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Danish women earn 16.4 percent less than men

In advance of International Women's Day, Eurostat has released figures that show that women throughout Europe still earn significantly less than men.

Published: 5 March 2015 14:15 CET

Danish women earn 16.4 percent less than men

One of these people earns significantly more than the other two. Photo: Colourbox

Statistics from the European Union statistical office (Eurostat) showed on Thursday that women working in Denmark earned 16.4 percent less per hour than men in 2013, only a small improvement over the gender pay gap in 2008.

The Danish gender gap is right at the EU average, but significantly lower than member states like Slovenia (3.2%), Malta (5.1%), Italy (7.3%) and Croatia (7.4%).

Denmark has the biggest gender wage gap of the three Scandinavian countries, bested by both Sweden (15.2%) and Norway (16.0%). Nordic countries Finland and Iceland had bigger gaps, at 18.7 and 20.5 percent, respectively.

International Women's Day: on average women earn 16% less than men in the EU #Eurostat http://t.co/R8Wjt1DIYw pic.twitter.com/75JtLgFsFm

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) March 5, 2015

While the gap shrank in most EU countries, there were increases in nine member states, with Eurostat pointing out particularly large increases in Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Italy and Estonia.

The statisticians also looked into full- and part-time work among women, finding that states where women could work part-time had higher overall female employment rates.

This was true of Denmark, but also Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

Exceptions to the trend were Finland and Estonia, where much larger numbers of women were working full-time.

But women were much less likely than men to be employed as managers across Europe.

In Denmark, just 28 percent of managers are women compared with 48 percent of the total workforce.

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Berlin activists show manspreaders who wears the trousers

Feminist activists Elena Buscaino and Mina Bonakdar on the Berlin subway. Photo: DPA

A man lounges across two seats on a crowded Berlin train, oblivious to his surroundings – until the two women opposite him suddenly spread their legs, revealing a message on their trousers: “Stop spreading”.

Feminist activists Elena Buscaino and Mina Bonakdar are on a mission to stamp out manspreading – the habit that some men have of encroaching on adjacent seats without consideration for their female neighbours.

“It is perfectly possible to sit comfortably on public transport without taking up two seats by spreading your legs,” said Bonakdar, 25.

The two female activists’ provocative stunt is part of a wider initiative called the Riot Pant Project featuring slogans printed on the inside legs of second-hand trousers.

READ ALSO: How much do women in Germany earn compared to men?

Bonakdar and Buscaino, both design students, came up with the idea as a way of helping women and LGBTQ people reclaim public spaces often dominated by men.

As well as “Stop spreading”, the project’s slogans include “Give us space” and “Toxic masculinity” – which, in a nod to the behaviour of those they are aimed at, are only revealed once the wearer shows their crotch.

“It is only through imitation that the interlocutor understands the effect of his or her behaviour,” said Buscaino, 26.

Ancient phenomenon

But she also admits that very few men immediately change their posture when confronted with the slogans, as observed by AFP on the Berlin underground.

“They are often just astonished that women are behaving like that in front of them,” she said — but she hopes the project will at least give them food for thought.

For Bonakdar, simply wearing the trousers in itself allows women to “feel stronger and gain confidence”.

Although it may seem trivial to some, the problem of manspreading has existed almost since the dawn of public transport.

“Sit with your limbs straight, and do not with your legs describe an angle of 45, thereby occupying the room of two persons,” the Times of London advised as early as 1836 in an article on bus etiquette, as cited by Clive D.W. Feather in “The History of the Bakerloo Line”.

The term “manspreading” was coined in 2013 when New York subway users began posting photos of nonchalant male passengers and their contorted neighbours on social media.

According to a 2016 study by Hunter College in New York City, 26 percent of male subway users in the city are guilty of the practice, compared with less than 5 percent of women.

The US metropolis was one of the first in the world to try to start curbing the behaviour.

In 2014, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched a campaign featuring signs with the message: “Dude… Stop the Spread, Please”.

Gender roles

Similar campaigns have also since been launched in South Korea, Japan, Istanbul, and Madrid, where manspreading has even been punishable with fines since 2017.

The campaigns have sparked a backlash on the internet, with men citing biological differences as a way of justifying the need to spread their legs even if no scientific study has yet proven their argument.

Instead, the phenomenon has more to do with “gender roles” in society, Bettina Hannover, a psychologist and professor at the Free University of Berlin, told AFP.

“Men sit more possessively and indicate dominance with their seating position, while women are expected to take up less space and above all to behave demurely,” she said.

By David COURBET

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