European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)
The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) is an autonomous body of the European Union, established to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, including gender mainstreaming, in all EU policies and resulting national policies. It also aims at fighting against discrimination based on sex, as well as to raise EU citizens’ awareness of gender equality.
The vision of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ‘Making equality between women and men a reality for all Europeans and beyond’, is borne by equality between women and men as a fundamental right, common principle and core value of the European Union.
To realise this, EIGE was created to become the knowledge centre and the front-runner in developing reliable evidence, collecting knowledge, sharing useful experiences and expertise on gender equality.
It began its operations in 2010.
The context of EIGE’s work
As an autonomous body, EIGE operates within the framework of European Union policies and initiatives. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union defined the grounds for the Institute’s objectives and tasks in its Founding Regulation and assigned it the central role of addressing the challenges of and promoting gender equality between women and men across the European Union.
Although equality between women and men has been one of the fundamental principles of the European Union since its creation, it remains far from a a gender-equal society. In order to support better-informed policy-making in the area of gender equality, the Institute is contributing to the promotion of equality between women and men in Europe through delivering high-level expertise to the European Commission, the Member States, enlargement countries and the European Parliament.
The Institute is governed by a Management Board consisting of eighteen representatives from the Member States and one representative from the European Commission. In addition, the Institute’ benefits from an Experts’ Forum that provides support as an advisory body.
To ensure synergies, avoid duplication and increase the effectiveness of its work, the Institute has established a close relationship and cooperation with relevant EU agencies such as the Fundamental Rights Agency and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
It collects, analyses, processes and disseminates data and information on gender equality issues. It produces a wealth of information and reports that provide comparable and reliable results at EU level.
Areas of work of the European Institute for Gender Equality
The work of the European Institute for Gender Equality focuses under a number of areas, providing expertise, data and analysis in various publications:
- Beijing Platform for Action
- Gender Equality index
- Gender mainstreaming
- Gender stereotypes
- Gender training
- Gender-based violence
- Men and gender equality
EIGE’s Resource and Documentation Centre (RDC)
EIGE’s RDC long-term objective is to gather the institutional memory of all gender equality work at the EU and Member State level and to make it accessible to all, actively fostering cooperation between gender equality actors across the EU.
EIGE’s Resource and Documentation Centre (RDC) is built around three main instruments and functions:
- Documentation Centre and library: a specialised library and e-library providing fast and easy access to more than 220 000 resources on gender equality in the EU-28.
- Knowledge Centre: the best quality gender statistics, research, methods, tools and good practices in implementing gender equality policies and gender mainstreaming, processed and produced by the European Institute for Gender Equality and easily accessible through its data bases and publications.
- EuroGender – the European Network on Gender Equality: an online space to discuss, exchange expertise and the newest information on gender equality in the EU.
EIGE Publications
The main results of the work of the Institute are available on its website. Recently launched reports include:
File:Gender_Equality_Index_2013_cover_EIGE.jpg|Gender Equality Index (2013)
File:Beijing_Platform_Violence_against_women_Victim_support_report_cover_EIGE.jpg|Beijing Platform for Action
File:Gender_stereotypes_Study_on_collective_narratives_cover_EIGE.jpg|Gender stereotypes
File:FGM_in_EU_and_Croatia_report_cover_EIGE.jpg|Gender-based violence
See Also
- Gender Equality Index
External links
- European Institute for Gender Equality website
- European Commission and Gender equality
- European Parliament Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee
Categories: Agencies of the European Union | Gender equality | Government agencies established in 2006 | 2006 in the European Union