Focus on Women
This page examines gender relations from a female perspective and presents their realities in various areas of life.
Inequality is a fundamental organisational principle of our society. Inequality of salaries and income, inequality of educational opportunities, inequality between the sexes.
Compared with other EU member states, Austria is one of the countries with a very high gender pay gap. Women in particular continue to face the challenge of reconciling family and career. In contrast, the professional commitment of men is barely affected by the birth of a child.
A key prerequisite for equal participation in the labour market, as well cultural and social participation, is education. In the wake of the expansion in education, women have significantly overtaken men in higher education. However, not only is it important to enable women to enjoy equivalent educational paths and subsequently career paths, it is also necessary to eliminate subject-specific differences in choices about education to overcome the female-specific qualification structure.
The employment of women has increased significantly in recent decades. The increase in the employment of women can be attributed primarily to an increase in part-time work. Compared with men, women are significantly under-represented in management positions in business, politics and public life and earn much less than men.
Spheres in which problem areas for women are visible:
The gender pay gap indicator is available for comparing gender-specific wage differences across the EU. It is calculated uniformly for all member states throughout the EU and, according to Eurostat's definition, refers to the average gross hourly earnings of women and men. The use of hourly earnings has the advantage over annual earnings in that full-time and part-time employees can be compared with each other regardless of their respective working hours. The disadvantage is that it does not reflect actual income, but only compares hourly wages.
STATISTICS AUSTRIA, Income: Gender Pay Gap , opens an external URL in a new window
There continue to be major gender-specific differences regarding subject choices. The disciplines of technology and mining have the lowest numbers of female graduates. In vocational colleges, girls are significantly under-represented in technical/commercial colleges. Gender-specific inequality is also very marked in the teaching profession.
STATISTICS AUSTRIA, School Statistics, opens an external URL in a new window:
- The ten most common apprenticeship qualifications by occupation and sex
- Educational attainment at schools and colleges for vocational education by sex
- Share of female graduations from public universities by field of study
- Educational attainment of women and men
- Standardised school-leaving examination rate by sex
In comparison with Europe, Austria is a country where the employment rate amongst women is high, as is the rate of part-time working.
STATISTICS AUSTRIA, Employment, opens an external URL in a new window:
- Employment rate of women
- Part-time rate of women
- Main reason for part-time employment
- Share of employees by employment status
- Occupational acitivity of employed persons by sex
Single-parent households (mainly single women with children) and female pensioners living alone have the highest risk of poverty or exclusion of all the household types considered.
STATISTICS AUSTRIA, At-risk-of-powerty or social exclusion, opens an external URL in a new window
14% of all Austrian families with children under the age of 15 are single-parent families. In 2009, there were 114,400 single parents with children under the age of 15 in Austria; 92% of these were single mothers. In 2009, 77% of single mothers in Austria were in employment.
Despite this high overall employment rate, single mothers are at a significantly higher risk of poverty. At just under 30%, single mothers and their children are twice as likely to be at risk of poverty as the Austrian population as a whole (12%).
Source: , opens an external URL in a new windowAlleinerziehende in Österreich - Lebensbdingunen und Armtusrisiken / Sozialpolitische Studienreihe Band 7, opens an external URL in a new window
In the 2021/22 time use survey (conducted by Statistics Austria on behalf of the Federal Minister for Women, Family, Integration and Media), 4,342 households that participated completed a household questionnaire, and each person aged 10 and older living in the household completed a personal questionnaire and a two-day time diary. All activities were documented in the diaries in 10-minute units.
The results show that the average time spent on housework continues to be much higher for women. This also applies to social contacts, childcare, and volunteer work.
STATISTICS AUSTRIA, Population and society: Time Use Survey, opens an external URL in a new window
Women are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions within the EU.
In Austria, the proportion of women in management positions is among the lowest in the EU.
The proportion of female supervisory board members in the largest listed companies shows that the quota, which has been in place for years, is having an effect. In general, other European countries are also seeing that mandatory quotas for women are rapidly improving the proportion of women in these positions.
The picture is worse when it comes to the boardrooms and management teams of publicly traded companies. Austria ranks second to last in a European comparison. Only Luxembourg has an even lower percentage.
AK.Frauen.Management.Report, opens an external URL in a new window
Proportion of women in the National Council
Of the 183 members of the National Council, 66 are currently women (36.07%). (July 9, 2025)
Parliament Austria, opens an external URL in a new window
Development in the number of female mayors
Over the past 20 years, the number of female mayors in Austria has increased almost fivefold, but currently still stands at just over 10%.
Austrian Association of Municipalities, opens an external URL in a new window