Gender Equality Index 2015: not much progress since 2010

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has published the 2015 edition of the Gender Equality Index, last updated in 2010. The Gender Equality Index captures data in domains such as work, money, use of time, power, health, violence and knowledge, to measure progress on gender equality. Measuring the progress of gender equality on a scale from 1 to 100, the Gender Equality Index stands at 52.9, meaning the EU was only half-way to realising gender equality in 2012, the year with the most recent data. This is only a very slight progress from the 51.3 measured in 2010.

Greatest challenges: time use and power

The main challenges remaining are in the domains of time and power. Time between men and women is distributed unequally, with women still taking the majority of unpaid care and domestic work. Men continue to be overrepresented in decision-making in the political and economic sphere, although some progress has been made in women’s representation in politics.

Progress: work and money

Some progress can be noted in the domains of work and money, as women take on more paid work. Progress has been made in the ability of men and of women to take off one or two hours during working time to take care of family matters. Also, women have made tremendous progress in achieving tertiary education – since 2008, more women complete tertiary education than men.

Gender equality and social expenditure

An interesting demonstration is made when the values for the Gender Equality Index are crossed with other data, such as GDP per capita, social or health expenditure or provision of formal childcare: in all these domains, the correlation is positive.

Intersecting inequalities: older women more disadvantaged than younger ones

The report compares also intersecting inequalities, most notably for different age groups and migrant status. When comparing employment rates of 15-64 year-olds with those of 55-64-year-olds, older women compare worse than younger women to their male counterparts. This form of discrimination seems to be reducing, but only slightly.

The Gender Equality Index will be next updated in 2017, making it possible to compare four points in time in the next index (2005, 2010, 2012 and 2015). Unfortunately, as some of the indicators are focussing on specific age groups, the Gender Equality Index is not disaggregated by age, therefore it is not possible to deduct how gender equality has evolved globally for older women, outside of employment. This may be remedied in the next edition of the Gender Equality Index, however.

The report on the Gender Equality Index 2015 is available on EIGE’s website

For more information, please contact Philippe Seidel from the AGE Secretariatphilippe.seidel@age-platform.eu

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