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Tag: Gender equality

  • A roadmap for women’s rights

    A roadmap for women’s rights

    How is the EU protecting women’s rights against rising global pushback? The European Commission (2025a) outlines a roadmap to reaffirm foundational values and guide its equality policies beyond 2025.

    Grounded in EU law since the 1957 Treaty of Rome, gender equality remains a core priority, guiding efforts to close labor and wage gaps, expand the care economy, support work-life balance, and combat violence against women. Building on the Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025, internal mainstreaming through the Taskforce on Equality, and a 7.9-point rise to 71 on the 2024 Gender Equality Index, the EU also continues to champion these standards globally under Sustainable Development Goal 5.

    However, with worldwide backlash, sexism, and challenges to existing protections on the rise, the European Commission (2025a) stresses the urgent need to renew this commitment. In line with the 2024–2029 Political Guidelines and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, this roadmap establishes core principles and an annexed declaration to steer future actions, especially the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy. The Commission calls on member states, EU institutions, and civil society to unite in realizing these goals, reinforcing gender equality as an essential foundation for democracy, economic competitiveness, and social justice.

    Learn more about this policy here:

    European Commission. (2025). A roadmap for women’s rights (COM(2025) 97 final) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:2fbb2780-fb4e-11ef-b7db-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF

  • 2025 report on gender equality in the EU

    2025 report on gender equality in the EU

    How has the European Commission progressed in protecting women and dismantling gender bias? The European Commission (2025) reviews recent equality milestones, highlighting major legislative breakthroughs alongside widespread violence and persistent stereotypes.

    The year 2024 represented an important turning point for EU gender policy with the adoption of the first-ever Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, alonside two Directives strengthening equality bodies. This legislation introduces EU-level definitions for specific crimes (notably cyberviolence) while implementing and reinforcing the EU’s 2023 ratification of the Istanbul Convention. These protections address an urgent reality documented by joint survey from Eurostat, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, and the European Institute for Gender Equality: one in three women in the EU has experienced physical or sexual violence in adulthood, one in six has faced sexual violence including rape, and one in five has experienced domestic violence.

    Public attitudes reflect an equally complex landscape. While Eurobarometer surveys show that three-quarters of respondents recognize that gender equality benefits men and broader society, stereotypical views endure. Approximately one-quarter of respondents still consider it unattractive for women to express strong opinions in public, and data reveals growing polarization between young men and young women, with young men more likely to endorse traditional sterotypes. Furthemore, while the EU reached a score of 71 out of 100 on the 2024 Gender Equality Index (an improve,ent of 7.9 points since 2010) the current rate of progeess indicates that achieving full gender equality will take approximately 60 years. In response, the report evaluates measures taken between March 2024 and February 2025 across the core pillars of the Gender Equality Strategy: ending gender-based violence, challenging stereotypes, securing equal participation in the economy, and achieving parity in leadership.

    Learn more about this report here:

    European Commission (Ed.). (2025). 2025 report on gender equality in the EU. Publications Office. https://doi.org/10.2838/5262357

  • A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025

    A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025

    How can the European Union achieve true equality across its member states? The European Commission (2020) outlines its 2020–2025 strategy to eliminate gender-based violence, structural inequality, and persistent gaps in pay and power.

    As the European Commission (2020) explains, promoting equality between women and men is required by EU Treaties, standing as a core value, a fundamental right, and a central principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Equal participation is also essential for a competitive, innovative, and thriving economy, bringing more jobs and higher productivity to help Europe navigate the green and digital transitions as well as demographic challenges. While the EU is a global leader in this area—holding 14 of the world’s top 20 spots for gender equality thanks to strong equal treatment laws and mainstreaming efforts—no member state has reached full equality. Progress remains slow, with the average EU Gender Equality Index score rising just 5.4 points from 2005 to reach 67.4 out of 100 in 2019.

    The Commission emphasizes that advances in gender equality are neither inevitable nor permanent. While the gap in education is closing, deep divisions remain in employment, earnings, caregiving, political power, and pensions. In addition, gender-based violence, harassment, and sexist hate speech continue at alarming rates, alongside resistance to dismantling gender stereotypes.

    To confront these issues, the 2020–2025 strategy outlines concrete policy goals and actions to build an EU where discrimination, violence, and structural barriers are removed, allowing women and men in all their diversity to have equal chances to lead and thrive.

    Learn more about this policy strategy here:

    European Commission. (2020). A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025 (COM(2020) 152 final) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0152