The European Union’s gender employment gap stood at 10.7% in 2022, 0.2% lower than in 2021, according to figures from Eurostat.

The gender employment gap is the difference between the employment rates of men and women aged 20-64.

A variety of reasons cause gender disparities in employment, such as unpaid care responsibilities of women, hiring discrimination, and scarcity of women in leadership. Additionally, factors like inadequate childcare, tax disincentives, and occupational segregation contribute to enduring gender employment gaps.

There were only two EU regions, among those classified at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2), that registered a higher employment rate among women in 2022: the Capital Region of Lithuania (Sostinės regionas) and South Finland (Etelä-Suomi) in Finland.

In North and East Finland (Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi), there was no difference in employment rates between men and women.

In all the other EU regions, the gender gap persisted with higher employment rates for men.

In 2019, the EU set a goal to halve the gender gap by 2030. One in five EU regions has already met the target set at 5.8%.

There were 20 NUTS 2 regions where the gender employment gap was at least 20.0% in 2022. Half of these were in Greece, while the remainder were concentrated in Italy (7 regions) and Romania (3 regions).

The highest gender employment gaps were recorded in Central Greece (Sterea Elláda, 31.4%) and the southern Italian region of Puglia (30.7%).