2011 - Survey - 100th anniversary of the International Women's day: Bridging the gender gap in the EU

This European Parliament survey was carried out from 21 February 2011 to 6 March 2011 by TNS Opinion on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Women's day. This survey identifies several key points: First of all, the results show that, concerning all questions related to gender equality, men and women tend to react the same way. We can wonder whether this 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day should not be considered a real social step forward that contributes to tackle or reduce effectively the gender gap. The averages at EU27 level must be completed by an analysis of national results that can sometimes turn out to be different. Unlike other surveys and common stereotypes relating to gender equality, we don't find regional or logical trends except in Nordic countries. Another important point of this survey can be the fact that, among all measures to be taken to achieve equality between men and women, the Europeans favour encouraging measures rather than coercion. Actually, in order to improve this situation, no matter what type of question, they give a lot of importance to encouraging measures rather than to coercion. Thus, coercion and encouraging measures reach 30 to 44% depending on the question. However, imposing quotas for women, either inside companies or on electoral lists during the different elections reaches 19% in both cases.