Women in the EU would have to work fifteen and a half months to earn the same as men do in a year

BarcelonaGender equality remains a distant goal. This is made clear by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE): women would have to work 15 months and 18 days to earn what men earn in a year. In other words, on average, women earn only 77% of what men earn. The European Institute confirms what the European Commission already stated: November 17th was the symbolic date on which women in the European Union began to work for free.

"Women are working the equivalent of a quarter ghost “The entire period of employment is being taken away for free,” denounces Carlien Scheele, director of the EIGE, in the new gender equality index published this Tuesday. This time not only ceases to count towards pensions, but it also cannot be enjoyed with family, studying, training, or resting. The gender pension gap is 25% in the EU—an improvement from 69% in 2015—but the index warns that full equality will not arrive for another half-century, with a lot of luck and, above all, with better gender policies. Progress in equality at the European level is only improving by 0.7 points each year. “More and more women are working, but they do not occupy enough well-paid positions, nor are they in decision-making roles,” adds Scheele. The EIGE also points out that women with partners earn 30% less than their male counterparts, and the difference reaches up to 50% in the case of young, migrant, or highly educated women in Spain.

Spain continues to generally meet expectations regarding gender equality. Spain scores 70.9 out of 100, maintaining its position as the fourth highest-scoring country, behind only Sweden, France, and Denmark. The European average is 63.4 points, with Cyprus at the bottom of the list at 47.6 points. Since 2015, Ireland, Spain, and Malta have increased their scores by approximately 13 points, followed by Luxembourg and Belgium with increases of around 10 points. Latvia, Croatia, and Hungary have seen more modest gains. Bulgaria is the only member state to have experienced a decrease in its score, by 0.7 points.

The report also reveals worrying paradoxes: there are more women than men with higher education, but many are oriented towards disciplines feminizedThis means that their academic success does not translate into equal opportunities in the workplace or for leadership positions. Motherhood continues to affect women's career paths. Furthermore, men still believe that if they earn more, it is because their jobs are "more demanding," an idea that fewer and fewer women, especially younger women, share. This year, the index has broadened its scope to include various areas of equality (work, money, knowledge, time, power, and health) and has incorporated gender-based violence, which, according to the European Institute, remains "widespread and underreported." 31% of adult women experience physical and sexual violence at some point in their lives, with greater exposure among women under 45. The report, which since 2013 has become a benchmark for analyzing and comparing the gender policies of member states, confirms once again that despite progress in attitudes and perceptions about equality, many people in the EU still hold outdated views of women as caregivers and men as better leaders.