Gender and Poverty in Europe EAPN’s Women and Poverty informal working group

Feminization of poverty The feminization of poverty should be viewed as the consequence of various structural factors including stereotypes, existing pay gaps, barriers caused by the lack of reconciliation between family life and work, longer life expectancy of women and, in general, the various types of gender discrimination that mostly affect women

Are 9.5 times more than men in tertiary education Women in the EU are: 51% of total population Live 83.6 years (men 78.1) Are 9.5 times more than men in tertiary education

Women’s rights and gender equality Europe is one of the world’s leaders when it comes to women’s rights and gender equality BUT The reality is that we are only half way towards achieving gender equality and the current rate of progress is very slow

Gender Equality Index in the EU (EIGE, 2017)

There are huge differences between member states Sweden is at the top with a score of 82.6 Followed by Denmark (76.8), Finland (73), the Netherlands (72.9) and France (72.6) Slovakia (52.4), Romania (52.4), Hungary (53.1) and, Greece (50) are at the bottom of the scale

4a In 2015, the poverty rate among women in the EU was 1.4% points more than men

At risk of poverty rate Higher at risk of poverty rate (17.7% of women compared with 16.9% of men) Higher percentage of households with low employment intensity (11.1% of women compared to 10.2% of men)

Higher material deprivation 8.1% of women compared to 8% of men Higher AROPE rate (24.4% of women compared to 23% of men)

Unemployment and non-standard forms of work More than 10.5 million men and almost 9.6 million women were unemployed in the third semester of 2016. Non-standard forms of work are more common among female employees. Temporary contracts accounted for 14.1 % of employment contracts signed by women and 12.9 % signed by men. Women are also more likely to be working on the basis of “zero-hours contracts”: In Finland, women represent 57% of workers with zero-hours contracts. Source: European Commission, 2017 Report on Equality between women and men in the UE

Women’s share of unpaid work In 2016, men spent 39 hours of paid work per week on average in the EU, whereas women spend 33 hours in paid work. In contrast, they do the lion’s share of housework and care: working women spend 22 hours per week in unpaid work, while working men spend fewer than 10 hours. Source: European Commission, 2017 Report on Equality between women and men in the UE

Thank you for your attention! Letizia Cesarini Sforza EAPN informal working group on Women and Poverty