In 2024 at EU level, 50.4% of cultural workers were men and 49.6% women, representing the lowest gender gap in cultural employment in the last 10 years.
In 16 EU countries, the share of women in cultural employment was higher than that of men. Among these, Latvia and Estonia had the biggest differences, with 32.6 pp and 24.2 pp, respectively, in favour of women. By contrast, in 11 EU countries the share of cultural employment was higher for men than women; the highest shares being in Spain and Italy where they were around 10 pp higher for men. Greece, Romania and Austria had an almost perfect gender employment balance in the cultural sector.
In 2022, men’s gross hourly earnings in cultural employment were on average 13.5% above those of women in the EU.
The gender pay gap ranged between -1% in Slovenia, indicating slightly lower earnings for men in the cultural sectors, and 23.2% in Latvia, indicating more than one fifth higher average hourly earnings for men than women.
- Learn more and view graphs in the full article, which also covers participation in culture.
