Press Release 19/04/2018
The Gender Equality Index of the Basque Country was up from 68.8 points in 2010 to 69.3 in 2015
The highest values in gender equality were reached in the domains of Health, Money and Employment
The Gender Equality Index (GEI) in the Basque Country stood at 69.3 points in 2015 according to data prepared by EUSTAT. An improvement in the GEI for the Basque Country can be observed between 2010 and 2015, going from 68.8 points to 69.3 in this period.
The Gender Equality Index is a synthetic indicator that summarises in a non-dimensional scale, on which 1 signifies total inequality and 100 signifies total equality, the inequalities that still exist between men and women in a series of significant aspects that affect their welfare and their personal development.
It has been created using the methodology of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), which enables advances in gender equality in the Basque Country to be compared with advances made in the European Union and its 28 member countries, as well as its evolution over 2010, 2012 and 2015.
The methodology comprises 31 indicators structured hierarchically into six domains that are in turn divided into 14 sub-domains.
With 90.9 points, the domain of Health comes closest to total equality between persons of different genders, although it must be taken into account that, in this case, the slight inequality is the result of the better situation of women. At the other extreme, the greatest inequality is found in the domain of Power, with a partial indicator of 52.9 points out of 100.
The Basque Country obtained a better score in all of the domains than the EU-28 average
The highest values for gender equality in 2015 in the Basque Country were reached in the Health, Money and Employment domains, with the lowest value being for Power. Notwithstanding, the relative position of the Basque Country regarding the EU-28 average shows a higher score in all domains, with a maximum difference of 5 points for Time being the most significant.
The Gender Equality Index improved between 2010 and 2015
Over the years 2010, 2012 and 2015 an improvement in the GEI can be seen in the Basque Country, obtaining 68.8 points in 2010, 69.1 in 2012 and 69.3 in 2015.
In the same manner there was an improvement in the gender equality indicators in the areas of Employment, Money and Knowledge, especially the latter, where the indicator gained 2.7 points, mainly due to the improvement of Segregation by field of study, which went from 53 points in 2010 to 57.7 in 2015.
In contrast, there has been a decline in the indicators for Time, Power and Health, above all for that related to Time, which was down 2.7 points. This regression is the result of the occurrences in Social Activities, which went from 60.8 points in 2010 to 56 in 2015.
The Basque Country is positioned behind Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Ireland, but ahead of the remaining 20 members of the European Union, as well as the European average.
The Gender Equality Index in Spain stood at 68.3 pints in 2015, one point down on the 69.3 corresponding to the Basque Country.
Moreover, in 2015 the Basque Country obtained higher values than Spain in the partial indicators of five of the six domains taken into account in the calculation of the Gender Equality Index: the domain in which the Basque Country most comfortably exceeded the result of Spain is Money, with a difference of 8.6 points. However, it also comes out in front in the domains of Power (+7.5), Time (+5.7), Health (+6.7) and Employment (+1.3). On the other hand, it is disadvantaged in terms of the domains of Knowledge (-1.4) and Power (-4.1), and practically the same for Employment (-0.2).
The gender gap is null in the Income Distribution and Healthcare indicators, and very high for Economic Power
As well as the comparison with the European Union and its member countries, the internal situation in the Basque Country can be analysed using the gender gap indicator, understood as the difference existing between men and women in the different areas described, the values of which range from 0 (total inequality) and 1 (total equality).
In this manner, it can be demonstrated that the salary gap is null or extremely small in the components relating to health, such as healthcare (1.00), years of life with good health and dental care (0.98 in both cases), perception of own health (0.97), life expectancy (0.96) and tobacco and alcohol consumption (0.94). It is also null in Income Distribution and very small in Risk of Poverty and Income (0.98 in both cases).
In contrast, the gender gap is very significant in Sports Federations (0.33), Business Management (0.34), Public/Semi-public Bank Management (0.38), Public R+D funding (0.51), Segregation by activity sectors (0.53), Representation in Government (0.65) and Segregation by field of study (0.66), where there remain differences by gender.
Compared to 2010, there are both positive and negative trends, but standing out are the gender gap reduction in Representation in Provincial Assemblies (from 0.82 to 0.90) and Business Management (from 0.26 to 0.34) and the negative trend of the indicator in Public/Semi-Public Bank Management (from 0.50 to 0.38).
METHODOLOGICAL NOTE
The Gender Equality Index (GEI) is a synthetic index that is calculated by aggregating 31 basic indicators. The GEI structure takes into account four levels:
1.- The Gender Equality Index, maximum aggregation level
2.- The Index of the six domains being studied: Employment, Money, Knowledge, Time, Power and Health.
3.- The Index for the sub-domains that each of the previous domains are divided into.
4.- The Index of the basic indicators, of which a measure of gender equality (M) is calculated for each.
The aggregation process that leads to the calculation of the Gender Equality Index occurs in the form of a scale that goes from level 4 to level 1 as follows:
The synthetic indices by sub-domains (S) are obtained by calculating the simple arithmetic mean for the measure of gender equality (M) for each basic indicator (X):
Where nj is the number of indicators included in each sub-domain, and Sjit is the synthetic index for each sub-domain, country and year.
The synthetic indices by domains (D) are obtained by calculating the geometric mean of the synthetic indices for the corresponding sub-domains (S):
Where Nk is the number of sub-domains included in each domain and Dkit is the synthetic index for each domain, country and moment in time.
The Gender Equality Index (GEI) is obtained by calculating the weighted geometric mean of the indices for each domain (D):
The weightings (w) utilised have been calculated by the European Institute for Gender Equality by applying the hierarchical clustering methodology.
Further methodological information:
Basic methodology
List of indicators
Methodological novelties
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62