Portraits of European women” “” “

What does it mean to be a woman? A rich mosaic of data is compiled by a statistical study of the condition of women in the world updated to 2000. It’s a document called “Women in the World. Statistical Trends”. This UN Report, the third after the previous editions in 1991 and 1995, provides key data on six major areas: population, the family, health, education and communication, work, human rights and participation in political and decision-making processes. The Report confirms many trends, but it also contains some surprises. Below a brief résumé of the portrait it paints of women in Europe today. The oldest continent in the world. Europe, with its current 729 million inhabitants, comprises, in its western part, countries characterized by the most ageing populations on the planet. In France and Germany women over the age of 60 now represent as much as 27% of the inhabitants, in contrast to 21% in eastern Europe. Italy, together with Spain, registers the lowest average children per woman in the whole world (1.2). In the countries of eastern Europe the ratio between women and men is 108/100. What family? Women are getting married ever later in life: in western Europe the average age of women at marriage is 27 rising to 30 and over in the Scandinavian countries. In Sweden 77% of women below the age of 30 live in cohabitation; the equivalent percentage in France, Austria, Ireland and Switzerland is 60%, 50% in Holland and Norway. In the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK, the average divorce rate is 40%, rising to 51% in Sweden. The equivalent percentage is 20% in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The lowest percentage of children born out of wedlock is registered in Croatia (7%), followed by Italy (9%). But the percentage rises to 40% in France, 52% in Estonia, and 55% in Sweden. In Spain 39% of mothers with children below the age of 3 go out to work; that percentage is higher than 50% in the Netherlands, France and the UK. Health and mortality. Life expectancy among women is 82 years in Switzerland and Spain, 72 in Moldavia and Russia (that of men is on average 7/8 years lower). In Europe the infant mortality rate (within the first year of life) of males and females is respectively 20 and 14 per thousand in eastern Europe, 7 and 6 per thousand in the countries of western Europe. Spain is the country with the highest number of estimated cases of Aids: 120,000, 21% of them women. Education and communication. The level of education of women in Europe is equal to or higher than that of men. As a percentage of those enrolled in universities, women are 59% in Iceland and Lithuania, and 57% in Poland and Portugal. The European average is around 50%. Switzerland is at the bottom of the league table with women only forming 38% of total university students. As regards the new technologies, and in particular Internet, of the total number of users, women are 42% in Croatia and in France, 38% in Belgium and in the UK. But the equivalent percentage drops to 13% in the Netherlands and 12% in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Work. The female workforce represents 45% of the total in the countries of eastern Europe; 42% in the West. With rare exceptions (Poland with 66%, Sweden with 59%, Hungary with 58%), women continue to form a minority in administrative and managerial posts, with the lowest percentages of 12% in Greece and Luxembourg, and 10% in France. The female unemployment rate (invariably higher than that of men) is equivalent to 44.5% in Macedonia, followed by 20.1% in Croatia. Malta registers the lowest percentage (2.8%). Human rights and participation in public life. The number of women who suffer physical abuse, even in their family, is high (12% of women in the UK, 7% in Moldavia and 6% in Switzerland). Female parliamentary representation is altogether still very low. Only the Scandinavian countries and Holland can claim that at least a third of their members of parliament are women. In Sweden that percentage rises to 43%; at the bottom of the league table are Albania (5%) and Greece (6%), preceded by Italy (11%).