Women make up four out of ten scientists and engineers across Europe (41 percent). In total, almost 7.3 million women worked in such professions in the EU in 2022, 310,500 more than in the previous year, as the statistics authority Eurostat in Luxembourg announced on Monday. The occasion was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Sunday.
There are significant differences between EU countries. According to the latest available figures, Germany ranks third from last – with a proportion of female scientists and engineers of almost 34 percent. Only Finland (32 percent) and Hungary (31 percent) achieved a lower value. However, there are more women than men in the relevant professions in Denmark (53 percent), Lithuania (52 percent) and Bulgaria (51 percent). When it comes to the broader spectrum of employees in the science and technology sector, including technical employees, for example, the proportion of women across the EU in 2022 was 52 percent.
Some German federal states were above the average, especially in the east with Saxony-Anhalt (59 percent), Brandenburg (58 percent) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (57 percent). In contrast, Bavaria (49 percent) and Baden-Württemberg (50 percent) lagged behind. In a European comparison of the proportion of women in the technology sector, the range ranged from 64 percent in Lithuania or Corsica and 63 percent in Latvia to 46 percent in Malta and southern Italy and 45 percent in northeast Italy.