Here’s how the EU is doing on gender equality

(Omar Lopez, Unsplash)

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.

Author: Charlotte Edmond, Formative Content

Europe is going to have to wait a long time before there are as many women as men in the corridors of power.

The European Institute for Gender Equality has released its Gender Equality Index for 2019, and it demonstrates just how slow progress is when it comes to putting men and women on an equal footing.

The index shows that since 2005 there has been very little movement in the EU’s score, which has only moved up 5.4 points over that period. Out of 100, the EU scores 67.4, rising just over a point since the last report two years ago.

Some of the biggest discrepancies between the genders are seen when it comes to power, with women making up less than a third of ministers and members of parliament and a quarter of board members of listed companies. Though this is also the area that has seen the biggest improvement.

In the areas of health and money, the gap between men and women is smaller.

On average, women in the EU live six years longer than men, although more women than men consider themselves not to be in good health.

Meanwhile, women’s mean monthly earnings sit at around 80% of men’s.

The country-by-country view

Sweden is the most gender-equal country, with a score of 83.6, while Greece and Hungary, which both score just over half marks, have the longest way to go.

Lithuania is the only country not to have made any progress in the last 15 years. Italy and Cyprus meanwhile have seen the most improvement.

But given that progress on gender equality is slowing down, there is undoubtedly still a long way to go.