Gender index shows few women in ICT

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 03/12/2025

Despite progress across Europe, full gender equality remains at least 50 years away, according to European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) 2025 equality index. Few women reach managerial or higher-paid roles in information and communications technology. Women need to work 15½ months to earn what men make in a year according to the index that tracks six key dimensions: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.

Key findings according to the report:

• – The EU Gender Equality Index for 2025 stands at 63.4 out of 100, reflecting uneven progress across Member States – from 47.6 in Cyprus to 73.7 in Sweden.
• – We are at least 50 years away from reaching full gender equality, based on a revamped methodology, introducing new indicators and a renewed pace of change.
• – We see impressive gains in economic decision-making resulting from ambitious legislation.
• – Most Member States have seen gender equality setbacks in health and education.
• – Women across the EU earn just 77% of what men earn annually. This means they must work on average 15 months and 18 days to take home the same as men in a year.
• – While that’s up 10.5 points since 2010, at the current and renewed pace, it means we are still a half-century away from full gender equality. 

“Europe has inched forward, but far too slowly. The Index shows more women are in work, yet not enough in the jobs that pay well nor at the top tables where budgets are set”, says EIGE director Carlien Scheele.

“We need to make equal pay a reality, build care systems that are not just about freeing up women’s time but sharing the load equally with partners. And setting leadership targets that turn women’s potential into power.”

• Work: The Index shows women’s employment is growing, but few reach managerial, ICT or higher-paid roles. And, while parenthood advances men’s career prospects, it restricts them for women. 
• Money: Women earn 77% of men’s annual earnings (up from 69% in 2015), while women in couples earn on average 30% less than their partners.  
• Knowledge: Young women outperform men in higher education but are steered into ‘caring professions like education, health or social work which are typically undervalued, leading to limited opportunities in leadership and pay.  
• Time: Women continue to shoulder most unpaid care and housework, limiting their engagement in leisure and public life.  
• Power: This measure of gender equality in decision-making across politics, economics and society, has been the main driver of progress in the Index since 2020. Yet, despite these gains, it is still the lowest scoring domain (40.5) due to persistent inequalities. 
• Health: While this is the highest domain score (86.2), progress has stagnated, and inequalities persist as far as health behaviours and the amount of healthy life years especially for women with low education. Here, we see men falling behind in engaging in healthy behaviours such as smoking and drinking.  

The Index also finds that violence against women remains pervasive and under-reported with data pointing to an alarming 31% of women experiencing physical and/or sexual violence in their adult lives -with higher exposure among women under 45.