Albania has published its first Gender Gap Index and it shows concerning results regarding the balance between male and female roles in work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.
The report was compiled by the Ministry of Health, INSTAT, the European Institute of Gender Equality, the EU, The World Bank, and Partner With France.
The overall score for Albania was 60.4 out of a possible 100 points, indicating a concerning gender gap and placing it seven points below the EU average.
The worst gap observed was that of ‘time’ where Albania managed to score only 48.1 out of a possible 100, indicating a “very unbalanced responsibilities regarding care for family members and unpaid household work”. It also noted that while women carry most of the responsibilities, they do not participate in social activities as much as men despite the fact they are “important for their well-being and quality of life”.
The second biggest gender gap was in the ‘money’ domain, demonstrating that women are at a particularly unfavourable disadvantage when it comes to their financial resources. In layman’s terms, this shows that women earn significantly less than their male counterparts, despite being more educated and working longer hours.
The third biggest gap observed in the Index was in the domain of ‘knowledge’. While Albanian women study more, for longer, they mainly study education, health and welfare, humanities and arts. Their male counterparts tend to avoid these subjects, resulting in a number of sectors including law, medicine, economics and politics, losing out on their share of highly educated women.
Scoring 60.9 in the domain of ‘power’, Albanian women are well represented in political and economic power but are lacking in representation in boards of finance, media, and sports entities.
In ‘work’, women in Albania fare better in terms of participation, but not so well in segregation and quality of work. As is the case in EU countries, segregation in the labour market is prominent and reflected in the higher concentration of women in sectors like social services.
The domain with the highest score was ‘health’ where Albania scored 81.8. While still lower than the EU average of 88.1, women’s health status is good and their access to healthcare is relatively equal to men.
