Gender equality

The EU has made significant advances in gender equality through legislation, empowerment initiatives, and increased participation in the workforce.

Advancing women's rights

Although inequalities persist, over recent decades, substantial progress has been made towards achieving gender equality.

In the EU this progress is due to legislation, the integration of gender perspectives across all policies, and targeted measures for empowering women.

Positive trends include increased female participation in the workforce and advancements in education and training.

However, gender gaps remain: women are still concentrated in lower-paid sectors and are underrepresented in decision-making roles.

Equal pay

The EU has introduced new rules on pay transparency to ensure equal pay for equal work.

Under the new rules, EU companies will be required to share information on salaries and take action if their gender pay gap exceeds 5%.

The directive also includes provisions on compensation for victims of pay discrimination, and penalties, including fines for employers who break the rules.

Improved transparency

Lack of pay transparency has been identified as one of the key obstacles to closing the gender pay gap, which stood at roughly 11% in the EU in 2024.

This means that women earn on average 11% less than men per hour for equal work.

The pay gap has a long-term impact on the quality of women’s lives, on their risk of exposure to poverty and on the persisting pension pay gap, which stands at around 25% in the EU (2024 Eurostat data).

Pay transparency in the EU

Many women in the EU still earn less than men for the same job. Increased pay transparency and stronger enforcement help close the gender pay gap.

The EU's gender pay gap: facts and figures

Better representation

The EU has introduced the gender balance initiative for corporate boards.

Currently, European company boards exhibit a wide gender disparity.

The goal is for women on boards to make up at least 40% of non-executive directors, or 33% of executive and non-executive directors by 2026.

Gender balance on corporate boards

Work-life balance

Women often experience career setbacks and financial losses because of their roles and responsibilities associated with childcare.

In order to address this, the EU has created new work-life balance rules to promote a good balance between family and work commitments and to provide equal opportunities for women and men in the workplace and at home.

Work-life balance for parents and carers

Ending violence against women

The EU has introduced new measures to combat violence against women and domestic violence.

The proposal aims to ensure a minimum level of protection across the EU and to criminalise a range of offences, including female genital mutilation and cyber violence.