Sweden is the top nation in Europe.
Men and women are closest to equality in Sweden, and furthest away in Greece, while Croatia is at the 24th position among the EU countries, the European Institute for Gender Equality announced on Wednesday, pointing out that the EU is making progress but very slowly, reports tportal.hr on October 11, 2017.
“The top country in Europe is Sweden with a score of 82.6 points (out of 100), while Greece is at the bottom with 50 points. The biggest progress has been achieved by Italy, which made a big step forward and won additional 12.9 points, thus taking the 14th place in the rankings,” said the Institute in the Gender Equality Report for 2017.
The Gender Equality Index for Croatia amounted to 53.1 points, ahead of Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. At the top of the rankings, Sweden is followed by Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. The European average is 66.2 points.
The Gender Equality Index is a tool which measures the progress of gender equality in the EU. It was developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality. The Index covers six core areas: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, as well as two additional fields: violence against women and overlapping inequalities.
Croatia has scored a good result when it comes to health (83.3 points), money (69.9 points) and work (69.4 points), but much worse when it comes to power (28.5 points). The health category includes health status, healthy living and access to health care; the work category covers whether women and men have equal access to employment and good working conditions, while the money category includes access to financial resources and equal pay for both genders.
When it comes to the category of power, where Croatia scored just 28.5 points, the Institute emphasised that the most significant progress at the EU level had been achieved precisely in that area. The category of power measures equality in the field of decision making at the political economic and social levels. This includes the number of women in parliament, the government and local authorities, in the management of large companies, as well as in the field of media, research and sports.
“The biggest progress in gender equality over the past ten years has taken place in the area of decision-making, especially in the private sector. This shows that political and public pressure can be effective and that they are good in introducing change in the management of private companies. Although gender equality in the area of decision-making has risen by almost 10 points over the past decade and has reached 48.5 points, the category is still marked by the lowest score. This mostly reflects the unequal representation of women and men in politics and represents a lack of democracy in the EU governance,” said the Institute.
“We are far from achieving gender equality, and all the countries in the European Union have much room to improve. In some areas, inequality is even greater than ten years ago. Our Index clearly shows whether the governmental policies are tailored to the needs of women and whether they are effective or not,” said Virginia Langbakk, director of the Institute.
The progress is lagging behind in 12 countries, including Croatia. For example, a third of men in the EU cook and do housework daily, while in Croatia the situation is even worse – only 11.9 men do these activities on a daily basis. Likewise, men have much more free time for sports, cultural events and relaxation.
Translated from tportal.hr.
