The Nordic international locations could be the most effective identified for his or her gender-equal insurance policies, however a brand new rating on equality between women and men considering issues like work, cash and training locations France second inside the EU.
The European Institute for Gender Equality revealed its new equality index on Tuesday, giving the 27 EU international locations a rating based mostly on six key areas; work, cash, information, time, energy and well being.
The general rating locations Sweden in first place for gender equality, reaching an general rating of 73.7 out of 100, with France snapping at its heels with 73.4. In third place is Denmark, adopted by Spain and the Netherlands. The least equal of the EU 27 is Cyprus.
France confirmed explicit enchancment within the domains of training and decision-making, with extra girls concerned in choices at a political and managerial degree.
France has a coverage of gender parity in election lists for native and European elections which has ensured that 48.5 % of native councillors and mayors are girls. The gender parity coverage is being prolonged to communes with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants within the subsequent native elections in March 2026.
The report additionally listed France as among the many prime international locations within the EU for the variety of girls authorities ministers – though given how typically the federal government has modified lately, it isn’t totally clear which knowledge they’re utilizing.
France additionally has a gender quota system for the boards of publicly listed corporations and for the upper ranks of the civil service.
The nation scored moderately effectively when it comes to well being and in ‘time’ – particularly relating to division of family chores, however scored poorly within the realm of labor, the place girls are nonetheless under-represented in key sectors similar to tech, info and communication.
The nation additionally scored poorly when it got here to patriarchal beliefs, with 31 % of ladies and 37 % of males agreeing with the assertion “an important function for a person is to earn cash”.
The report doesn’t immediately rating international locations on violence towards girls and ladies, due to the problem of evaluating very completely different knowledge programs, however famous that 35 % of ladies mentioned they’d been subjected to bodily or sexual violence for the reason that age of 15, increased than the EU common.
France has a traditionally excessive charge of feminicide – girls killed by a male associate, ex-partner or member of the family. So far this yr, 155 girls have been victims of feminicide, a charge of 1 killing each two days with victims of home violence typically reporting a scarcity of assist from police and the authorized system.
France has additionally been grappling with the concept of sexual consent and rape tradition for the reason that high-profile trial of Dominique Pelicot, who drugged his spouse Gisèle and invited dozens of males to their dwelling to rape her.
Earlier this yr, France modified its rape legal guidelines to explicitly embody the notion of consent for the primary time.
Égalité entre les hommes et les femmes (equality between women and men) is taken into account one of many core values of the French Republic, and one which foreigners residing in France are now required to comply with within the new ‘republican values contract’ required for residency permits.
