The G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau from 26 to 28 June is the highlight of the German G7 Presidency. Gender equality also plays an important role at the meeting of Heads of State and Government. With today's Communiqué the group, for the first time, commits to monitoring the progress on gender equality in the G7 countries and the European Union on an annual basis. A "G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps" will map needs for action and successes in G7 gender equality policy transparently in future.
Lisa Paus, Federal Minister for Gender Equality: "Gender equality is a human right. But women and girls are discriminated against based on their gender. Women are affected by poverty more often than men and frequently have to endure physical or sexual violence. We need structural changes and joint action to effectively promote gender equality. It is a tremendous success that we have adopted the 'G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps' in the circle of the G7. This way, the urgent need for action in favour of more gender equality will be made visible in black and white. Now it is up to us as G7 countries to gear our gender equality policy towards it and measure our successes against it. The monitoring makes it clear that we must not relax our efforts to strengthen women in leadership positions, to promote equal pay and to improve the protection of women against violence."
Comprehensive monitoring of various fields of gender equality
With the help of twelve indicators the "G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps" measures the progress made in various fields of gender equality policy: amongst others, in education, employment, entrepreneurship, women in leadership positions, political participation, intimate partner violence and development cooperation. The Dashboard will be updated on an annual basis in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Results of the first monitoring
The first report of the "G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps" shows, for instance, that the pay gap between women and men in Germany (13.9 per cent) is higher than in the European Union (EU) (10.8 per cent). This contributes to the fact that the gender pension gap in Germany is higher than in the EU. Thus, women in Germany receive 39.2 per cent lower pensions than men while the gender pension gap in the EU amounts to 24.3 per cent.
At the same time, it becomes clear yet again that binding gender quotas do have an effect when filling decision-making positions: according to the Dashboard on Gender Gaps, the share of women on supervisory boards in Germany stands at 36.0 per cent in 2021, compared to 28.4 per cent in OECD member states and 33.3 per cent at the level of G7 countries.
A milestone in G7 gender equality policy
Building on the results of the "G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps" the G7 will be able to implement more targeted agreements, but also policy measures in the respective countries. The adoption of the monitoring is a political signal from the community of shared values that it wants to promote gender equality. The G7 community thus clearly demonstrates its commitment to defend gender equality as a basic value of democratic societies and to promote it as an important factor of progress.