Women have become the majority of workers in science and technology occupations across large parts of Greece, placing the country above the European Union average and underscoring a broader shift in the composition of the continent’s innovation workforce.
According to Eurostat data for 2025, women accounted for 55.7% of science and technology professionals in Central Greece and 53.5% in Northern Greece, making them the dominant share of the workforce in sectors ranging from research and engineering support to advanced technical services.
The figures stand above the EU average, where women represented 52.5% of all workers employed in science and technology occupations. The data highlight Greece’s growing role in a labor market increasingly dependent on highly skilled professionals and suggest that women are playing an expanding role in areas tied to innovation, research and digital transformation.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
Across the European Union, employment in science and technology continued to grow in 2025. More than 81.6 million people aged 15 to 74 worked in science- and technology-related occupations, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year, equivalent to roughly 1.5 million additional workers. Compared with a decade earlier, employment in the sector has risen by more than 25%.
Eurostat defines science and technology occupations as jobs requiring advanced professional or technical knowledge in fields such as the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences and the humanities.
Women now account for 42.8 million of the EU’s science and technology workers, or just over half of the total workforce in the sector. Their numbers increased by 2.3% over the past year and nearly 28% compared with 2015. More than 9 million women entered science and technology professions during the past decade, with the strongest concentration in service-related industries.
The highest shares of female employment in science and technology were recorded in Latvia, where women represented 62.4% of the workforce, followed by Hungary’s Great Plain and North region at 61.1% and Estonia at 60.5%. At the other end of the spectrum, the lowest proportions were found in Corsica, France, at 42.7%, Malta at 46%, and Italy’s Central region at 47.2%.
Yet the data also reveal persistent gender gaps in some of the most specialized occupations. Scientists and engineers account for nearly one-quarter of all science and technology workers in the European Union, and women remain underrepresented in those roles.
In 2025, women made up 40.8% of scientists and engineers across the bloc, despite significant gains over the past decade. Their numbers rose by more than 54% between 2015 and 2025, increasing from 5.3 million to 8.2 million.
The trend suggests that while women have already become the majority of the broader science and technology workforce in Europe, progress toward parity in highly specialized scientific and engineering careers remains a work in progress, even as participation continues to rise at a steady pace.
