Gender institute unveiled

The European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE) was officially opened on Monday morning heralding the country’s first EU institution.

Chair of European Parliament Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Eva-Britt Svensson said that the institute will help combat the gaps in pay, life expectency and other issues.

“There is a lot of work to do with gender equality – we all live in states in the EU where there is not gender equality. This is an institute that can improve the situation,” she said.

On the issue of gender equality in life expectency, EIGE director Virginija Langbakk said that there was not yet enough data, but that it would be one of the main issues of the institute.

“There are so many factors that influence this gap between men and women – its important to have the information and see. Its not one sickness that we can emphasize. We will see that some are easy to change like attitutes and bad practices. we will see whats easy to change and whats not,” Langbakk said.