The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) published a new report on Tuesday (2 December) finding that parity between men and women in the EU is still at least 50 years away.
Women working in the bloc earn just 77 percent of what men make annually. This means women would need to work for a total of 15 months and 18 days to match their male counterparts' yearly earnings.
The Gender Equality Index for the bloc as a whole in 2025 stands at 63.4 out of 100. But disparity between the bloc’s member states remains high.
The member states with the highest score are Sweden (73.7), France (73.4) and Denmark (71.8). The members with the lowest scores are Cyprus (47.6), Hungary (51.6) and the Czech Republic (53.2).
The report reveals divergence in how parenthood affects men's and women's careers. For men, becoming a father often advances career prospects. For women, it restricts them. Women continue to shoulder most unpaid care and housework, limiting their engagement in leisure and public life.
Cultural attitudes reinforce these patterns.
One-in-two people see men as less competent at housework, while one-in-five perceive taking paternity leave as a sign of weak career ambition. Half of men and a third of women agreed that a man's most important role is to earn money.
However, a vast majority of Europeans agree that women should work and be financially independent. This leads to a double burden for women having to excel both professionally and domestically.
Jolanta Reingarde, a senior researcher at EIGE, said “society has too many expectations towards women, to be financially independent, to contribute to family, to care for children, to be beautiful, to attend the parents’ meetings at school and so on and so forth, while we don't have the same expectations for men.”
According to the report, young women outperform men in higher education, with far more completing higher education. Yet this academic success doesn’t translate into equal opportunities at work, in leadership positions, or in pay and pensions.
Women are often steered into traditionally 'feminised' disciplines like education, health, and social work— fields that remain systematically undervalued. While more women have joined the workforce over the last decade, their access to higher-paying or hierarchical positions remains limited.
Gender-based violence remains a severe and underreported problem, with 31 percent of women experiencing physical or sexual violence.
Disturbingly, tolerance of violence against women is particularly high among young men.
“More and more literature is showing the impact of online content. There are a lot of very successful influencers online that really sell this narrative that feminism has gone too far, that women hold all the power to the detriment of men and this is fuelling those attitudes towards acceptance of violence against women”, said Blandine Mollard, a researcher at EIGE, during the press conference.
Every month, hundreds of thousands of people read the journalism and opinion published by EUobserver. With your support, millions of others will as well.
If you're not already, become a supporting member today.
Hannah Kriwak is a junior reporter from Austria at EUobserver, covering European politics.
Hannah Kriwak is a junior reporter from Austria at EUobserver, covering European politics.