Thanks to figures like her, women in Spain currently take an active role in society, holding high positions in both the government and private sector. However, inequalities still persist. This is easily reflected in salaries - while men working full-time earned an average of 29.5 thousand euros yearly, women had annual average salaries of 26.9 thousand euros. Researchers have many metrics to measure social and economic differences between men and women. The World Economic Forum has created the Global Gender Gap Index for this very purpose, analyzing these aspects in 140 countries, including Spain, which generally ranks higher than most nations. However, deeper analysis suggests poor economic empowerment, with a large disparity in wage equality for similar work and scarce presence of women among legislators, senior officials and managers. The country fares better in the area of educational attainment due to the large number of women enroled in all levels of education.
In spite of the progress, there is still a long way to go in many social aspects. According to the latest studies, women are in general at a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than men, particularly those with low education levels at a young age. Despite the fact that the vast majority of people think that being born a man makes a person’s life instantly more open to advantages, most people from both genders considered that Spain had gone far enough giving women equal rights with men.
