The Ministry of Economic Affairs will support projects aimed at reducing gender segregation in education and the labor market with €2.4 million in funding over the coming years, a new draft regulation says.

Estonia is characterized by having a concentration of women and men in different fields of study. This is also reflected in their later choices on the labor market. In 2022, activity-based gender segregation in Estonia was 37.7 percent, making it one of the highest in the European Union.

High levels of gender segregation are also one of the main causes of the gender pay gap.

The ministry's long-term strategy aims to reduce the gender pay gap in Estonia to 5 percent by 2035, meaning it is crucial to address the root causes, which include reducing gender segregation in education and on the labor market.

Although more women study ICT in Estonia than the average in other EU countries, men account for 70 percent of those working in ICT, engineering, manufacturing, and construction. On the Estonian labor market, 76 percent of ICT specialists are men.

The ministry notes that these fields are the engine of Estonia's economic growth and hopes that reducing gender segregation will have a positive impact on the country's economy.

"According to OECD estimates, reducing gender segregation could bring Estonia nearly 10 percent GDP growth per capita by 2050," the ministry writes in the explanatory memorandum.

In the fields of education, healthcare and welfare, Estonia, along with the other Baltic countries, stands out in the European Union as having the lowest proportion of men. Currently, 27 percent of all employed women in Estonia work in these fields, compared to 5 percent of men.

While there are very few men working as teachers of young children and in the nursing field, the majority of ambulance technicians and paramedics are men. There is an almost equal number of men and women among university lecturers and vocational teachers.

The ministry therefore wants to provide financial support for activities aimed at directing women more towards the natural and exact sciences and technology, as well as increasing the proportion of men in education, healthcare and welfare. The aim is also to promote gender balance at all levels of decision-making and management.

The amount of financial support allocated for a single project has to be between €200,000 and €215,000. Support for a project is 100 percent of the eligible costs of the project, of which 70 percent comes from the European Social Fund and 30 percent from national co-financing. The eligibility period for a project is up to 24 months.

The total budget being earmarked for the measure is €2.4 million, meaning up to 11 projects can be supported.

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