European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania

EIGE.SEC@eige.europa.eu

+370 5 215 7444

08/03/2024

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Gender Statistics Database collects data on the numbers of women and men in key decision-making positions across a number of different life domains in order to provide reliable statistics that can be used to monitor the current situation and trends through time.

The domains covered include politics, public administration, judiciary, business and finance, social partners and NGOs, environment, media, science and research, sports, transport, COVID-19, and EU funding. The decision-making positions covered are specific to each area of decision-making and are described in detail in the section on statistical concepts and definitions.

Data on regional assemblies and executives cover the presidents and members of regional assemblies and regional executive bodies in 38 countries, where relevant (see section on Comparability – geographical).

The women and men in decision-making (WMID) data are organised into life domains and then by types of organisation and the different decision-making positions within the hierarchy of each organisational type. The domains covered are:

• Politics
• Public administration
• Judiciary
• Business and finance
• Social partners and NGOs
• Environment
• Media
• Science and research
• Sports
• Transport
• COVID-19
• EU funding

Details of the organisations and positions covered are provided in the section on statistical concepts and definitions.

Not applicable.

General definitions:

A decision-making position is a position from which it is possible to take or influence a decision:

• within a domain: at organisational level. This restricts coverage to organisations having a major influence in the domain at the territorial level of interest, which is usually national but can also be international, European, regional or local.
• within an organisation: at hierarchical level. This restricts coverage to positions within the hierarchy that have a major input to decision-making within the organisation.

Regional assemblies and executives

The term “region” refers to regional, territorial, authorities that are endowed with self-government, between the central government and local authorities. This does not necessarily imply a hierarchical relationship between regional and local authorities. Regional self-government denotes the legal competence and the ability of regional authorities, within the limits of the constitution and the law, to regulate and manage a share of public affairs under their own responsibility, in the interests of the regional population and in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.

Organisations covered:

• Regional assemblies refer to the representative assembly of a region (i.e. regional authority) which is composed of popularly elected representatives of constituent self-governing regions.

Note that the different terms used in each country - e.g. regional parliament, regional council and regional assembly - are all considered equivalent.

• Regional executives are defined as a person or a body exercising executive functions on behalf of a region (regional authority) where these are not exercised by the representative body.

Positions covered:

• President
• Members (count includes the president)

Mapping tables:

• Regions: coverage and NUTS correspondence
• Regions by country
• Regional executive and assembly: decision-making body

Notes:

Data cover the lower house of parliament in the regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The statistical unit in WMID data is the organisational unit as defined by each specific topic (e.g. a house of parliament or a large listed company). Data are then collected on the numbers of men and women occupying decision-making positions within that unit.

Data cover all persons occupying specified positions in the organisational units covered (see statistical concepts and definitions).

The WMID data cover the 27 EU Member States, United Kingdom, six EU candidate countries (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye), one potential candidate (Kosovo⁽*⁾) and the remaining three EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

Currently, there are no regional authorities in 13 ⁽^⁾ of the 38 countries covered in the WMID data. Thus, only 25 countries are covered.

⁽*⁾ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

⁽^⁾ BG, EE, IE, CY, LT, LU, MT, SI, ME, MK, XK, IS, LI

Data were first collected in 2003 (for 20 countries), where applicable. Since then, data have been collected on an annual basis and updated quarterly in case of regional elections. The geographic coverage has expanded through time so for the countries listed below the time series starts in the period indicated:

• Czechia: 2004
• Denmark: 2004 for executives
• Greece: 2004
• France: 2004 for executives
• Latvia: 2004
• Poland: 2004
• Slovakia: 2004
• Türkiye: 2005
• Croatia: 2007
• Serbia: 2008
• Albania: 2018
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2018

Not applicable.

No legal acts are applicable. The Council of the European Union has committed to ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and as part of this commitment the European Commission has been collecting data on decision-making since 2003, a task that has been taken over by EIGE since 2017.

The WMID database was managed by the European Commission until end 2016 and then transferred to EIGE.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Generally, data are disseminated within one month of the data collection (see section on reference period). Data are published on the EIGE Gender Statistics database.

Not applicable.

Data are disseminated to all types of users simultaneously via the EIGE Gender Statistics database.

No regular news release.

From 2017, EIGE will publish regular bulletins on gender statistics, which may cover data on decision-making. The European Commission's Annual Report on Equality usually includes a section on this topic.

EIGE Gender Statistics database

Micro-data are not made available.

WMID data are the primary source of information for indicators to monitor the implementation of Area G of the Beijing Platform for Action.

WMID Methodological report

Not applicable.

WMID data are collected either directly from the organisations covered or from umbrella organisations providing data on behalf of member organisations. The majority of data are collected from the websites or other publications produced by the organisations concerned but some are also collected from direct contacts. There are three main risks in the data collection: ensuring the right decision-making bodies and positions are identified; ensuring that the gender of the people in these positions is correctly recorded; and ensuring that the information is up-to-date.

The data are collected by a team of experienced researchers and are subject to routine validation that includes:

• cross-checking of data relating to at least 10% of organisations covered (randomly selected) by another researcher;
• verification of data with the organisation concerned;
• comparison of data with previous periods and review in case of significant change.

WMID data need to be viewed bearing in mind the inherent diversity of institutional and organisational structures and in the scope of decision-making responsibilities for nominally similar positions. In this sense, there will always be some limitations to the extent to which data can be considered as fully comparable between countries. That being said, the data are considered to be of good quality, collected from reliable sources and with careful application of a common methodology. The data are comprehensive (cover all relevant organisations) and complete (data are available for all relevant positions in each organisation covered) in the vast majority of cases.

WMID data are the primary source of information for indicators to monitor the implementation of Area G (Power and decision-making) of the Beijing Platform for Action. The data are therefore widely used by the European Commission (DG JUST) and the European Institute for Gender Equality for analysis in this area and for reporting to the Council of the European Union.

The data are also widely used by researchers in this area.

No user satisfaction surveys are carried out.

The completeness of WMID data depends on the extent to which the organisations covered openly publish, or are willing to share, information about their key decision-making personnel. In general, there is increasing pressure on organisations of all types to be completely transparent about their organisational structure and operational practices so that completeness of the data has improved through time.

Data are generally complete but there are gaps due to data availability in some years.

• 2018 data for assembly members not available in two regions in Albania.

In principle, the WMID data accurately describe the situation for the area of decision-making concerned, though in some areas the coverage of organisations is restricted to limit the cost and burden of the data collection, and this could potentially impact on overall accuracy.

In the case of regions:

• Spain: 2017 data for Catalunya refer to 2016 as the regional government and parliament were suspended from October 2017-June 2018.
• United Kingdom: 2017-2019 data for Northern Ireland refer to 2016 as the devolved government resigned in January 2017 and not re-formed until January 2020.
• Türkiye: 2019-2021 data for Diyarbakir refer to 2018 (assembly under central government administration).

Apart from these points, data can be considered fully accurate.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data are released within one month of collection.

Punctuality is 100%.

WMID data are considered comparable between countries but it is necessary to bear in mind the different institutional settings that exist and the fact that decision-making structures vary between organisations within countries as well as between countries. There are, therefore, inherent differences between countries in the way that decision-making is organised but the WMID methodology aims to allow for such variation so that the organisations and positions covered in each country are as comparable as possible.

Regions refer to the regional authorities between the level of national and local government (though hierarchical control is not implied) which are endowed with self-government and are therefore not applicable in all countries. Currently 13 (*) of the 38 countries covered in the WMID data do not have regions following this definition. In addition, the heterogeneity of national systems implies that there are differences in the competences, power, financial resources, and average size of regional authorities across the countries covered in the database.

(*) BG, EE, IE, CY, LT, LU, MT, SI, ME, MK, XK, IS, LI

In general, WMID data are comparable through time in each area of decision-making. Nevertheless, it is necessary to bear in mind that the organisations covered and the decision-making structures within these may vary through time (e.g. government ministries may be reorganised following a change of government, and the constituents of the blue-chip indices used to define the sample of large listed companies are updated by the responsible stock exchange on a regular basis).

 
In the case of regional assemblies and executives, the number of regions covered across years may vary due to changes in administrative landscaping (i.e. mergers or divisions of existing regions), reforms in the regional governance system, or methodological revisions. These changes have an impact on the comparability of data over time.

Following changes in administrative landscaping and legal reforms, the number of regions covered changed for the countries listed below:

• Denmark: The Danish Municipal reform abolished the 14 traditional counties (administrative regions) and replaced them with 5 large regions in 2007.
• Greece: The legal reform passed in 2010 (with changes implemented in 2011), abolished the 54 prefectures (main regional administrative unit) and replaced them with 13 administrative regions, mainly responsible for dealing with regional development and economic policy.
• France: The territorial reform passed in 2014 (with changes implemented in January 2016) reduced the number of regions from 27 to 18 by merging some areas and granting them more competences. The number of assembly members increased depending on the size of the region.
• Latvia: The administrative territorial reform implemented in July 2009 changed the administrative divisions from two-level municipalities (i.e. first level: districts and second level: towns, cities, parishes and towns countryside territories) to one-level municipalities, abolished the 33 districts and replaced them with 5 planning regions. Moreover, the 2020 administrative reform (with changes implemented from 2021 local elections) reduced the number of local authorities from 119 to 43. Consequently, the number of regional assembly members in Latvian regions reduced in 2021.
• Finland: The coverage dropped from 20 to 19 in 2011 following the merger of two regions (Itä-uudenmaa and Uusimaa).
• Sweden: The coverage increased from 20 to 21 in 2011 as the municipality of Gotland was granted the powers of regional self-government.
• Türkiye: The legal reform passed in 2012 (with changes implemented in 2014) abolished the special provincial administrations of 30 provinces and replaced them with 30 metropolitan municipalities (16 of which were already in place and had local government powers, and 14 newly created) by extending their authority and granting them the same level of power as the regional government. Following the reform, there are now 30 metropolitan municipalities and 51 provinces with regional government powers (was 81 provinces before the reform).
• Norway: following the administrative reform passed in 2017 (with changes implemented progressively), the number of regions covered dropped from 19 to 18 in 2018 and from 18 to 11 in 2020.

Furthermore, there were changes in the number of regions covered for the countries listed below following methodological revisions:

• Bulgaria: The 9 provinces covered from 2003 to 2006 (administrative units) were excluded from the data in 2007. There is no regional self-government in Bulgaria.
• Germany: Number of regions covered increased from 4 to 16 in 2004 with the inclusion of the remaining 12 States (Länder).
• Ireland: The counties covered from 2003 to 2006 were excluded from the data in 2007. There is no regional self-government in Ireland.
• France: Number of regions covered increased from 26 to 27 in 2014 with the inclusion of Mayotte (which became an outermost region of the EU).
• Netherlands: Number of regions covered increased from 3 to 12 in 2004 with the inclusion of the remaining 9 self-governing authorities.
• Portugal: In addition to the two autonomous regions currently covered, other administrative areas were included in the data between 2003-2006 but they were excluded in 2007.
• United Kingdom: 9 ceremonial counties in England were covered between 2003-2005. The coverage for the United Kingdom was revised in 2006 to include only the 4 regional authorities (Greater London Authority, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) compiles data on the numbers of men and women in local councils in Europe from official national sources. Data are published in the UNECE Statistical Database, but only cover up to 2015.

UNECE also collects data on the number of elected women and men in local deliberative bodies, based on national official sources, which is published in the UN Women website Women in Local Government. Sometimes, UNECE data for local councils cover both the administrative level covered in the WMID data on regional assemblies and local/municipal councils. UNECE data are however not disaggregated by level (i.e. municipal and region). In addition, the overlap occurs only for certain countries, and in some cases not for all years (e.g. there are breaks in series). Moreover, the UNECE dataset does not include disaggregated data for leaders/presidents of the assemblies.  There is thus no direct coherence between these datasets.

Internal coherence of the data (e.g. through time or across countries) is ensured through careful application of the WMID methodology, and routine validation of data.

Revisions to data are infrequent. Occasionally, for example, a response to a request to verify the information collected for a particular organisation is received after the data collection has closed and the results disseminated. If the information leads to a change in the data, then the update is made at the next available opportunity and at the latest within one month.

There is no fixed revision schedule. Any necessary revisions are made on an ad hoc basis.

The following revisions were applied:

• 2016: 2014 and 2015 data for Mayotte (France) added.
• 2020: 2019 data for members of regional assembly for Lehze (Albania) added (previously not available).

The WMID data are a form of administrative data, being derived from the records that organisations keep regarding the personnel occupying key positions within the organisation. In all areas of decision-making, the data cover all organisations within the scope defined by the methodology. In some areas (e.g. national level politics) all relevant organisations/bodies are covered (e.g. parliaments and governments) whilst in others the methodology restricts coverage so that the data effectively represent a sample of all organisations within the broad type of organisation (e.g. data on decision-making in large companies are restricted to the nationally registered constituents of the main blue-chip index for the country).

Annually (updated quarterly if there are any regional elections; except for the six EU candidate countries and one potential candidate (i.e., IPA beneficiaries) from 2022).

Direct collection of data from official websites.

See section on quality assurance.

Data collected from individual organisations are aggregated to the national level by organisation and position.

EU-27 figures are based on an aggregate of data at national level, with the percentages of men and women calculated from these aggregates. The shares of men and women observed at the EU level are therefore weighted averages rather than an average of the shares at country level.

Figures for IPA beneficiaries are based on an aggregate of data at national level for the six EU candidate countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Türkiye) and one potential candidate (Kosovo).

Different aggregates can also be computed using the pre-defined table. For example, an “EU candidate countries” aggregate can be created by adding data for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Türkiye for the relevant position.

Not applicable.