Gender Equality Index 2019: Romania ranks 25th in EU, with a score below the EU average

With 54.5 points out of 100, Romania ranks 25th in the European Union (EU) in the Gender Equality Index 2019. The score is 12.9 points lower than the EU average.

Between 2005 and 2017, Romania’s score increased by 4.6 points (+2.1 points compared to 2015) and the country made progress towards gender equality at a slower pace than in other Member States. Its rank has dropped one place since 2005, according to the report.

In fact, the same report revealed that Romania’s scores are lower than the EU’s scores in all domains, with most pronounced gender inequalities being registered in the domain of power (38.8 points), time (50.3 points) and knowledge (51.5). Even the country’s highest score, of 71.1 points (in the health domain) is still the lowest in the whole EU.

As for the domains in which Romania’s scores have improved the most since 2005, these are money (+8.8 points) and power (+8.1). Meanwhile, progress has regressed in the domain of work (-0.9 points).

When it comes to the EU, the report says that “the European Union has been moving towards gender equality at a snail’s pace. With a Gender Equality Index score of 67.4 out of 100, the EU still has a lot of room for improvement.”

When compared to 2005, the EU’s score has increased by only 5.4 points, with the highest scores registered in domains of health (88.1 points) and money (80.4 points). On the other hand, gender inequalities are most worrying in the domain of power (51.9 points).

The European Institute for Gender Equality - EIGE’s Gender Equality Index scores EU Member States and the EU as a whole to see how far they are from reaching gender equality. The Index uses a scale of 1 to 100, where 1 is for total inequality and 100 is for total equality, and looks at six core domains, namely work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.

(Photo: screenshot from EIGE website)**