Women and men in decision-making Methodology?

Abstract

The Gender Statistics Database (GSD) of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) contains a wide range of statistics from all over the European Union (EU) and beyond. For the most part, the database brings together statistics collected by other institutions and aims to provide a central access point for anyone interested in data with a gender dimension. In January 2017, EIGE took over the database on women and men in decision-making (WMID), which was previously managed by the European Commission. The WMID database was launched in 2003 to monitor the numbers of men and women in key decision-making positions to provide reliable statistics that can be used to draw comparisons between European countries and analyse the current situation and trends through time. Statistics on women and men in decision-making provide a key element to assess the implementation of Area G of the Beijing Platform for Action, ‘Women in Power and Decision-making’, a commitment from the Council of the European Union. All the statistics on decision-making are now integrated into the ‘Women and men in decision-making’ entry point of the EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database, and can also be accessed from other relevant sections of the database. This document presents the methodology for the collection of data on decision-making, and provides information on the coverage (countries, organisations and decision-making positions), definitions applied, and methods of collection for each topic. It starts with general definitions and then presents detailed information for each domain.