Slovenia's score rose by 7.5 points between 2005, when the biennial index was introduced, and 2017, EIGE says on its website, noting the country is progressing towards gender equality at an average pace.

This year gender equality is the highest in Sweden, Denmark and France, whereas Slovakia, Hungary and Greece are at the very bottom of the list.

On a scale from 1 to 100 points, where 100 means full gender equality, Slovenia scored 68.3 points and Sweden received 83.6 points.

Since the index was introduced to measure equality in six areas - work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, the EU's gender equality has improved by a mere 5.4 points, EIGE says.

Since 2005, Slovenia has improved its score in work by 2.1 points to 73.3 points.

In money, Slovenia achieved 82.4 points, up 4.7 points from 2005. Women an average earn 9% less than men a month, whereas the gap in couples with children is as much as 20%.

Women in Slovenia earn 92 cents per every euro earned by men per hour worked, while the gender gap when it comes to pensions is 18%.

The country scored 56 points in knowledge, a rise of 3.9 points from 2005, but differences still remain in university studies, as 41% of women study education, healthcare or humanities and art, compared to only 17% of men.

Slovenia recorded the highest increase in score in the domain of power, a 21.1-point rise since 2005 to 57.6, which puts it on seventh place in the EU.

There have been improvements in all sub-domains, especially in political power, which is progressing three times faster than the EU's score.

Since the country introduced a legislative candidate quota of 35% in 2006, the share of women MPs increased from 12% to 24% between 2005 and 2018.

The share of women ministers increased from 7% to 41% over the same period, and around 32% of local councillors are also women.

The share of women on the boards of the largest publicly listed companies increased from 19% to 27% between 2005 and 2018.

Slovenia's score in the domain of health is 87.1, one point below the EU's score, with no significant change since 2005.