Highlights from EIGE's third edition of the Gender Equality Index 1
European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) (eige.sec@eige.europa.eu)
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Measuring gender gaps over time he Gender Equality Index is a composite indicator, which aims at synthesising the complex and multidimensional concept of gender equality into a single measure; it captures the different outcomes of the European Union (EU) and national policies for women and men and supports the development and implementation of evidence-based policy making in the area of gender equality. The Gender Equality Index measures inequalities between women and men across six core domains (work, money, knowledge, time, power, and health), and takes account of different levels of achievement in the EU Member States. The index is presented on a scale from 1 to 100, with a higher score reflecting low gender gaps and a high level of achievement for both women and men. Based on a conceptual framework that embraces EU policy priorities and different theoretical approaches to gender equality, the Gender Equality Index includes 31 indicators that are aggregated according to the principles set out in the OECD/European Commission’s Structure of the Gender Equality Index
Joint Research Centre handbook on the development of composite indicators.2 Innovations for a comprehensive picture of gender equality The third edition of the Gender Equality Index includes a number of new developments.3 The Index now shows trends in gender equality over the past ten years, covering four points in time – 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2015 – for all 28 EU Member States. The Index also provides more granular insights by highlighting how gender inequalities vary depending on a person’s age, education, family composition, country of birth and disability.4 The Gender Equality Index now also includes data on health and decision-making, providing measures of gender gaps in decision-making in research, media and sports and data on women and men’s health and risk behaviour.5 As a complement to the Index, the third edition also provides a composite measure on the extent of violence against women; which takes account of prevalence and severity of violence but also on how any women have disclosed their experiences of violence. Although the composite measure is not included in the overall Gender Equality Index score, it helps raise awareness of violence against women in the EU6 and serves as an important tool to monitor Member States’ efforts to combat it, such as support services, policy and legal frameworks.7 Some progress, but at a snail’s pace The Index shows that progress towards gender equality in the EU-28 has been slow, with the overall score increasing by only four points in the past 10 years, from 62 in 2005 to 66.2 in 2015. However, levels of inequality and indeed the pace of change vary significantly across countries. Over the last decade, nearly all EU Member States have become more
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The OECD Statistics Newsletter - Issue No. 67, November 2017