In March 2020, the European Commission presented the new EU gender equality strategy 2020–2025. The strategy builds on the promise of the newly appointed Commission President to strive for a Union of equality, where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, with equal opportunities to thrive and to participate in and lead European society (European Commission, 2020c).

This year’s thematic focus of the Index explores how digitalisation is shaping the future of work for women and men. Recent decades have seen digital technologies radically transform the world of work, with profound consequences for workers, businesses, regulators and society. Digitalisation has led to automation and reorganisation of vast numbers of jobs, the emergence of new flexible working practices and forms of work (e.g. platform work), and the creation of new ICT occupations and strands of research.

This has sparked debates on how to harness the potential of this transformation to increase the productivity, competitiveness and growth of the EU economy. However, such debates often neglect the broader transformative potential of digitalisation, notably its central role in transforming gender relations in both positive and negative ways.

The thematic focus takes stock of recent research to assess the opportunities, risks and challenges for gender equality in the world of work brought about by digitalisation. It shows the profound implications of new technologies for future progress towards gender equality across all Index domains, most notably for work, money and knowledge. While it highlights some well-known challenges – such as the gender segregation of ICT education, employment and research – it chiefly aims to shed light on less well-known aspects of digitalisation.

Check the following report to read the main conclusions about digitalisation and training results of the Gender Equality Index 2020.

Check the following report to read the main conclusions about digitalisation and training results of the Gender Equality Index 2020.