Women's equality in Europe in five charts

Women are staying in education longer than men…

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The proportion of women in the EU who earn higher education qualifications, such as degrees, is higher (29 percent) among women than men (25.3 percent).

Germany is one of the rare countries in the bloc that reverses this trend.

Estonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden have the biggest proportion of women that are high-achievers when it comes to education.

Italy, Romania and Malta are among the worst performers.

… but earn less

For those in managerial positions (in enterprises with more than 10 employees) across the EU, there is gender pay gap difference of around 10 euros an hour.

Men’s mean hourly earnings were 32.08 euros in 2014, compared to 22.88 for women, according to Eurostat.

Italy and Germany had the biggest gap, while Romania and Bulgaria had the smallest.

… are less likely to be in a managerial role

EU-wide, women made up 35 percent of managers of businesses with 10 employees or more, according to 2014 data from Eurostat, the most up-to-date figures available.

Latvia (53 percent) had the largest share of females in management roles, while Belgium, Italy and Germany were among the lowest.

… hold fewer seats in parliament

No country we looked at below reached parity with men when it came to women’s presence in parliament.

Iceland, Sweden and Finland came closest with more than 40 percent of parliamentary seats held by women.

Hungary is the worst-performing of the countries we looked at, with 90 percent of seats taken by men.

… and rarely become their country’s prime minister

There is seemingly little correlation between the proportion of parliamentary seats taken by women and the number who make it to the top of government.

Just three women sit as head of government in the European Union, according to Euronews analysis.

They are Germany’s Angela Merkel, the UK’s Theresa May and Poland’s Beata Szydło.

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