A PLS-Hierarchical Path Modeling approach to analyze and address gender equality in the EU countries

Gender equality, a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, is a hotly debated subject today, and its studio has grown enormously in recent years. After reviewing existing gender equality indices and identifying the methodological approaches used to develop them, the paper aims to show how a modeling approach can overcome some of the limitations of existing indices. Based on a conceptual framework developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality, we propose an alternative methodological approach for measuring gender equality. The paper aims to highlight the potential advantages of Partial Least Square - Path modeling and to show that it goes a step further compared to the European Gender Equality Index in that in addition to ranking countries, our approach allows (1) predicting the impact between dimensions and finding those that most effectively explain gender equality; and (2) supporting decisions to address gender equality. The use of the proposed model can help to understand the complexity of gender relations and facilitate comparisons across countries. At the end of the paper, we discuss other possible extensions of PLS-PM to study and address gender equality.