According to the European statistics office, 46 percent of workers in the EU are women, but only 34 percent hold management positions.

In relation to member states, the highest percentage of women in management positions in the third quarter of 2020 was recorded in Latvia (45 percent) and Poland (44 percent), followed by Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden (42 percent each).

At the opposite end of the scale, women represent only around a quarter of managers in Croatia (24 percent), the Netherlands (26 percent) and Cyprus (27 percent).

On the other hand - and also between July and September 2020 - the EU employment rate (for people aged 20-64) was 66.6 percent for women and 78.3 percent for men, which corresponds to a difference of 11.7 percentage points (pp) in favour of the latter.

This gender employment gap in favour of men was observed at all levels of education, but the lower the level of education, the bigger the gap in employment rates between men and women.

In the EU, 86.9 percent of men and 80.5 percent of women with a high level of education were employed in the third quarter of 2020.

In contrast, the employment rate for men with a low level of education was 65.9 percent, while for women it stood at 43.4 percent.

Correspondingly, the employment gap between low-educated men and women was 22.5 pp, more than three times the employment gap between highly educated men and women (6.4 pp).

International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March.