The scale of the gender divide and Spain’s relative position in the context of Europe can be gauged by selecting one of the more representative indicators in each welfare sub-category for which we have comparable information for men and women in EU countries.

The differences between men and women who live in financially vulnerable households are very similar in all households across Europe, where the percentage of women living in financially vulnerable households is always higher than the percentage of men. Even so, at a comparative level, the position of Spanish women in the ranking of countries in order of economic vulnerability (23) is somewhat better than that of men (26). In general terms, in this ranking Spain is one of the countries where the incidence of financial vulnerability problems is highest.

This analysis of financial wellbeing is completed by comparing the need to have sufficient pay in the various countries in the EU. To examine this, we have selected as an indicator the percentage of workers whose pay per hour is less than 2/3 of the average rate, which depends on the distribution of pay rates in each country. As figure 22 shows, the percentage of women below the relative threshold is higher than the percentage of men in both Spain and Europe as a whole, though the gender divide in relation to pay is much greater in Spain, where the percentage of women on low pay is twice that of men, than in Europe as a whole.

The differences between men and women outlined in the analysis of housing-related social needs regarding excessive housing costs and the conditions of the home are not exclusive to Spain. Despite the difficulty of identifying differences and similarities with other countries due to the fact that the ways people access housing and the nature of policies differ widely from country to country, the indicator selected for the comparison, excessive housing costs, shows a gender divide very similar in Spain to that across Europe as a whole. It can be seen that excessive housing costs are concentrated to a greater degree among people living in households headed by women than by men in Spain and on average in EU countries. Nevertheless, if we compare people living in households headed by men in Spain with those in Europe, the position of Spanish men in the ranking is slightly worse than that of Spanish women.

With regard to health by gender, the tendencies in Spain are similar to those in Europe as a whole. Depression, the main mental health problem, is diagnosed more commonly among women than men, but the gender divide in Spain is almost twice that of Europe as a whole. This places Spanish women in a much worse position in the ranking in relation to European women than is the case of men.

With regard to education, Spain ranks lower than any other country in Europe with regard to the rate of children dropping out of education after compulsory schooling, coming in last position for males dropping out and in last but one position for females. In Europe as a whole and in Spain, the percentage of males giving up their studies after compulsory education is much higher than the percentage of females. This gender divide is particularly evident in Spain, as it is more than double the European average.