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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Gender Equality Index in the EU (EIGE, 2017)

6. 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

7. 4a
In 2015, the poverty rate among women in the EU was 1.4% points more than men

8. 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)

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

10. 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

11. 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

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