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Gender

in Greece

Gender Equality Index is persistently for a decade the lowest in the EU (53.4 per cent, while EU average is 68.6) (2022) .
Based on early results from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, women make up 51.1 per cent of the Greek population and girls made up 48 per cent of children (age 0 to 19).

Sub-national

Gender disaggregated information on the Roma population is unavailable.
Women and girls who live in rural areas, as well as women from the Roma community have less access to services than those living in urban areas, particularly services for disabled people and those with mental health issues.
One third of adolescent marriages reported between 2000 and 2019 took place in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace regions.
Adolescent marriage is a common practice among some members of the Muslim minority and Roma communities.

Other

Women and girls from the Roma community make up one third of women in detention in Greece. (UN General Assembly: Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, 2020, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/51/Add.1, p.16)
The average woman from the Roma community spends less than six years in school.
There is no data on the educational attainment of the Muslim minority.

Enabling Environment

Legislation, policy, resources, coordination, data

The traditional division of labour between men and women results in one of the lowest levels of women’s participation in the labour market in Europe.
It is estimated that undeclared work, such as domestic work (i.e. cleaning, elderly care, and caring for children) and hospitality jobs, make up around 24 per cent of GDP in Greece. These types of undeclared work are traditionally seen as jobs mostly for women.
Gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity are not standalone classes at schools, but are incorporated into classes of democratic citizenship and religion (Human Rights Council, 2019).

28(b) Strengthen its efforts to prevent female genital mutilation in relation to migrant girls.

Strengthening of gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation frameworks and the design of gender transformative interventions, including awareness raising campaigns.
Evidence generation, implementation of gender transformative interventions, provision of mentoring and coaching to educators to facilitate non-traditional career paths for girls, particularly in STEM fields and digital literacy.
Support the adoption of an exclusive legal provision of the prosecution of femicide.
Enrich and expand curricula and tools for educators on gender equality, gender identity and sex education.

Adequately staffed services, facilities, information, commodities

There are only 0.3 obstetricians and gynecologists per 1,000 people for more than five million women.
Women are often reluctant to report abuse or violence as most police members are not trained to handle GBV cases.
When cases are investigated, victims are typically encouraged to engage in mediation with their abusers which goes against international recommendations (Human Rights Council 2019).
Cases can take a year or more to be processed and perpetrators are rarely prosecuted or punished (Human Rights Council 2019).
Women are often perceived by society as the primary caregivers of children, especially of young age.

27(d) Establish mechanisms, procedures and guidelines to ensure and promote mandatory reporting and multiagency intervention in all cases of violence against children; and strengthen teachers and health professionals training to prevent, detect and address different forms of violence, including based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
42(e) Ensure that victim and witness-protection provisions are implemented and that prosecutions are victim-centred, child-friendly and gender-sensitive, provide training to judges, prosecutors and law-enforcement officials in this regard; and decrease the length of court proceedings for trafficking cases.

Support the sensitization and capacity building of police staff and frontline professionals on supporting GBV survivors.
Raise the awareness of vulnerable groups about services available for GBV survivors.
Support the child friendliness of available state services for children of GBV survivors.
Support the accessibility of state services to non-Greek speaking GBV survivors.
Promotion and enhancement of skills development and employability of Roma GBV survivors, and single-headed households facing multiple deprivations, through training and job placement programmes.

Financial access and social behavioural drivers

Girls are socially encouraged towards certain jobs from a young age and choose career paths or fields of study that are largely accepted as female jobs.
Despite the fact that girls outperform boys in science, math and reading, only one in four high-performing female students aspire to work in an engineering or science profession.
Only 4 per cent of women work in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs compared to 20 per cent of men, leading to a poor score on the 2020 gender parity for tech roles.
In 2022, 733,000 men 20 to 64 were self-employed compared to 327,500 women of the same age group.
In 2023, 17.2 per cent of firms had females in top management positions.
In 2023, women make up less than 24.5 per cent of board members in the largest listed companies compared to 75.5 per cent of men.
According to the World Economic Forum, the gender pay gap for 2021 was 5.91 per cent.
85.3 per cent of women cook or do housework every day, which is higher than the EU average (79 per cent). The percentage of men in Greece who cook or do housework every day stands at 16 per cent, lower than the EU average (34 per cent) (2016).
The parentage of men caring for children, grandchildren, older people or people with disabilities in Greece (20 per cent) is lower to the EU average (25 per cent) (2016).

28(a) Raise awareness about the harmful effects of child marriage on the physical and mental health and well-being of girls, targeting in particular the Roma community and the Muslim minority in Thrace, encourage the reporting of child marriage and establish protection schemes for victims.

Support national programmes that promote girls in STEM and research and technology.
Improve access to preschool education and care.
Launch awareness raising campaigns on the importance of having both parents involved in the upbringing of children.
Promote capacity development of girls on leadership.
Promote women’s entrepreneurship.
Organize awareness raising campaigns on the risks of early marriage.