Finland´s rank slips to 5th in EU Gender Equality Index

Finland ranked fifth in the 2021 index measuring gender equality in the European Union, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in a press release.

Finland placed fourth in the EU Gender Equality Index published in 2020.

Sweden topped the index like the previous year followed by Denmark, Netherlands and France.

The Netherlands climbed to the third position, dropping France and Finland by one position.

Nine countries scored more than 70 points on the Index. Of them, Sweden was the only country to score more than 80 points.

The Index released by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) on Thursday measures the state of gender equality in a number of different domains, such as work, health and power.

The EIGE sixth Index measures gender equality in six core domains: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.

The Index report also includes a thematic focus. This year, the thematic focus is on health, particularly on the health effects of COVID-19, mental health and sexual and reproductive health.

Most of the data presented in the 2021 Index is from 2019. As a rule, the average figures for the domain of power are from 2018–2020.

The overall Gender Equality Index score for the EU is now 68 points out of 100, with 100 standing for full equality.

This is an improvement of 0.6 points since the previous edition of the Index and of 4.9 points since 2010.

The report draws attention to this slow progress on gender equality. It is estimated that it will take nearly three generations to achieve gender equality at the current pace. The COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effects on gender equality are threatening to slow down the pace of progress.

The highest overall scores for the EU are in the domain of health (87.8 points) and the lowest in the domains of power (55.0 points) and knowledge (62.7 points). In the latter two, economic decision-making and segregation in education had the lowest scores, 48.8 and 54.1 respectively. Gender segregation is a major problem in the EU, both in the labour market and education. The score for education has remained virtually unchanged in recent years, especially in terms of segregation.

The overall scores increased the most in the domain of power, by 1.9 points from the previous edition of the Index and by over 13 points from 2010. This improvement in the domain of power accounts for nearly two thirds of the overall increase in the Index since 2010. Economic decision-making in particular has showed major improvement.

Finland’s overall score was 75.3, being over 7 points above the EU average. The increase is 0.6 points from last year. The Index score has risen by 2.2 points since 2010. According to the EIGE classification, Finland is one of the countries whose national score is above the EU average but whose points have increased at a slower pace than the EU average.

The domain of power also shows the highest increase in Finland, with a score of 74.3 points. This is an improvement of 2.4 points since the previous Index edition.

Gender equality in both economic and political decision-making has advanced. In the short term, the greatest increase has been in political decision-making (6.5 points), and in the long term, in economic decision-making (8.3 points). The increase is due to the fact, for example, that women’s representation in the 2019 parliamentary elections and the Government increased.

In other respects, only minimal changes have occurred in Finland. Finland’s highest score, 89.5 points, was in the domain of health.

In recent years, the Index scores for France and the Netherlands have increased particularly in decision-making, in France by nearly 30 points since 2010. The main reason for this is the quotas used in economic and political decision-making in France. In the Netherlands, the Index score increased from last year particularly in economic decision-making.