The 2017 study “Gender Equality Policy in the Arts, Culture and Media: Comparative Perspectives”, supported by the German government’s commissioner for culture and media and under the academic direction of Helmut K. Anheier, compared a 2016 study of the German cultural field with five of its European Union members: France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, and the UK. Researchers found that, while women participate almost equally in the cultural sector in Germany (48 percent, an above-average percentage as compared to the other EU countries), the pay gap in Germany remains the widest by a long shot, figuring at a staggering 29.8 percent, compared to the 19.4 percent average for the others.