Women have access to only two-thirds of the legal rights that men enjoy, according to a UN report on women's rights published in 2025. Discussing International Women's Day and opportunities for women on the talk show "Weekdays" on Alpha Radio and SB TV on March 11, Alexei Belyaev, dean of the BSU journalism faculty, claimed that gender inequality is not an issue in Belarus.
"If this so-called feminist agenda is still somehow important for the West, if they believe their women are undervalued, then I think we've achieved a proper gender balance here. Women in Belarus can work in any position, we don’t have significant wage gaps like in the West, and many women hold leadership roles," Belyaev said.
In Belarus, men earned 26.5% more than women in 2023, according to the National Statistical Committee. This means that, compared to the average Belarusian man, the average Belarusian woman works "for free" from mid-September until the end of the year. This figure represents the unadjusted gender pay gap, which measures earnings differences between all men and women without accounting for factors such as age, education, experience, industry, or job position.
In the European Union, the gender pay gap stood at 12% in 2023 and has narrowed over the past decade. The lowest gap was in Luxembourg, at around minus 1%, meaning women there earned slightly more than men. The highest gender wage difference was in Latvia at 19%, which is still lower than in Belarus.
There are many reasons for this wage disparity. For instance, women are more likely to work in lower-paying sectors such as education, social services, and healthcare. Additionally, they typically bear a greater share of household responsibilities and caregiving for children and elderly relatives—often referred to as unpaid labor. In 2023, women made up only about 35% of managers in the EU.
The adjusted gender pay gap measures wage differences between men and women while accounting for factors such as education, experience, and job type. However, countries have yet to agree on a standardized methodology, leading to variations in measurement.
According to Belstat's latest available data from 2021, the adjusted gender pay gap in Belarus was around 6%. For comparison, Germany reported a 6% adjusted gap that year, while in France’s private sector, it was 4%.
