic resources, women and men have achieved somewhat more equitable settings in this domain than in many other domains (e.g. the domain of power).

Figure 13: Scores of the domain of money and its sub-domains, EU, 2005-2017

In comparison with 2015, the greatest progress (+ 2 points) was noted in three Member States (EE, HR and RO), although their achieved levels remain below the EU average. Regress (by at least 1 point) between 2015 and 2017 was noted in two Member States (LU, LT). Luxembourg, in spite of this, has the highest score in the EU. Lithuania, which already had one of the lowest scores in the EU, slipped further behind in the rankings. Between 2005 and 2017, Greece and Luxembourg had worsening situations, whereas particularly large gains (+ 10 points) have been noted in Estonia, Slovakia, Poland and Malta.

Figure 14: Scores for the domain of money, EU Member States, 2005, 2015 and 2017

Of the two sub-domains, gender equal­ity in economic resources is in a better position (87.7 points) than financial resources (73.8 points), with the former contributing to the overall improvement in the money domain score. Although the situation in this sub-domain had particularly weakened between 2005 and 2015 (with scores dropping from 89.7 to 86.7 points), this trend was finally reversed in 2017. Nonetheless, the situation in 2017 still showed a wider gender gap in economic resources in comparison to 2005. Progress in this area remains fragile in many Member States.

Compared to the sub-domain of financial resources, where no significant (+ 1 point) Member State-level regress was noted between 2015 and 2017, gender inequalities in economic resources worsened in six Member States: Luxembourg (– 4.8 points), Lithuania (– 4.3), Bulgaria (– 3.4), the Netherlands (– 1.9), Malta (– 1.4) and Sweden (– 1.2). The situation in Bulgaria is particularly worrying due to a major and continuous decline in gender equality in this area from 2005 (88.1 points) to 2017 (76.1 points). In 11 other Member States (DK, DE, ES, FR, IT, LT, LU, HU, MT, AT, SE) and the EU as a whole, gender equality in the sub-domain of economic resources was greater in 2005 than in 2017.