The 2024 Gender Equality Index, published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), reveals a complex and uneven picture of gender equality across the EU. With an average EU score of 71 out of 100, the Index shows incremental improvement—only 0.8 points since 2023—suggesting that while policy advances have been made, structural disparities remain deeply entrenched. For HR and Compensation & Benefits professionals, the report surfaces critical insights about the persistence of gender-based gaps in pay, employment, leadership, and well-being, and the systemic roots that sustain them.

Work: Sectoral Segregation and Structural Imbalance

The domain of work has plateaued, with a score of 74.2. This stagnation masks significant underlying challenges. Sectoral and occupational segregation continues to hinder progress, and the division of labor remains gendered at its core. Women remain overrepresented in lower-paid, care-oriented sectors such as health and education, while men dominate higher-paid fields like engineering, ICT, and finance.

Even within the same sectors, men are more likely to occupy higher-level positions, reinforcing vertical segregation. These patterns are reinforced by cultural norms and institutional biases that shape educational choices, hiring, and career progression.

The employment gender gap is particularly stark among couples with children. The Index reports a 26 percentage point difference in full-time equivalent employment between men and women in these households. This illustrates how caregiving responsibilities, still disproportionately borne by women, directly suppress their participation in the formal labor market. The compounding effect over time includes lower lifetime earnings, diminished career advancement, and a greater gender pension gap.

Money: Persistent Gaps and the Undercurrent of Economic Violence

With a score of 83.4, the domain of money ranks second among the six core Index domains. However, it conceals regressive trends in specific population segments. Gender pay disparities are widening among the highly educated, those aged 50–64, and couples with children. This highlights how even women with advanced qualifications or long tenure in the workforce remain penalized when they assume greater care responsibilities or exit the labor market for caregiving-related reasons.

The Index further explores how income disparities intersect with exposure to gender-based violence. Women with lower earnings than their partners and little financial autonomy face a higher risk of experiencing economic and other forms of abuse. Financial dependence can become a mechanism of control in intimate relationships, making economic independence a critical vector in addressing violence against women.

This interrelation between income inequality and vulnerability to violence points to a broader conceptualization of compensation as not merely financial remuneration but as an enabler of autonomy and safety.

Time: The Invisibility of Unpaid Labor

Scoring just 68.5, the domain of time reveals one of the most persistent gender inequalities in European societies: the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work undertaken by women. This unequal distribution of time impacts not only labor force participation but also participation in leisure, sports, and cultural activities—domains that influence mental health, social capital, and personal development.

The data show that even among working adults, women are significantly less engaged than men in recreational or community activities. The intersection of paid and unpaid work burdens leads to time poverty, where women’s ability to invest in their own well-being, training, or civic life is restricted.

Despite long-standing awareness of the issue, the lack of significant change in this domain suggests that policy and organizational interventions have yet to disrupt the structural and normative drivers of unequal time use. Care infrastructure, flexible working arrangements, and cultural attitudes toward gender roles all shape how time is allocated—and who pays the hidden cost.

Power: Representation Gains without Structural Parity

The power domain, with a score of 61.4, has shown the most dynamic growth—rising by 2.3 points since 2023 and 19.5 points since 2010. Binding gender quotas in political representation and corporate boardrooms have largely driven this growth. However, the representation of women in middle and senior management, executive roles, and decision-making bodies continues to lag behind.

For example, although women now make up 33% of board members in major listed companies, the increase is a reflection of legislative enforcement rather than organic shifts in leadership pipelines. In the European Parliament, women’s representation has slightly declined in the most recent election—breaking a decade-long upward trend.

The gap in the power domain is not simply one of numbers but of access and retention. Gendered pathways to leadership, limited sponsorship opportunities, and disproportionate exposure to harassment—especially for women from minority groups—continue to impede progress. Leadership representation, therefore, is not only a visibility issue but also an indicator of whether organizations and institutions are structurally aligned to support inclusive advancement.

Health: Inequalities in Outcomes and Access

At 88.6, the domain of health has the highest score in the Index, yet it has seen the least progress—just 1.9 points since 2010. While women live longer than men, they report worse health outcomes, particularly in mental well-being. Self-perceived health status is lowest among older women, those with disabilities, those with lower levels of education, and women in single-adult households.

The Index points to intersectional disparities in healthcare access and quality, particularly for LGBTQI individuals and Roma women. Moreover, women in the healthcare sector—already under pressure due to staffing shortages and systemic stress—face higher risks of workplace violence and harassment, further complicating the notion that care work is a protective or equitable domain for women.

The health domain underlines how gender inequality manifests not only in labor or income but also in physical and mental resilience, access to care, and the social determinants of health. In turn, these health disparities feed back into lower labor participation and higher attrition rates, particularly for women facing multiple forms of disadvantage.

A Converging but Uneven Union

Between 2010 and 2022, gender equality disparities between EU Member States have narrowed overall. However, progress is bifurcated. Some countries are catching up to the EU average (e.g., Malta, Italy, Portugal), while others—especially those with already high scores—are flattening or regressing slightly (e.g., Sweden, Finland). A third group of countries continues to trail with slower rates of improvement (e.g., Romania, Hungary, Slovakia).

This divergence illustrates how national policy regimes, economic conditions, and cultural norms shape the progress of gender equality. For compensation and HR professionals operating across jurisdictions, it underscores the need to understand gender dynamics not as static or uniform, but as evolving within diverse institutional contexts.

Conclusion

The Gender Equality Index 2024 presents a nuanced view of where the EU stands—and where it risks stalling. The progress made in increasing women’s representation in leadership, narrowing the employment gap in some segments, and improving financial resilience post-COVID, is real but precarious. Structural challenges remain embedded in how work is organized, how care is distributed, how pay is structured, and how power is accessed.

Addressing these systemic imbalances requires more than compliance or incremental change. It calls for a critical reassessment of the assumptions embedded in employment systems, compensation frameworks, and leadership pipelines. Equity is not merely an outcome but a process—one that demands persistent attention to both data and design. The Gender Equality Index provides a map. What remains is to act with clarity and commitment along the path it outlines.