Portugal ranked 16th among the 28 EU member states in a recent ranking. With a score of 61.3 out of 100, it lies six points behind the EU average of 67.9.
Each country was ranked by the European Institute for Gender Equality in their Gender Equality Index (GEI) for 2020 on a basis of six criteria: work, money, knowledge, time, power, and health. Portugal received its highest score in health (84.6) — but the country ranked 20th in comparison to rest of the EU. Portugal also apparently performed well in work (72.9) and money (72.8) — but there’s a caveat, as the report notes that the country has had a setback in these areas in comparison to its 2010 results. The GEI indicates that the country showed minimal growth in these fields, and that they lost standing.
The domains where Portugal showed the most improvement are in those where it got the lowest scores. In the criterion of time, which contemplates the time women have for care and social activities, it got a score of 47.5, which represented an 8.8 point increase compared to 10 years ago, and in the area of power Portugal saw its greatest leap forward, with a 16.2 improvement — but a disappointing final score of 51.1, which was 2.4 points below the EU average.
The GEI found that Portugal is demonstrating steady improvement, and that its rate of moving towards gender equality is faster than other EU states: overall, Portugal moved up four places since 2010.
However, the real question now is, is this rate fast enough? The GEI for 2020 found that the EU is 60 years away from reaching gender equality. Continuing at the same rate is asking 51% of the EU population to wait just shy of a lifetime to reach equality. And this is not taking matters like class and race into account, which add another layer of complexity to gender inequality. If you want to see how other EU countries scored, take a look at the results.
