The gender employment gap in the cultural sector in the European Union last year decreased from 6.4 percentage points (p.p.) in 2023 (53.2% men vs. 46.8% women) to 0.8 p.p. in 2024 (50.4% men vs. 49.6% women). The ratio of men and women employed in the sector has almost reached parity. This was reported by UNN with reference to Eurostat.
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It is noted that the recorded figure is the lowest gender employment gap in the cultural sector in the last decade and since data became available (2011).
In 2024, in 16 EU countries, the share of women in the cultural sector exceeded that of men, especially in Latvia and Estonia, with a difference of 32.6 and 24.2 percentage points in favor of women, respectively.
In contrast, in 11 EU countries, the share of employment in culture was higher for men, with the highest shares observed in Spain and Italy, where there were about 10 percentage points in favor of men. Meanwhile, in Greece, Romania, and Austria, the gender employment gap in culture was almost non-existent.
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Although the gender employment gap in culture has significantly narrowed, this balance is still not reflected in earnings. The latest results of a 4-year earnings structure survey show that in 2022, at the EU level, 16.1% of women employed in selected cultural activities had low wages (two-thirds or less of the average national gross hourly wage) compared to 11.2% of men. These figures are consistent with overall employment indicators: 17.1% for women versus 12.6% for men.
This inequality is also evident when broken down by type of cultural activity, as the share of women with low wages was higher than men in all selected activities. The most imbalanced sector was "printing and reproduction of recorded media," where 25.9% of women received low wages compared to 12.4% of men. This category was followed by "motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities" with 23.0% for women and 15.1% for men.