One of Europe’s leading engineering universities is being investigated over claims of gender discrimination after it increased its cohort of female academics by 25% by opening vacancies exclusively to women.

First man convicted under catcalling law entitled to free speech, appeal court rules.

Finland is facing calls from the Council of Europe to reform its rape laws to criminalise a lack of consent rather than just the use of violence. The human rights body said Finland’s legislation lagged behind international standards despite the country’s strong record in furthering gender equality.

A flight attendant had approached the woman with a blanket, which she refused, saying she felt “uncomfortable and disrespected”. After complaining to KLM she was told it was the airline’s official policy and that passengers needed to be “respectful of people of other cultures”.

Job vacancies at one of Europe’s leading engineering universities will be open exclusively to female candidates for at least the next 18 months in order to overcome the institution’s “implicit gender bias”.

More women have been elected to the European parliament than ever before but men still account for 60% of MEPs, according to an early analysis of the European election results. The proportion of female MEPs has increased slightly from 36% five years ago to about 39%, or 286 out of 751 seats, with nearly all of the official results confirmed.

There has never been a female president of the European commission or council. As it stands, out of 21 commissioners, eight are women and just one of the six vice-presidents is female.

Streets throughout the Netherlands are being unofficially renamed by activists in honour of venerated women after research showed that 88% of roads in large cities carry men’s names. Signs bearing the names of female resistance fighters, mathematicians, writers and musicians, are being put up by the feminist group De Bovengrondse, which translates as “above ground”.

The European commission is to push for a quota for women on company boards to address the slow progress to gender equality in the senior ranks of publicly listed businesses. Under the proposals, companies whose non-executive directors are more than 60% male would be required to prioritise women when candidates of equal merit were being considered for a post.