WUNRN
EIGE - European Institute for Gender
Equality
EU Gender Equality Index
The Gender Equality Index is a unique measurement tool that synthesises the
complexity of gender equality as a multi-dimensional concept into a
user-friendly and easily interpretable measure.
It is formed by combining gender indicators, according to a conceptual
framework, into a single summary measure. It consists of six core domains
(work, money, knowledge, time, power and health) and two satellite domains
(intersecting inequalities and violence).
The Gender Equality Index measures how far (or close) the EU-27 and its
It measures gender gaps that are adjusted to levels of achievement,
ensuring that gender gaps cannot be regarded positively where they point to an
adverse situation for both women and men. The Gender Equality Index assigns
scores for Member States, between 1, total inequality and 100, full equality.
Background and Policy Framework
Equality between women and men is a fundamental value of the European
Union, enshrined in its Treaties and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The
EU plays a crucial role in ensuring that the principle of gender equality
filters down from the international and EU level to national, regional and
local levels. Over time and in various areas, specific policies have been
developed to improve gender equality in the European Union and in the Member
States.
Although the Treaty of Rome was signed at a time when the gender equality
landscape looked substantially different from the contemporary one, it
nevertheless contained a clause on equal pay between women and men, a precursor
to the legislation and policy approaches that emerged throughout
The acknowledged importance of gender equality in the EU manifests itself
in the development of distinct genderaware policies. The evaluation of the
effectiveness of these policies is, however, a complex and challenging
endeavour given that the EU is a multi-level polity, comprising of subnational,
national and supranational institutions, with actors and discourses interacting
in complex ways to enact gender legislation and policy. The development and
dissemination of EU-wide, comparable and reliable gender statistics and
indicators have contributed to better monitoring and assessment of progress,
for example, through the process of Gender Mainstreaming in the EU. It is
therefore important to develop further monitoring and evaluation indicators. To
assist with the measurement of gender equality at EU level, and in order to
demonstrate the success of promoting gender equality in each Member State, the
creation of a composite indicator on gender equality, a Gender Equality Index,
as a common assessment tool was initially introduced by the European Commission
in The Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men (2006-2010) and proposed in
the Action Plan of the Strategy for Equality between Women and Men (2010-2015) that
followed.
The European Institute for Gender Equality undertook the task of
constructing a composite indicator that reflects the multifaceted reality of
gender equality, and is specifically tailored towards the policy framework of
the European Union. It is one of the major assignments in the lnstitute's
Mid-Term Work Programme 2010-2012. The Gender Equality Index started in 2010
and has been launched in
Why a Gender Equality Index
- to provide a synthetic measure of gender equality
that is easy to understand and to communicate
- to give a tailor-made composite indicator measuring
gender equality in the European Union and its
- to provide a tool to support decision-makers in
assessing how far a given
- to allow meaningful comparisons between different
gender equality priority domains
- to measure achievements in the area of gender
equality over time
Domains of the Gender Equality Index
Work
The domain of work relates to the position of women and men in the European
labour market. It measures gender gaps in participation in the labour market,
duration of working life, sectoral segregation patterns and quality of work
such as flexibility of working time, training at work and health and safety.
Money
The domain of money examines inequalities in the financial resources and
economic situation of women and men. It measures gaps in earnings and income,
as well as not being at risk of poverty and income distribution.
Knowledge
The domain of knowledge shows differences between women and men in terms of
education and training. This domain measures gaps in participation in tertiary
education, segregation and lifelong learning.
Time
The domain of time focuses on the trade-off between economic, care and
other social activities (including cultural, civic, etc). It measures time
spent on unpaid activities, including gender gaps in time spent in childcare
and domestic activities, but also in other aspects of life such as cultural,
leisure or charitable activities.
Power
The domain of power examines how gender equality can be greatly affected by
women's lack of participation in decision-making. It measures the gaps between
women's and men's representation in the political and economic spheres.
Health
The domain of health focuses on gaps between women and men in terms of
health status and access to health structures. It measures sex-based
differences in self perceived health, life expectancy and healthy life years
and differences in the fulfillment of medical and dental needs.
Intersecting Inequalities
Intersecting inequalities is the first of the two satellite domains. The
values of this domain are not taken into account when calculating the final
score of the Index. Since women and men cannot be considered as homogeneous
groups, this domain looks at other characteristics that may affect gender
equality by exploring gender gaps in employment rates among people born in a
foreign country, older workers and lone parents or carers, as illustrative
groups.
Violence
Violence is the second satellite domain. Conceptually, it considers
gender-based violence against women and also focuses on the attitudes, norms
and stereotypes that underpin the lack of progress in terms of gender equality.
As a satellite domain, it is not combined into the score of the Gender Equality
Index. It remains empty due to the lack of data. Violence is, nevertheless, a
critical area of gender equality, and as such this blank domain should be seen
as an urgent call to address the gaps in data collection.
Main Findings
The scores of the Gender Equality Index show that, overall in the EU, gender equality remains far from
reality, with the most problematic areas in the domains of power,
time and violence.
Work
Women are less likely to participate in the labour market and segregation
patterns remain. The measurement of quality of work in a gender sensitive way
is essential to ensure better jobs for all.
Knowledge
Although women's educational attainment exceeds men's, segregation patterns
persist. However, participation in lifelong learning remains low or largely
feminized where it is higher.
Power
A large imbalance exists in the EU in decision making, with low levels of
gender equality in both political and economic areas together with a lack of
suitable indicators to measure social power.
Money
Lower earnings and income among women lead to greater risk of poverty and
higher disparities of income. Individual rather than household level indicators
are needed.
Time
Inequalities in the gendered division of time persist, with women remaining
disproportionately responsible for caring activities, and the unequal division
of time extending to other activities.
Health
There are low gender gaps, including in access to health structures, although
small differences in status remain. The gender gaps in behaviour that can
effect health could not be measured.
Intersecting inequalities
Disparities between women and men among different groups matter as these are
linked to different levels of gender equality. Comparison over time, through
the first update of the Gender Equality Index in 2015, will provide an
invaluable assessment of the progress made by Member States in reaching greater
gender equality.
Violence
No harmonised and comparable gender indicators exist to measure gender-based
violence against women and the norms, attitudes and stereotypes that underpin
gender roles.
Methodology
The Gender Equality Index is obtained by compiling individual indicators on
the basis of a model of the multidimensional concept that is being measured. In
other words, it is a mathematical combination of a set of indicators that aims
to provide a summary of a complex reality.
The construction of composite indicators involves different stages where
several choices need to be made. It is essential to work with a solid and
transparent methodology based on sound statistical principles to increase the
value of the outcome.
The methodology used to compute the Gender Equality Index is based on the widespread and
internationally accepted procedure developed by the OECD
and the European Commission (Joint Research Centre) in 2008, which establishes
the following ten steps:
- Developing a theoretical framework that defines and structures what
is measured and provides the basis for the selection and combination of
variables into a meaningful index.
- Selecting variables, based on the analytical soundness, measurability,
country coverage, cross-country comparability, and relevance of
indicators.
- Imputing missing data, in order to obtain a complete dataset for all
countries.
- Conducting a multivariate analysis to study the overall structure of
the dataset, assess its suitability, and guide subsequent methodological
choices.
- Normalising the data, if needed, to ensure the comparability of
variables.
- Weighting and aggregating the indicators, according to both the
underlying model and the results of the multivariate analysis.
- Conducting an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of the
index in terms of all possible sources of uncertainty in its development
(choice of imputation, normalisation, weighting or aggregation methods).
- Returning to the data to analyse what domains and sub-domains are driving
the index results.
- Identifying possible association with other
variables and
commonly used indicators.
- Presenting and disseminating the index results in a clear and accurate manner.
These ten guiding principles ensure that the Gender Equality Index relies
on robust and transparent methodological choices, consistent with the soundness
of a strong theoretical framework.
Unique Features and Benefits of the Gender Equality Index
The Gender Equality Index:
- adopts a
gender approach instead of a women's empowerment approach;
- relies on a more comprehensive framework of gender
equality;
- highlights gaps
in data availability by identifying potential gender
indicators and calls for harmonised, comparable and reliable data that are
both sex-disaggregated and available for all Member States;
- can be used to support gender equality policies, providing comparability over
time and across the EU-27. It uses a methodology that can
be replicated at the national and regional level by national statistics
offices, academics or NGOs. It reveals current gaps in data provision and
calls for harmonised data on gender equality at regional, national and
EU-level.