The head of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Virginija Langbakk, has told the Irish Times that more needs to be done to attract women into the digital sector and into science, technology, engineering and maths.

She claims that women in the EU perform better than men in tertiary education, but they choose jobs in less demand, that are lower paid.

In order to close the gaps in a high-skilled labour force and to have prosperity and GDP growth, the only option is to attract women into digital and STEM industries.

Ms Langbakk has also been commenting recently on gender equality in parliament, stating “Democracy works best when decision-making power is equally shared by women and men. An active inclusion of women has many positive effects on society contributing this way to the improvement of citizens’ lives. As symbols of democracy, parliaments must set an example and our tool can help them in doing that.”

The EIGE has a handy tool which can assess how gender-sensitive your parliament is. Check it out here.