In 2023, the employment rate for women in the European Union was still 10.2 points lower than the rate for men, according to data on the development of gender equality in the EU over the last ten years that was published by Eurostat on Friday 7 March, in recognition of International Women’s Day.
While women’s participation in the labour market has increased in recent years, they are still over-represented in part-time jobs (28.8%, compared with 8.4% of men) and continue to find it more difficult to reach managerial positions.
The situation is similar in research and innovation. Women account for only 38% of the researchers involved in projects funded by Horizon Europe, according to a report published on Thursday 6 March by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).
Admittedly, this proportion is higher than the European average (33.8%), but the presence of female researchers is declining at the highest levels of scientific careers.
According to this report, the imbalances appear as early as the training stage. In 2022, women will account for just 22% of graduates in engineering and information technology. To correct these imbalances, since 2022, the European Union has required public bodies and higher education establishments wishing to benefit from Horizon Europe funding to put in place gender equality plans (GEPs).
81% of applications now comply with this requirement, but this obligation has not yet led to a balance in access to funding: projects led by women are still in the minority, particularly in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Disparities also persist with regard to innovation and entrepreneurship. For example, only 19% of start-ups funded by the European Innovation Council, set up as part of the Horizon Europe programme to support innovation, are women-led. In the field of venture capital funding, all-women founded companies only secured 7% of investments, which has the effect of limiting their opportunities for growth.
Finally, the issue goes beyond access to funding, as it also concerns the place of gender in the creation of both knowledge and innovations. Beyond gender inequalities, another issue raised by the DG RTD report is the integration of gender into scientific content, as only 80.5% of Horizon Europe project themes integrate the gender dimension.
Read the report here: https://aeur.eu/f/fuc
Eurostat data: https://aeur.eu/f/fud (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)