COPENHAGEN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in its 2019 report has placed Denmark second, behind Sweden, on the Gender Equality Index.
"In a welfare society like the Danish, everyone must have real equal opportunities to live the life they want and live their potential. And of course I am pleased that Denmark is one of the countries in the EU where the sexes are most equal," said Danish Minister of Gender Equality Mogens Jensen in a press release on Tuesday.
EIGE periodically prepares a Gender Equality Index, which measures the gender differences in the EU as a whole and in each member state.
The 2019 report describes the development from 2005 to 2017.
The index assesses six dimensions: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. The dimensions are added to one total score from 1 to 100, where 1 is complete gender inequality and 100 is complete gender equality.
Denmark achieves a total score of 77.5 for 2017 and thus ranks second. Sweden is the top scorer with 83.6. The EU-28 average score is 67.4 for 2017.
Denmark has risen slightly within five dimensions: work, money, time, power and health. But on the dimension of knowledge, development has gone in the opposite direction, according to the report.
The report emphasizes that Denmark's biggest challenge on the knowledge dimension is the gender divide in higher education.
