SDG 5 Gender equality
SDG 5 advocates an equal position in society and equal treatment of men and women. In practice this means women and men must have equal rights in terms of education, healthcare and employment. Moreover, women must have an equal say in politics, on executive boards and in public life. And lastly, coercion and violence against women and girls must be eradicated.
Summary of results
Dashboard and indicators
SDG 5 Gender equality
Further reading
Summary of results
- Eight of the 13 indicators show medium-term trends (2015-2022) towards increasing well-being. No trends point to a decline in well-being.
- Over half of students in higher education (52.9 percent) are women, and the proportion is rising. In other EU countries shares of women students are even higher.
- The Netherlands is at the top of the EU rankings in terms of the share of men and women aged 15 to 74 years with paid work.
- The gender pay gap is closing, but was still 12.7 percent in 2022. The Netherlands is in the EU middle group for this indicator (seventh of 13 countries measured in 2021).
- More women now have seats in parliament; the previously downward trend for this indicator is now neutral.
Dashboard and indicators
SDG 5 relates to equal treatment of and an equal position in society for men and women. To achieve this, governments need to put a stop to disadvantages suffered by women and girls, in particular, in a wide range of areas: coercion and violence, employment and healthcare, and influence in public life.The CBS Emancipation monitor 2022 contains results on a wide range of aspects of women’s emancipation in the Netherlands from a study conducted every two years.
Trends of most of the indicators in this dashboard are green: eight of the 13 indicators are trending in the direction of increasing well-being and the SDG targets. The picture is more mixed for EU comparisons: the Netherlands is in the top group for four indicators, but for two it scores lower than most EU countries.
Use
Outcomes
Resources and opportunities concern the rights and freedoms of men and women and the opportunities they have to take advantage of them. For this category, no indicators are currently available that comply with the quality criteria of this report.
Use relates to the extent to which women and men participate in society and the economy. Given that women are trailing behind men in higher education around the world, the SDG agenda is based on the principle that the larger the share of women in higher education, the better the situation is. For the Netherlands we see a combination of rising trends and high positions in EU rankings, with the exception of women in higher education. In academic year 2021-2022, women made up the majority of students in Dutch higher education (52.9 percent). In nearly all other EU countries (the exceptions being Germany and Greece), however, the percentage of female students is even higher than in the Netherlands. So in this respect, women are not trailing behind men in the EU.
For both men and women, net labour participation (the proportion of employed people aged 15 to 74 years) in the Netherlands also shows a rising trend. In 2022, the participation rate for men (76.3 percent) was still around 8.2 percentage points higher than that of women (68.1 percent). The difference nevertheless narrowed in the 2015-2022 period. These high percentages gave the Netherlands a leading position in the EU in 2020, for both men and women.
Outcomes refer to the effects of labour participation and working hours on gender equality. Economic independence, wage and education level indicators show favourable (green) trends from the perspective of well-being. Relatively more men – four in five – than women are economically independent, but women are catching up. In 2021 two in three women aged between 15 years and the state pension age (excluding school pupils and students) earn at least the level of income support. This catch-up has narrowed the difference in economic independence from just over 20 percentage points in 2015 to 15 percentage points in 2021.
The gender gap in gross hourly pay is also gradually closing. The difference in hourly wage between men and women fell from 16 percentage points in 2015 to 12.7 in 2022, with the Netherlands occupying a middle position within the EU. Women’s lower hourly wages are partly due to differences from their male colleagues in terms of age, part-time contracts, occupational level and management responsibilities. One reason for the decreasing wage gap is the increasingly higher education levels of female employees. One quarter of all management positions are held by women; the medium-term trend is neutral. This share of women in management is low by EU standards, as evidenced by the 25th position in the rankings in 2021.
Percentages of both men and women with higher levels of education are rising. Since the start of the trend period (2015), the share of women with a degree in higher education has risen by 8 percentage points, and for men by 5.9 percentage points. Relatively more Dutch women than Dutch men have a degree in higher education. Internationally, Dutch women are positioned in the middle group, while Dutch men are in the top group in Europe.
On 1 February 2022, 41 percent of members of the Dutch House of Representatives were women, up from 33 percent one year previously. The number of women members rose considerably following the general election of 17 March 2021. The decreasing – red – trend in 2014-2021 turned to a neutral trend in 2015-2022. The increase also put the Netherlands among the leaders in the EU.
Healthy life expectancy, i.e. life expectancy in health that is perceived as good or very good, is slightly lower for women (62.3 years) than for men (63.2 years). There seems to be a paradox here, as total life expectancy of women (83.1 years) is higher than that of men (80.1 years). Although women live longer, they do spend a slightly larger part of their lives in poor health. Compared with other EU countries, Dutch men and women are in the middle groups. The figures for the international comparison use a slightly different definition than the figures used for the trend in the Netherlands: the international comparison is based on life expectancy without limitations.
A safe society is important for both men and women. This SDG specifically addresses the reduction of intimidation and violence against women. Physical and/or sexual abuse by a partner or former partner is one aspect of this. In 2021, 2.4 of every thousand women aged 15 years and older in the Netherlands reported having been victim of physical or sexual abuse by their current or former partner. The two-yearly Safety monitor, from which this figure is taken, was completely redesigned in 2021. The survey of violence is now very different, and outcomes are therefore no longer comparable with those of previous editions. Therefore, no trend can be calculated for this indicator.
Subjective assessment relates to people’s experience of gender equality or inequality. For this category, no indicators are currently available that comply with the quality criteria of this report.
Further reading
Dossier Emancipatie
Emancipatiemonitor
https://mvstat.cbs.nl/#/MVstat/nl/