Systematic mainstreaming of the gender perspective is essential for implementing the 2030 Agenda. Under the Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality and empowerment of women and girls constitute both a goal (Goal 5) of its own and a means for achieving other goals with gender-specific targets.
Based on available SDG indicators in the United Nations Global SDG Indicators Database19, countries in the UNECE region have made significant strides toward achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. However, aggregate progress at the regional level masks differences across and within countries. Intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination continue to impede equal opportunity for marginalized women and girls, highlighting the importance of doubling down on efforts to leave no one behind on the path to 2030.
19 Unless mentioned otherwise in footnotes, the data source used in this overview is the United Nations Global SDG Indicators Database.
With just six years remaining until 2030 and three decades since the adoption of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, it is more crucial now than ever to invest in the capabilities, dignity, and human rights of all women and girls across various sectors and throughout their life journey.
Under-representation in power and leadership remain widespread in the UNECE region. Men still dominate national and local politics, as well as decision-making positions in the private sector. Women hold at least four in every ten seats in national parliaments in only 10 UNECE countries.20 When it comes to local government, only 8 countries have achieved this level of representation.21 Eleven countries have reached or surpassed 40 per cent of women in managerial positions. Variation across countries is large in all these indicators and in several countries, women hold less than a quarter of seats in parliament, deliberative bodies of local governments or managerial positions.
20 Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2025. Parline Database.
21 UN Women. 2025. Women in Local Government.
As of January 2025, at least 40 per cent of women hold parliament seats in 10 out of 56 UNECE countries (Figure 11). These countries would meet the target if the threshold were to be set between 40 per cent and 60 per cent, with the aim of no more than 60 per cent of either sex being represented. In Andorra, Iceland, Monaco, Finland and Sweden the percentage is 45 or higher. In six countries, women hold less than 20 per cent of parliament seats. If adequately designed and enforced, temporary special measures, such as quotas, can help accelerate equal political representation at all levels. As of January 2025, 40 of 56 UNECE countries had electoral quotas for women in lower chambers and unicameral parliaments.
According to the latest data available for the period 2015–2022, women hold at least 40 per cent of elected seats in deliberative bodies of local governments in 8 UNECE countries, with the highest percentages in Iceland (51), Belarus (48), Sweden (44), Albania (44) and France (42).
Managerial positions are also predominantly occupied by men. Based on the latest data available for the period 2019–2022, women hold at least 40 per cent of managerial positions in 11 UNECE countries, including in Belarus (47), the Russian Federation (46), Latvia (46), the Republic of Moldova (45), and Poland (43). When expanding the spectrum to include middle and high-level management positions, women hold at least 40 per cent of these positions in 9 countries, including in Latvia (46), Belarus (44), the Russian Federation (44), Sweden (43) and the United States (43). In five countries only a quarter or less of all senior and middle management positions are held by women.
Structural barriers to gender equality and gender discrimination persist in labour markets, leading to gaps in labour force participation and pay, occupational segregation, unemployment, and an unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work. While women’s workforce participation has narrowed relative to men’s, large disparities remain, particularly among the prime working-age population. Working-age mothers with young children (women aged 25–54 years with children under 6 years of age) face notable labour market disadvantages in participation, pay, and access to leadership positions. Data for the period 2019–2023 shows that in 25 out of 31 UNECE countries with available data, the gender gap in labour force participation among couples with small children exceeds 15 percentage points (Figure 12).22 In all countries with data, over 90 per cent of fathers in this age group are in the workforce, whereas maternal participation reaches a high level of 80 per cent or more in only seven countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia.
22 ILO. 2025. ILOSTAT Database.
Closely related to labour force participation rate, women in the UNECE region continue to earn less than men every month on average and the size of the gender pay gap varies widely. Data covering the period 2018–2022 reveals that women earn, on average, at least 20 per cent less than men in 16 UNECE countries. The highest gender pay gaps in monthly earnings are recorded in Tajikistan (36 per cent), Uzbekistan (36 per cent), Armenia (36 per cent), Azerbaijan (35 per cent), and the Netherlands (35 per cent).23 In contrast, the average gender pay gap is smallest in Croatia (7 per cent), Albania (5 per cent) and Slovenia (3 per cent).
23 UNECE Statistical Database.
For many women in the region, the countless hours spent on unpaid care and domestic work remain an obstacle for accessing decent employment. Women continue to bear a disproportionate responsibility for household chores and care duties in most of countries. Data available for 13 UNECE countries for the period 2015–2020 reveals that women spend up to twice as many hours performing unpaid care and domestic tasks than men in most countries. In three countries, this unequal ratio stands between 2 and 3 times and even at around 5 times in two countries.
Further investments in care leave policies—such as maternity, paternity and parental leave—along with care services, jobs, and infrastructure are essential to reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work. Affordable early childhood education and care services can also help women participate in workforce and create decent jobs in the paid care sector. A shortage of kindergartens and pre-schools in some countries impedes women’s workforce participation. In only 10 of 40 UNECE countries with available data for the academic years 2015/2016 to 2021/2022, enrolment in formal childcare services for children under three exceeded 50 per cent, including in the Netherlands (72), Slovenia (69), Denmark (68), the Republic of Moldova (62) and the United Kingdom (61).24
24 UNECE Statistical Database.
Multi-dimensional poverty in the UNECE region has a female face. Women are more likely than men to live in multi-dimensional poverty in 29 of the 34 UNECE countries with available data for 2018–2022 period. An opposite pattern is observed in Ireland, while women and men are equally likely to live in multi-dimensional poverty in Finland, Iceland, Montenegro, and North Macedonia (indicator 1.2.2). More than 30 per cent of women in Albania (45), Türkiye (43), North Macedonia (40), Romania (36), Bulgaria (35), and Montenegro (31) are multi-dimensionally poor. Gender gaps are the largest in Latvia (29 vs. 22 per cent), followed by Bulgaria (35 vs. 29), Lithuania (26 vs. 20), and Luxembourg (26 vs. 20).
All mothers with newborns receive maternity cash benefits in 41 of the 52 UNECE countries with available data for 2017–2020 period (indicator 1.3.1). Pension coverage among women is universal in 27 of the 46 UNECE countries with available data for 2020–2021 period, as opposed to in 38 countries among men (indicator 1.3.1). All women with severe disabilities receive disability cash benefit in 40 of the 41 UNECE countries with available data for the 2016–2021 period (indicator 1.3.1).
Women and girls in the UNECE region have the right to live free from violence, fear, and coercion. Yet many continue to endure human rights violations in public and private spheres—at home, work, educational institutions, within communities and online—undermining their freedom, safety, and access to opportunities. Based on the latest data available covering 48 UNECE countries during the period 2000–2018, over one in ten women of reproductive age (15-49 years) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in Tajikistan (14 per cent), Kyrgyzstan (13 per cent), and Türkiye (12 per cent). In contrast, the prevalence of intimate partner violence stood at five per cent or less in 27 UNECE countries. Georgia (3 per cent), Spain (3 per cent), Iceland (3 per cent), Canada (3 per cent), and Switzerland (2 per cent) have achieved most progress in this area.
Early, child, and forced marriage in the UNECE region is far less prevalent compared to other regions. Yet, this harmful practice, which severely curtails girls’ opportunities throughout their life, remains more common in some Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Among the 20 UNECE countries that have available data during the period 2015–2022, more than one in ten women aged 20–24 were married before age 18 in Türkiye (15 per cent), Georgia (14 per cent), Kyrgyzstan (13 per cent), and Albania (12 per cent).
Women and girls’ autonomy to decide on sexual and reproductive health services, contraceptive use, and consensual sexual relations is key to their empowerment and reproductive rights. However, the share of married or in-union women of reproductive age who make their own informed decisions in these domains varies considerably across the nine UNECE countries with available data for the period 2016–2020. It stands at over three-quarters in Serbia (96 per cent), North Macedonia (88 per cent) and Georgia (82 per cent), at around two-thirds in the Republic of Moldova (73 per cent), Uzbekistan (70 per cent), Albania (62 per cent), Armenia (62 per cent) and Turkmenistan (59 per cent), and at around a quarter in Tajikistan (27 per cent).
Most progress in developing national laws and regulations to ensure full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health care, information and education across the 35 UNECE countries with available data for the period 2019–2022 is observed in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden where the access level is at 100 per cent, followed closely by Serbia (99 per cent), Croatia (98 per cent) and Estonia (98 per cent).
UNECE region has made notable progress in developing and enforcing legal frameworks to end all forms of discrimination against women and girls. However, challenges persist in the areas of public life, violence against women, employment, and economic benefits, as well as marriage and family.
According to the latest data available for 2022, only 12 UNECE countries have fully established legal frameworks to end discrimination against women and girls across overarching legal frameworks and public life (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Spain and Ukraine), and 7 countries have all necessary laws in place to prevent and address violence against women (Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom).
On legal frameworks to end gender discrimination in employment and economic benefits, 23 UNECE countries have all such frameworks in place. Yet only 2 countries have all laws in place required to end discrimination against women and girls in marriage and the family (Germany and Ireland).
Further progress is needed to develop, adopt, and implement methodologies for gender-responsive budgeting. Among the 27 UNECE countries with available data for the period 2018–2021, only 8 fully meet the three criteria — intent, allocation tracking, and transparency — to make systematic public budget allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Iceland. Portugal, Serbia and Ukraine) whereas 17 other countries meet at least one of the three criteria.
Establishing an equal playing field in education is key to addressing gender-based segregation in tertiary education and feminization of certain labour sectors and occupations. Data from 46 UNECE countries for the period 2015–2018 (indicator 4.1.1) shows that women at the end of lower secondary education are more likely than men to achieve a minimum proficiency level in reading. However, achievement levels vary widely across the region, ranging from around 90 per cent of girls in Finland (93), Estonia (92), Ireland (92), Canada (90), and Poland (90) to just around 40 per cent in Georgia (44) and Kazakhstan (43).
The picture is more varied when it comes to mathematics at the end of the same educational period, as girls perform better than boys in 25 of the 43 UNECE countries with data available for the period 2015–2019. Women are more likely than men to complete upper secondary education in 43 out of 51 UNECE countries with available data for the period 2015–2019, with female completion rates exceeding 85 per cent in 37 countries (indicator 4.1.2).
New technologies hold vast potential for empowering women and girls, yet it remains essential to close the gender digital divide to ensure that women have equal access to digital tools and can fully participate in technological progress. At the same time, emerging risks, such as cyber violence, privacy concerns, and biased algorithms which may perpetuate unconscious gender bias, must also be addressed. Based on available data for the period 2016-2021, female mobile phone ownership is nearly universal in Spain, Czechia, Slovenia, Cyprus, the Russian Federation, Finland, Belarus, and Romania. Only three countries have rates below 80 per cent. Women are less likely than men to own a mobile phone in 16 out of the 27 UNECE countries with available data.
Quality and timely gender data are crucial to shaping public policies and monitoring progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals. The limited data available to monitor some Goal 5 targets underscores the need for increased investments in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of related indicators. As of January 2024, the UNECE region had 55 per cent of data available since 2015 to monitor SDG 5, although large differences exist between countries.25
25 This estimate covers 18 SDG 5 indicators. It is assumed that a country has data available for an indicator if at least one data point for the reference period 2015 or later is available in the SDG Global Database. SDG indicator 5.3.2. Proportion of girls and women aged 15–49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting, by age, has been excluded from this analysis.
Data availability also differs significantly across Goal 5 indicators. For instance, all 56 UNECE countries have data available since 2015 on the representation in parliaments, 49 on legal frameworks for gender equality and non-discrimination and access to managerial positions, 48 on intimate partner violence and 46 on representation in local governments. In contrast, few countries have data available since 2015 on gender-responsive budgeting (19), time spent on unpaid domestic and care work (13), and decision-making on sexual and reproductive health (9 countries). No UNECE country has data on sexual non-intimate partner violence in the Global SDG Indicator Database.
Temporal data that reveal trends over time are available for very few SDG indicators. Differences in the frequency of data collection and compilation, along with newly introduced indicators partially explain the lack of cross-temporal data collected. Large gaps remain in the availability of disaggregated data by sex and intersecting vulnerabilities, such as age, geographic location, disability status, HIV status, migratory status, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity to monitor gender-relevant SDG targets beyond Goal 5. National statistical offices and other key stakeholders have undertaken significant efforts to improve gender data availability, however, more bold and decisive investments are needed to sustain progress and to strengthen countries’ capacity to measure and report progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
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