The percentage of women in managerial positions in Europe differs from country to country. There are less female managers (ISCO major group 1) in the 19 E.U. member states belonging to the Euro zone than in all 28 member states combined, according to fresh Eurostat data. And there tend to be higher percentages of female leaders in Eastern European countries than in Western European ones. But there are exceptions.
In all 28 E.U. countries combined, the percentage of women in those high positions is 33.5 percent, meaning almost exactly one third. The share has hardly changed in the past 12 years. The increase between 2006 and 2017 was 1.2 percent.
The Euro Zone is a sorry sight, when looked at separately. In the 19 countries which are part of it, the share of female business leaders even shrank by 0.5 in the past twelve years, to 31.2 percent in 2017.
Looking at the numbers for individual countries is interesting, since the data can be seen as one of the indicators which determine how emancipated European countries are.
In Germany, the strongest economy in Europe, the percentage was 28.1 percent in 2006. Since then it has increased to 29.1 percent, which is far below the E.U. average. It even misses the Euro Zone average, by far.
Belgium looks better than Germany, with 33.5 percent. So do Ireland (35.8 percent), France (33.5 percent), Austria (31.8 percent), as well as the United Kingdom (36.1 percent).
But there are Western European countries in which the share of female managers is even lower than in Germany. In Luxembourg, the percentage is only 19.0 percent, which is the lowest in the entire European Union. In the Netherlands, 26.4 percent of all higher management positions are being held by women, in Denmark 27.0 percent.
In many Eastern European states, the share of women in those positions is a lot higher, compared to Germany, other Western European states and both the E.U. and the Euro Zone average.
This applies to Bulgaria (39.4 percent), Estonia (38.0 percent), Latvia (46.8 percent), Lithuania (39.2 percent), Hungary (39.4 percent), Poland (41.1 percent) and others.
But some Eastern European countries look even worse than many Western European ones, in this regard. In Czechia, the percentage of women in managerial positions is only 24.8 percent, in Cyprus 20.7 percent.
Eurostat also looked into countries with E.U. aspirations, and some which are bordering the Union. Switzerland’s percentage is 33.8 percent, in Macedonia 24.3 percent is the share of ladies in those management positions. In Turkey, things look a lot worse: 14.9 percent of high management positions are being held by women.
Eurostat is part of the European Commission. The authority provides statistical information to E.U. institutions.