EU gender employment gap: progress made, inequality persists
Across the European Union labour market, the gap between women and men remains a defining feature of employment in 2024. While men aged 20–64 reached an employment rate of 80.8%, women stood at 70.8%. That difference — 10.0 percentage points — is what statisticians refer to as the gender employment gap.
The headline figure tells only part of the story. Women are far more likely than men to be in non-standard forms of work. More than one in four employed women (27.8%) worked part time in 2024, compared with just 7.7% of men. Women were also more exposed to temporary contracts (11.3% versus 8.9%) and underemployment, where workers want more hours than they can get (3.6% compared with 1.6% for men).
Together, these patterns highlight a labour market where women’s participation is not only lower, but also more precarious.
Wide national differences across the EU
Behind the EU average lies a patchwork of national realities. In 2024, the widest gender employment gaps were recorded in Italy (19.4 pp), followed closely by Greece (18.8 pp) and Romania (18.1 pp).
At the other end of the scale, the gap was almost non-existent in Finland, where it stood at just 0.7 pp. Relatively small differences were also seen in Lithuania (1.4 pp) and Estonia (1.7 pp), reflecting much closer employment rates between women and men.
A decade of gradual improvement — with exceptions
Looking back over the past ten years, the overall direction has been positive. Between 2014 and 2024, the EU’s gender employment gap narrowed by 1.1 percentage points. A decline was recorded in 22 Member States, with the most striking progress seen in Malta, where the gap shrank by 13.2 pp.
Other notable reductions were observed in Luxembourg (-7.4 pp) and Czechia (-4.9 pp). By contrast, the improvement was modest in France, where the gap fell by just 0.2 pp.
Not all countries moved forward. In Greece, the gap remained unchanged over the decade, while it widened in Cyprus (+2.3 pp), Bulgaria (+1.4 pp), Romania (+0.6 pp) and Italy (+0.5 pp).
More jobs for women — but not always equal ones
The long-term trend suggests that women’s participation in the EU labour market is slowly increasing. Yet the persistence of part-time work, temporary contracts and underemployment among women shows that equality is not just about having a job — it is also about job quality and security.
This article is part of a series published to mark International Women’s Day. You can also read our earlier piece focusing on women in management and leadership roles across the EU. Photo by European Institute for Gender Equality, Wikimedia commons.