While Lithuania scored slightly more in this year’s gender equality index, it still ranked near the bottom among EU member states.
Lithuania scored 2.2 points higher than last year in the latest Gender Equality Index published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), with an overall index score of 60.6. This put the country in the 20th place among 27 EU member states, same as last year.
Compared to other EU countries, Lithuania’s score also increased the most. However, the country failed to move up in the index and was still below the EU average of 68.6 points out of 100.
Lithuania’s best score was in the area of work, where it scored 73.9 points and ranked 11th. This does not mean an improvement, however, since this indicator even slightly decreased since 2019, Lithuania’s Equal Opportunities ombudswoman Birute Sabatauskaite said in a statement on October 24.
Lithuania’s score in the area of knowledge went up by 1.5 points, mostly due to an improvement in the gender balance in education.
Lithuania also scored higher in the area of power (up by 6.1 points), ranking 18th among EU member states. 42% of the country’s government ministers and deputy ministers were women.
At the highest level of political power, however, equality is still very much lacking as women make up 28% of MPs, which is still below the EU average of 33%.
According to the report, EIGE data shows that Lithuania has a very pronounced gender gap in the area of pay, with women making on average 11.1% less than men last year.
“Clearly, smaller salaries also lead to smaller pensions for women, which is reflected in poverty statistics. Last year, the poverty rate for women was 22.4% and 17.1% for men. Women aged over 65 are the most deprived group, as much as 42%,” Sabatauskaite said.
Last year, 57% of Lithuanian women reported that they were taking care of their children alone or with little to no help from their partners, according to the EIGE data. The same was true of 13% of men.
Women were also more likely to be long-term caregivers to sick relatives: 25% of women and 14% of men reported spending more than four hours a day doing so.
Housework was also more likely to fall on a woman’s shoulders: 70% of women and 8% of men said that they did housework. According to Sabatauskaite, the pandemic further exacerbated gender inequalities that existed in the areas of housework and care.
Sweden (83.9 points), Denmark (77.8 points) and the Netherlands (77.3 points) scored best in terms of gender equality, while Hungary (54.2 points), Romania (53.7 points) and Greece (53.4 points) were at the bottom of the list. (LRT/Business World Magazine)