Finland has dropped to 8th place in the EU’s latest Gender Equality Index, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health revealed in a press release.
The annual equality report ranked Finland in 4th place last year.
“Finland, together with the other Nordic countries, is in a group of countries where the national score is higher than the EU average, but gender equality progress is slower than the EU average,” the ministry’s statement said.
The index measures gender equality based on six core domains: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.
Finland’s scores improved in the categories of health and work, but were down on last year’s results in the fields of knowledge, money, power and time — with the time category showing a particularly sharp decline.
“Women’s participation in physical, cultural or leisure activities has decreased sharply, whereas men’s participation has increased slightly,” the ministry noted.
Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP), who is responsible for gender equality issues, said there is “room for improvement”, especially in tackling educational differences as well as gender inequality in cultural, leisure and physical activities.
“Finland has a strong history of promoting gender equality, and although our ranking is still good, the results show that we still have a lot to do to achieve gender equality,” Grahn-Laasonen commented.
Sweden ranked first in the 2023 index, with the Netherlands in second place and Denmark ranked third.
Source: Yle
