At a time when women’s basic rights are being challenged, the visit of Carlien Scheele, Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), to Cyprus serves as a reminder that the struggle for gender equality is more relevant than ever. The European official met with government representatives to discuss issues concerning gender equality and their impact on women in society.
The current situation in Europe regarding gender equality presents significant contradictions. While the Gender Equality Index shows some progress, inequalities remain evident, especially in areas such as power and political decision-making. Unfortunately, Cyprus presents a discouraging picture. Despite progress made, Cyprus ranks 20th, well below the European average.
“The power domain presents the greatest challenge for Cyprus, which ranks 26th, reflecting a decrease of 0.4 points from 2021. In political decision-making, it ranks 25th with a score of 34.9 points – 27.7 points below the European average,” noted Carlien Scheele, emphasising that Cyprus must continue to strengthen its commitment to equality through specific actions and reinforcement of appropriate institutional mechanisms.
During her meetings, the European official also highlighted concerning issues such as online violence against women and girls, which in some cases is related to misogynistic online communities.
The need to develop strategies and actions to address these challenges is urgent, she stressed. The Cypriot contribution to the dialogue was significant, aiming to strengthen policies on gender equality and create legal and programmatic frameworks that will support the achievement of these goals.
What are the main objectives of your visit to Cyprus, and what did you achieve through your engagement with local officials?
My Agency – The European Institute for Gender Equality – supports the rotating Presidencies of the Council of the European Union with research and gender mainstreaming activities.
As Cyprus takes over the Presidency on January 1, 2026, our main objective for this country visit was to gather on-the-ground information on the national realities in Cyprus across different areas of gender equality.
We met with government officials, including Josie Christodoulou, the Commissioner for Gender Equality, the Ministry of Justice and Public Order and civil society organisations.
Our discussions veered towards the frightening realities of cyber violence against women and girls – especially in the dark corners of the manosphere, where young men’s problematic attitudes towards women can lead to tragic outcomes.
This now serves as the start of our strategic dialogue with key stakeholders to strengthen our support to the Cypriot Presidency.
What is the current situation in the EU? Which countries and which areas are particularly noteworthy in terms of gender equality? How would you assess the current state of gender equality in Cyprus compared to other EU member states?
My Agency assesses the state of gender equality across the EU through our annual update of our Gender Equality Index. The 2024 score for the European Union stands at 71 out of 100 points, reflecting a modest improvement of 0.8 points compared to the 2023 Index score.
We are cautions against complacency regarding these modest gains in gender equality observed across the EU, especially amid ongoing political and economic uncertainties.
There is considerable variation among Member States in the Gender Equality Index. Sweden leads with the highest score of 82 points, while Romania records the lowest at 57.5 points.
Cyprus currently ranks 20th on the Gender Equality Index with a score of 60.9 points, which is 9.1 points below the EU average, showing only a 0.2-point increase since 2023. However, since 2010, Cyprus has made substantial progress, improving by 11.9 points overall with positive developments across all domains: health, work, knowledge, time, power and money.
Cyprus performs best in the domain of work, ranking 9th with a score of 77.3 points. The sub-domain of participation is particularly strong at 88.2 points, improving from 13th to 10th place between 2021 and 2022 due to a 2.1-point increase.
The power domain poses the greatest challenge for Cyprus, with a score of just 28.8 points and a ranking of 26th, reflecting a 0.4-point decrease since 2021. In the sub-domain of political decision-making, Cyprus ranks 25th with a score of 34.9 points – 27.7 points below the EU average.
Despite Cyprus’s Index trend, its progress is accelerating at a faster rate than the EU average, indicating that Cyprus is catching up. This suggests a positive trajectory for gender equality in Cyprus; however, significant challenges remain.
Can you highlight some key initiatives or projects that EIGE is currently undertaking to promote gender equality across Europe?
Achieving full gender equality requires action across the board. The mainstreaming of gender-related issues into all areas of policy is therefore a fundamental precursor to progress.
A current cornerstone of my Agency’s work is enhancing its technical support for gender mainstreaming to EU institutions and Member States.
You can read more about our data collection on institutional mechanisms via two data talks: EU Member States need to strengthen institutional mechanisms for the promotion of gender equality | European Institute for Gender Equality
To this end, EIGE is developing new initiatives, including expert-led webinars and targeted support for beneficiaries.
These initiatives will concentrate on the practical application of gender mainstreaming tools, such as gender budgeting and gender impact assessments, while also assisting in the effective implementation of EU gender equality laws, including updated EU guidelines on gender-neutral job evaluation for the legislation on Pay Transparency.
Additionally, the recent EU Gender-Based Violence Survey data highlights my Agency’s ongoing work in ending gender-based violence. This survey provides vital statistics on the often-hidden phenomenon of gender-based violence, based on rigorous data collection across EU member states.
Our research reveals a disturbing reality: one in three women in the EU experiences violence, while just over one in eight report these incidents to the police. This significant reporting gap underscores the complex structural barriers that continue to impede progress.
Every woman has a right to be safe, and the results of this survey will empower policymakers across the EU to effectively combat violence against women and enhance support services for victims.
What are the biggest challenges you see in advancing gender equality in Europe today, particularly in Cyprus?
Commitment to gender equality is strong in Cyprus. From having a Gender Equality Commissioner and a national gender equality strategy in place to having a gender focal point present in each ministry and deputy ministry, the island has laid out a promising institutional framework to drive change.
Translating commitment into action is key. This requires strong accountability mechanisms for implementing national gender equality strategies and actions plans, increased resources for the gender equality bodies, legal commitment to gender mainstreaming and use of gender mainstreaming methods and tools, commitment to producing gender statistics and efforts to disseminate them effectively.
What role does education play in promoting gender equality, and what recommendations does EIGE have for improving gender-sensitive education in Cyprus?
Education is a catalyst for social change – especially because it starts in early childhood where we have an opportunity to course correct gender biases and gender stereotypes, which leads to greater gender equality.
It is encouraging to see that The Ministry of Education and Children in Cyprus has prepared an action plan on gender equality (based on the national action plan for gender equality), to achieve a comprehensive and systematic approach to gender equality policies in education and training.
By promoting gender-balanced education it gives way for gender-balanced career choices which solves labour market challenges such as gender segregation.
At the moment, our evidence points to a reality where women earn five times fewer degrees in ICT than men and only 2 in 10 ICT jobs are held by women in the EU.
To resolve this engrained issue, we need to see more initiatives to increase women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and maths) as this is where we see deep gender gaps.
Gender needs to be mainstreamed into textbooks, teaching methods and materials to ensure that girls and women have equal access to all educational and career choices.
What is gender-based violence? Why so many people react and don’t accept terms such as femicide?
Gender-based violence (GBV) is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. It refers to any type of violence based on someone’s gender which can result in physical to emotional to financial to reproductive violence.
While gender-based violence can affect anyone, women are overwhelmingly the victims.
My Agency’s definition of femicide is the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender. We advocate for its use to differentiate the causes of it in comparison to intentional homicide, and not to hide the numbers of women killed by their partners or because the motivation was gender-based.
One of the main reasons the term femicide is not accepted is because there is resistance to the idea that women are killed because they are women. There’s also discomfort in acknowledging systemic gender-based violence.
Additionally, gender motivation is not registered by the police, courts and some countries even say that the intention should not be part of the investigation and could be detrimental to victims.
While we do not provide Member States with country-specific recommendations to address Violence against women, my Agency has provided tailored recommendations to advance administrative data collection. In this sense, we acknowledge the advancements in Cyprus: from the criminalisation of femicide to the establishment of a comprehensive database to collect data on Violence against women and Domestic Violence.
A few recommendations we have for countries to address gender-based violence include:
- Adhere to the legal commitments set by the Istanbul Convention and the EU Directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence.
- Adapt data recording systems to include key breakdowns, on sex, age and the victim-perpetrator relationship.
- Public bodies should analyse the gender dimension of intimate partner violence and domestic violence and femicide, as well as its causes and consequences.
How does EIGE address the issue of violence against women, and what specific strategies are being recommended to Cyprus?
Data is our entry point into better understanding the nature and prevalence of gender-based violence in the EU.
My Agency works towards the provision of evidence on GBV that can support policymakers in the EU and Member States in designing and shaping policies and measures to eradicate all forms of violence against women.
Accurate and comparable EU-wide data on GBV allows policymakers to understand the issue and put in place appropriate evidence-based responses. To achieve this, a complete picture is needed, which includes official statistics, administrative data, and survey findings on incidents of reported violence.
To address the lack of comparable data on violence against women, EIGE developed 13 indicators with uniform definitions of the multiple forms of intimate partner violence, femicide and rape.
How important is the engagement of men in promoting gender equality, and what strategies does EIGE recommend for involving them?
Gender equality is a cause for all. It is not a zero-sum game where rights for women comes at the expense of men’s rights.
It is about eliminating inequalities for everyone – women and girls, men and boys, and persons who do not identify themselves on the gender binary scale.
Men and boys are susceptible to systemic inequalities – gender bias, gender stereotypes, norms and expectations- just like women and girls.
So, keeping men’s challenges and roles central to the conversations on gender equality is essential. We discussed how men and boys can play an active role for gender equality in a session at our recent Gender Equality Forum 2024.
And finally, we collaborate with other EU institutions, international organisations, NGOs and Member States to help promote a gender equal future for boys and men. We remain committed to continue this work.
How can we confront a rising backlash against women’s rights? Are you concerned that rights we considered certain are being called into question?
Growing anti-gender movements are putting women’s rights at risk.
This situation creates a chilling effect on civil society and reduces policymakers’ ambition to tackle gender equality issues. For instance, topics like Sexual and reproductive healthcare rights including comprehensive sexuality education, as well as same-sex marriage and LGBTQI rights are made increasingly contentious at the national and EU level.
Furthermore, recent political trends and movements opposing gender equality are gaining power in a growing number of Member States. This can make it increasingly difficult to advance gender equality legislation and to maintain and strengthen institutional mechanisms for gender equality.
I have hope that the recently released EU Roadmap for women’s rights will get us back on track. Having this roadmap on our side is sending a bold statement to actors who are pushing back on women’s rights. It’s essentially saying: ‘we are on a strategic path to protecting what are basic rights for women and overall, a fundamental value of gender equality’.
And with the objectives set out in the road map, the post 2025 Gender Equality Strategy will follow up with concrete measures to steer the EU in the right direction to undo the rising backlash.
