EU: in 2024, women in managerial roles will rise to 35.2 per cent, but Italy lags behind: Eurostat data

Brussels – In 2024, 35.2 per cent of managerial positions within the European Union were held by women, up from 31.8 per cent ten years earlier. This was revealed by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, in a report published today (2 March). In particular, the proportion of women in senior positions was higher in the younger age group (aged 15 to 39), where they accounted for 39 per cent. The figures were significantly lower among those aged between 40 and 64 (34.4 per cent) and even lower for the over-65s (26.5 per cent). These figures show that the increase in the number of women in managerial roles is a relatively recent phenomenon. Further differences emerge when comparing data from different Member States. In 2024, the most virtuous countries were Sweden, with 44.4 per cent of women in top positions, Latvia (43.4 per cent) and Poland (41.8 per cent). At the bottom of the ranking, with 27.9 per cent, was Italy, which was only surpassed by Croatia (27.6 per cent) and Cyprus (25.3 per cent). 

At the same time, Cyprus is among the EU countries that have made the most progress over the decade 2014–2024, with an increase in the percentage of women in managerial positions of almost 8 percentage points: a result surpassed only by Malta (+10.1 percentage points)and Luxembourg (+13.7 percentage points). Overall, 24 out of 27 countries recorded an improvement (including Italy, which ten years ago was just above 26 per cent), while in three countries the 2024 figure was lower than ten years earlier: this was the case in Slovenia (-3.8 percentage points), Latvia (-0.7 percentage points), and Lithuania (-0.2 percentage points). 

Less than a week before International Women’s Day—ahead of which Eurostat will publish further studies on the status of women in the EU—the figures contained in today’s report show that the labour market is only slowly moving towards gender equality. Meanwhile, uncertainties along the way and differences between individual countries remain significant. 

In this context, Eurostat also highlighted that, in 2024, there was a significant gap between the employment rates of men and women aged 20 to 64: while the male employment rate in the EU stood at 80.8 per cent, the female employment rate was only 70.8 per cent, with a gender employment gap of 10 percentage points (pp). Six EU countries have gender employment gaps larger than the EU average: in ascending order of size, these are Poland, the Czech Republic, Malta, Romania, Greece, and Italy. The largest gender employment gaps were observed in Greece (18.8 pp) and Italy (19.3 pp), where less than 60 per cent of the female population was employed, compared to over 75 per cent of the male population. In contrast, the gender employment gap was relatively small in the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia), with gaps of around 3 pp or less, while in Finland, the gap was almost negligible (0.7 pp).