The Commission published a study entitled "Increase in gender gap in the digital sector - Study on Women in the Digital Age”. This study found that there is a growing gap between men and women's participation in the digital sector in education, career and entrepreneurship.

Even worse, despite growing demand of ICT specialists and digital profiles in general, the percentage of Europeans with ICT-related education is decreasing for both genders.

The main conclusions of the study are:

• Although female owned start-ups are more likely to be successful, there is a decrease in participation, leadership and investment in the entrepreneurial digital sector.


• The annual productivity loss for the European economy of women leaving their digital jobs to become inactive is calculated to be about EUR 16.2 billion.


• There are four times more men than women in Europe with ICT-related studies. 57% of tertiary graduates in the EU are women, but only 24.9% of them graduate in ICT-related fields. Women make up 13% of the graduates in ICT-related fields working in digital jobs compared to 15% in 2011.


• The share of men working in the digital sector is 3.1 times greater than the share of women.