Cyprus is among the many international locations within the EU the place gender equality has indicated progress in 2019, in line with the Gender Equality Index 2021.
The index, launched on Thursday, confirmed, in line with the European Institute for Gender Equality Director Carlien Scheele, that “Europe has made fragile beneficial properties in gender equality. However massive losses are rising because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial fallout is lasting longer for ladies, whereas life expectancy for males has dropped”.
She additionally stated the “Index findings can assist Europe’s leaders deal with the totally different results of the pandemic on men and women and alleviate the unequal brief and long-term impacts.”
In keeping with the Index, since 2010, most progress on gender equality has been achieved in Luxembourg (+ 11.2 factors), Malta (+ 10.6 factors), Italy (+ 10.5 factors), Austria (+ 9.3 factors) and Portugal (+ 8.5 factors).
In Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Eire, Latvia and Spain, Index rating will increase ranged between 6.0 and eight.2 factors. The least progress on gender equality since 2010 has been in Czechia, Hungary and Poland, the place the rise has been round 1 level. The tempo of change within the remaining 11 international locations has been gradual, with scores enhancing by between 1.9 and 5 factors since 2010.
Progress traits between 2010 and 2019 present that the best strides in gender equality have been primarily in southern EU international locations. In France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria and Portugal, the Index rating elevated by greater than 7.5 factors.
With tentative total progress within the area of labor, country-level developments are particularly essential, as they point out each sustained challenges and indicators of progress. In 2019, destructive rating modifications on this area had been recorded in 5 international locations: Poland, Romania and Slovenia noticed a lower of – 0.1 factors, with higher declines in Cyprus (– 0.2 factors) and Denmark (– 0.3 factors).
Harassment is probably the most widespread type of violence in opposition to lesbian ladies, with 56 % experiencing in-person harassment for any motive within the earlier 5 years and 11 % struggling cyber harassment over the identical time-frame. Within the 12 months earlier than the survey, 48 % of lesbian ladies had been harassed for any motive and 40 % had been harassed due to their sexual orientation.
Prevalence charges differ from 52 % in Latvia, 50 % in Lithuania and 48 % in Belgium to 22 % in Cyprus and 28 % in Malta and Portugal. Of the newest incidents of hate-motivated harassment in opposition to this group, 71 % had been perpetrated by males. In 62 % of circumstances, the perpetrator was unknown to the lady.
The Index additionally confirmed that lack of paid work is prone to have an effect on ladies’s well being disproportionately. That is notably the case in Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal, the place ladies’s labour market participation is low. Subsequently, being in employment might lead to decrease well being beneficial properties for ladies than for males, however being employed nonetheless results in higher well being outcomes than being unemployed.
Eurostat’s mortality information on suicide and psychological and behavioural issues, together with deaths from alcohol and drug abuse, additionally reveals that extra males than ladies die from these causes. On the similar time, the Index confirmed that solely in eight international locations – Cyprus, Greece, Eire, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden – do extra ladies than males die of psychological and behavioural issues.
It additionally stated that sexuality training is obligatory in most Member States besides Bulgaria, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.