Facts and Figures about gender equality in Europe

 

Despite legislation on gender equality and progress made in the last 50 years, women still face major obstacles in all areas of life and don't enjoy equal rights globally. The following figures give examples of the discrimination faced by women in the European Union:

Women and poverty

Women and health

Women and the labour market

Women and decision making

Male violence against women

Women and media

Useful links

Please also see  The life of women and men in the Europe (Eurostat 2008 edition), and updated statistics on women and men in political decision-making (December 2006).  

Women and poverty

• At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers in EU Member States and acceding countries:

	2001	2003
Women	16%	17%
Men	14%	15%

        Source: Eurostat 
 

Being deeply affected by poverty, women also hold great potential to eliminate it. Yet this potential remains largely untapped. Women remain the missing piece in solving the poverty puzzle. Please, click here for more facts and figures on women and poverty.

Women and health

• Percentages of adult population with HIV (15-49 years of age) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia:

	1995	2002	2004
Women	28%	33%	34%
Men	72%	67%	66%

      Source: “AIDS epidemic update: December 2004”, UNAIDS/WHO, 2004

Please, for more information see the report on Women’s health in Europe. Facts and figures across European Union. European Institutes of Women’s Heatlth.

Women and the labour market

• Gender pay gap, the average gross hourly earning of women as a percentage of men’s in the EU Member States:

Year	%
1995	17
2001	16
2003	15
2006	15

                                                 Source: Eurostat

• Employment rates, women and men aged 15-64, in the EU Members States:

	2001	2006
Women	54.3%	57.2%
Men	70.9%	71.6%

        Source: Eurostat

•  Unemployment rates, women and men aged 15-65, in the EU Member States:

	2001	2006
Women	9.6%	9.0%
Men	7.7%	7.6%

      Source: Eurostat

•  Share of part-time workers in total employment, in EU Member States:

	2002	2007
Women	28.5%	31.4%
Men	6.6%	7.8%

      Source: Eurostat

•  Share of employees with temporary contracts, women and men aged 15-64, in the EU Member States:

	2001	2006
Women	13.3%	14.9%
Men	11.7%	13.9%

      Source: Eurostat

• Employment rates of women and men, aged 25-49, depending on wheter they have children (under 12), in the EU Member States:

	Women	Men
Without children	76%	80.8%
With children	62.4%	91.4%
Difference	-13.6	10.6

      Source: Eurostat

 

• Life long learning, percentage of the population aged 25-64 participating in education and training over the 4 weeks prior to the survey, 2006

                                              

	Women	Men
EU-27	10.4%	8.8%

                 Source: Eurostat

 Please, for more information see the Report on Equality between women and men 2008, European Commission.

Women in decision making

• The proportion of women in the single/lower houses of national/federal parliaments of the Members States and in the European Parliament:

	1984	1997	1999	2007
Single/lower of national/federal parliaments, EU-27 average	:	16.3%	:	23.6%
European Parliament	17.3%	:	29.6%	31.2%

                       Source: Women and men in decision making 2007. Analisis of the situation and trends. European Commission.

• The proportion of women among the presidents/chairpersons of the highest decision-making body of the largest publicly quoted firms on the national stock exchange:

 

	2003*	2007
EU-15 average	1%	1%
Eu-27 average	2.2%	2.9%

              Source: Women and men in decision making 2007. Analisis of the situation and trends. European Commission.

           * 2003 EU-27 averages include 2004 data for CZ, LT, MT and PL.

 Please for more information visit the Inter-parliamentary Union: Women in National Parliaments website

 

• Who are the people employed in high-tech and in which regions do they work?
  As a general rule, the share of employment in high-tech sectors is especially high in capital regions. In parallel, these regions have a significant concentration of knowledge in high-tech sectors. Women are often under-represented in these sectors. Eurostat

 

Male Violence against women: all forms of gendered violence

·         In the EU 1 in 5 women experience violence by their male partner

Source: Unveiling the hidden data on domestic violence in the EU, EWL 1999

  

·         6 women die every month in France as a result of violence committed by her partner, in the UK 8 women every month and in Finland 27 per year. Please, check the web site of redfeminista.org to keep track the situation in Spain

 

·         Globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime

Source: UN Commission on the Status of Women

 

·         Between 40 and 50 % of female employees have experienced some form of sexual harassment or unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace.

Source: “Sexual Harassment at the workplace in the European Union”, European Commission, 1998

 

·         4 million women and girls are trafficked annually and approximately 500.000 women are trafficked into Western Europe

Source: United Nations

 

·         An estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year

Source: UNICEF

 

·         The average age of women entering into prostitution is 13 or 14; there is no evidence to suggest that this age is decreasing.

Source: “La prostitution un métier comme un autre?”, Yolande Geadah ; VLB éditeur, 2001, p. 137.

 

·       Data provided by the British Medical Journal on the experience of client violence against women prostitutes indicates that 93 % of women had an experience of client violence.

 

·         In a study of 475 people in prostitution from five countries, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Zambia:

 

o        62% reported having been raped in prostitution

o        73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution

o        92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately

Source: Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)

 

 

·          Legalisation of prostitution in the Netherlands:

o         A new professional category of 'businessmen/pimp' has exploded in the Netherlands transforming the local market into a huge centre for international prostitution. The number of women in prostitution has increased during the last years:

Year	Number of women in prostitution
1981	2,500
1985	10,000
1989	20,000
2003	25,000

                           Source:  UNECE

·         The most common act of violence against women is being slapped -an experience reported by 9% of women in Japan and 52% in provincial Peru. Rates of sexual abuse also varies greatly around the world- with partner rape being reported by 6% of women from Serbia and Montenegro, 46% of women from provincial Bangladesh, and 59% of women in Ethiopia.

Source: WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005

 

·         So-called "honour killings" take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in North Africa, Western Asia and parts of South Asia.

Source: UNFPA

 

·         Reported numbers of rapes during 2001 in England and Wales and Germany:

 

Country	Number of rapes
England and Wales	9,743
Germany	7,891

                              Source: 'Rape - Still a forgotten issue', Rape Crisis Network Europe 2003

 

Please, for more information see the Final report of the Expert Group Meeting on indicators to measure violence against women - UN Division for the Advacement of Women.

Women and the media

According to the Global Monitoring Report, a survey conducted in 76 countries in 2005:

            ·       Women make up 52 % of the world's population, they make up only 21% of news subject.

            ·        Number of news stories reported by women:

Year	%
2000	31
2005	37*

            *Only 29 % of the women behind the news in print are women           

 

 ·       In television news, reporting women outnumber men (58%).  

              ·       86% of people featured as spokespersons were men.

              ·       Women are more than twice as likely to be portrayed as victims than men.

              ·       Female reporters are more likely to cover the 'soft' news.

              ·       Only 10% of the stories have women as a central focus.

              ·       Only 3% of stories challenge stereotypes, compared to 6% that reinforce them.

              ·       96% of stories do not highlight gender equality or inequality.

 

 Useful links:

• United Nations Statistics on Women and Men
• World Bank database of Gender Statistics
• MISSOC - Mutual Information System on Social Protection in EU Member States.