Gender Equality in the EU — What the Data Shows, Where the Law Stands, and What’s Felt in Daily Life

What the EIGE Index Measures — and What It Doesn’t

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has published the Gender Equality Index annually since 2013. The index aggregates six main areas:

• Work (employment participation, labor market segregation, working hours)
• Money (income differences, poverty risks, resources)
• Knowledge (educational qualifications, field of study, lifelong learning)
• Time (unpaid care work, leisure, social activities)
• Power (political, economic, and societal decision-making positions)
• Health (life expectancy, healthy life years, care)

Plus two satellite areas on violence against women and intersectionality (overlaps with migration, disability, age).

EU values 2024 (points 0–100, higher = more gender-equal):

• Top performers: Sweden (~83), Netherlands (~78), Denmark (~78), Finland (~75), Spain (~74), France (~74)
• Midfield: Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Germany (~71), Austria, Slovenia
• Lower half: Italy (~68), Poland, Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary (~60), Romania (~58), Greece (~57)
• EU average: ~71

Important context: The index measures structural equality. It is not a safety index for women in daily life and not a direct indicator of individual quality of life. If you are a woman migrating, you should read the index as one data point among several — alongside labor market realities, family law in the destination country, and protection structures against gender-based violence.

Wage Gaps and the Labor Market

Eurostat measures the Gender Pay Gap as the percentage difference between hourly wages of male and female employees (unadjusted — sector mix, part-time work, etc., are not factored out). EU average 2023: ~12 %, with significant variation:

• High gaps: Estonia (~21 %), Austria (~18 %), Czechia (~17 %), Germany (~16 %)
• Medium gaps: France (~13 %), Netherlands (~14 %), Spain (~9 %)
• Low gaps: Belgium, Poland, Italy, Slovenia, Luxembourg (~3–6 %), Romania (~4 %)

A low pay gap does not automatically mean high equality — Romania, for example, has a low wage gap but also a lower overall female employment rate and more traditional division of labor. The small gap results partly from lower overall wage dispersion and partly from selective labor market entry of women with higher qualifications.

In countries with high female employment (Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark), the pay gap is exacerbated by part-time work; in countries with traditional division of labor (Italy, Greece), it is partly “smaller” due to lower female employment — neither scenario is equally desirable from a gender equality perspective.

The EU Directive on Pay Transparency (Directive (EU) 2023/970) requires member states to introduce reporting obligations and information rights starting in 2026. For you as a job applicant or employee: You will soon see salary ranges in job postings and can ask about average wages in your profession.

Reproductive Rights — Where the Lines Currently Stand

Reproductive rights are national law in the EU — and have diversified in recent years. As of 2025:

• Liberal regulations (abortion on demand usually up to 12–24 weeks, easily accessible): Sweden, Netherlands, France (end of 2024 enshrined in the constitution), Spain (several expansions 2022–2023), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Czechia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Portugal
• Moderate regulations (mandatory counseling, waiting periods, restricted access): Germany (§218 StGB; mandatory counseling; advertising ban abolished in 2022), Italy (often practically restricted by high rates of conscientious objection among doctors), Austria
• Restrictive regulations (only in exceptional cases): Poland since 2020 (de facto ban except in cases of vital danger to the mother, rape, incest), Malta (total ban, only EU exception; 2023 relaxation only in cases of vital danger)

This map is politically dynamic — the Spanish and French examples show that expansions are possible; Poland and Malta show that restrictions are possible. If you live in a member state with restrictive reproductive rights, you may need to travel abroad for procedures like abortion or certain contraceptives — this is possible within the EU single market but involves costs and effort.

Violence Against Women — The Data

The FRA Violence Against Women Survey (2014, follow-up survey announced for 2024) remains the largest uniform study. Key findings, which are largely stable in recent research:

• One in three women in the EU has experienced physical or sexual violence since age 15
• One in 20 women has experienced rape
• One in ten women has experienced online sexual harassment
• Nordic countries report higher self-reported values than Southern European countries — this is a statistical reporting effect (greater willingness to report incidents), not necessarily a higher reality.

Femicide statistics are only partially comparable — some countries record domestic violence homicides separately, others do not. EIGE has published comparable femicide data since 2023; the first years 2020–2022 show 0.3 to 1.2 femicides per 100,000 women, depending on the country.

Protection infrastructure:

• Most EU countries have a hotline 116 016 for women experiencing violence (in DE Women’s Helpline, in ES 016, in FR 3919, in IT 1522)
• The Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe) was ratified by the EU in 2023; all member states have signed it, but not all have ratified it (Bulgaria, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia have not ratified; Poland was briefly considering withdrawal)
• Women’s shelters are available in nearly all EU capitals; often with longer waiting times in rural areas

Family Law — What Changes for Migrant Women

Family law is national — but across the EU, the principle applies that marital obligations and rights are equal, and both parents generally share custody equally. Specific areas where changes arise for women from countries with different family law systems:

• Divorce law: generally possible in the EU, often with short procedures (Spain express divorce; France amicable divorce without court). Religious divorces are not legally recognized in the EU — a civil divorce is always required.
• Custody: joint custody is the norm; consent of both parents required for children’s travel abroad
• Inheritance law: equal inheritance shares regardless of gender; statutory inheritance rights
• Pensions: many countries offer pension splitting upon divorce (DE pension equalization)
• Protection from violence: protection orders (DE) or restraining orders (comparable instruments in most EU states) enable short-term housing assignment to the victim and contact bans

If you enter the EU with a family reunification visa, you are often legally tied to your arriving partner — an independent right of residence usually only arises after 2–3 years of marital cohabitation. In cases of domestic violence, most EU states have hardship provisions that allow an independent residence permit earlier (Family Reunification Directive 2003/86/EC Art. 15 para. 3) — these provisions vary in design but exist in some form in every member state. Migration counseling centers know the applicable rules.

What You Should Pay Special Attention to as a Migrant Woman

From the FRA surveys and counseling practice reports, four points emerge that are structurally relevant for migrant women and not directly reflected in the EIGE Index:

• Professional recognition in female-dominated professions: Nursing, teaching, and social work have regulated recognition procedures in many EU states with high language requirements (B2 or C1, see our article on Language as a Strategy). This often delays professional entry.
• Childcare: Availability and costs vary greatly. Scandinavia and France have well-developed public childcare; Germany has significantly worse availability, especially for children under three; Italy, Spain, and Poland fall in between with regional differences. Without reliable childcare, full-time employment is difficult to achieve.
• Language barriers at counseling centers: Migration counseling, women’s shelters, and legal counseling are often only available in the national language. In major cities, multilingual services are increasingly available (Diakonie/Caritas often have counselors who speak Turkish/Arabic/Russian/Polish), but the offer is thinner in medium and small towns.
• Protection from domestic violence regardless of residence status: in every EU state, you have the right to protection in an emergency, regardless of whether your residence permit is tied to your partner. Many women are unaware of this — migration counseling centers, women’s hotlines, and women’s shelters know the mechanisms.

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vamosa shows you the EIGE Index, Pay Gap, and Protection Basics by country. We do not provide individual counseling on gender equality, family law, or protection from violence — national equality bodies, women’s hotlines (116 016 in most member states), migration counseling, and family and migration lawyers are responsible for this. On the country detail pages, you will find references to the relevant addresses by country.