How can we correct gender inequalities in the European Union if we cannot measure them? This was the focus of discussions, on Tuesday 31 August, in the European Parliament’s Committee on gender equality.
The topic was raised during an exchange of views between MEPs and Edit Bauer, a former MEP, Mikael Gustafsson, vice-president of the Swedish organisation Unizon, and Gotelind Alber, co-founder of the network GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice: three of the Parliament’s representatives on the ‘Expert Forum’ - the advisory body of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).
Ms Bauer was the first to present the issue, regretting the lack of “comparable, usable and reliable” data on gender inequality at European level.
“It is important that the data reaches us before it becomes obsolete”, she warned. The EIGE will have to “lobby the Commission and Eurostat to ensure that we have better data available”.
This would have made it possible, for example, to measure the impact of the health crisis on gender pay inequalities. This was not the case, as the latest available data on the subject dates back to 2019, she stressed.
Mikael Gustafsson emphasised the need for harmonised data to compare the different national situations. “Today, this is impossible. Especially concerning violence against women”, he regretted.
Lastly, Gotelind Alber also drew attention to the quality and content of the data. “For example, for the transport sector, we have a lot of data - on gender differences, on people’s behaviour towards modes of transport. But are transport policies evolving accordingly? Not yet!”, she noted, arguing for data that would highlight first and foremost “the root causes” of gender inequalities. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)