Gender equality index 2017 : measurement framework of violence against women

Since its inception, the Gender Equality Index has had the objective to support monitoring European Union (EU) Member States' performance on the eradication of violence as an integral part of the progress towards gender equality at large. Building on the first two editions, the 2017 edition of the index has further developed the domain of violence into a more comprehensive measurement framework to serve as a foundation for a reliable and comparable statistical assessment of the extent of violence against women in the EU. However, since the release of the Gender Equality Index 2015, no new EU-wide comparable data on the extent of violence against women have become available. The measurement framework described in this report contains three sets of indicators: (1) indicators for the composite measure on the extent of violence against women reduced to several forms of violence, including its severity and disclosure, for which data are available - these data are aggregated into a single score, providing a simple and easily understandable measure of the extent of violence against women in EU Member States; (2) additional indicators covering a broader range of forms of violence against women; (3) contextual factors to support the collection of information on both the root causes of violence and the level of effort shown in each Member State to eradicate violence and support its victims.