EIGE Gender Equality Index 2022

Gender Equality Index 2022: Slow progress in gender equality

The Gender Equality Index is a tool to measure the progress of gender equality in the EU, developed by EIGE. It gives more visibility to areas that need improvement and ultimately supports policy makers to design more effective gender equality measures. The Gender Equality Index gives the EU and the Member States a score from 1 to 100. A score of 100 would mean that a country had reached full equality between women and men.

The Gender Equality Index 2022 focused on socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic. The thematic focus analyses the following aspects:

• Childcare
• Long-term care
• Housework
• Flexible working arrangement

The EU 2022 score is 68.6 (out of 100) up from 67.4 in 2019. Progress continues slowly and the scores present strong warning signs amid continued uncertainty and turmoil. For the first time since its inception, there has been a decrease in several domains, due to an uneven impact of the pandemic

Ireland’s score is 74.3. Up from 71.3 in 2019 and 69.5 in 2017. You can read about Ireland’s score here and comments under the headings:

• Best performance
• Most room for improvement
• Biggest improvement
• A step backwards.

The Gender Equality Index is part of the work of EIGE European Institute for Gender Equality. It has an Experts Forum and Ireland’s member is still awaiting appointment.