Working towards better gender balance on the boards of EU agencies

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) is an autonomous body of the European Union, established to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all EU policies and the resulting national policies, and the fight against discrimination based on sex, as well as to raise EU citizens’ awareness of gender equality.

The seat of the European Institute for Gender Equality is in Vilnius (Lithuania). It was officially launched in June 2010. EU agencies are an important part of the European Union that work on a variety of matters affecting the daily lives of both women and men. Each agency is governed by a management board, responsible for ensuring that the agency fulfils its mandate. Board members are usually representatives of the Member States, European Commission and European Parliament, or other agencies.

Despite the EU’s commitment to gender equality in decision-making, as of 2017 the management boards of EU agencies were seriously lacking in gender balance. Only one in three boards were chaired by a woman, and as for members, the ratio of women to men was even lower.