Gender equality strategy

Achievements in gender equality

Although inequalities still exist, the EU has made significant progress in gender equality over the last decades. This is the result of

• legislation
• gender mainstreaming - integration of the gender perspective into all other policies
• specific measures for the empowerment of women

Encouraging trends are the higher number of women in the labour market and their progress in securing better education and training.

However, gender gaps remain in the labour market.  Women are still over-represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions.

Roadmap for Women’s Rights 

The European Commission adopted the Roadmap for Women’s Rights, on 7 March 2025. The Roadmap outlines a long-term vision for achieving gender equality, based on core principles and policy objectives set out in the a Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society (in annex). It aims to uphold and advance women’s rights and to address new gender equality challenges, such as technology-facilitated bias, discrimination, and violence. The Roadmap sets an EU political framework for women’s rights that will guide our actions in the coming years. It provides a foundation for developing targeted legal and policy measures in the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy and beyond and for inspiring gender-sensitive policies across other Commission initiatives. 

The Commission invites the other European Institutions, in particular the European Parliament and the Council, to endorse the Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society in the course of 2025 and adhere to that commitment. The Commission also invites other institutions, Member States, social partners, civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders to take an active role in realising the Roadmap’s principles and objectives, and put forward measures at the appropriate level.

Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025

The EU Gender Equality Strategy delivers on the von der Leyen Commission’s commitment to achieving a Union of Equality. The Strategy presents policy objectives and actions to make significant progress by 2025 towards a gender-equal Europe. The goal is a Union where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead our European society.

The key objectives are ending gender-based violence; challenging gender stereotypes; closing gender gaps in the labour market; achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy; addressing the gender pay and pension gaps; closing the gender care gap and achieving gender balance in decision-making and in politics. The Strategy pursues a dual approach of gender mainstreaming combined with targeted actions, and intersectionality is a horizontal principle for its implementation. While the Strategy focuses on actions within the EU, it is coherent with the EU’s external policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

As one of the first deliverables of the Strategy, the Commission proposed binding pay transparency measures  on 4 March 2021. The Pay Transparency Directive was adopted in May 2023. The new rules will help to ensure that the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, enshrined in the Treaty since 1957, finally becomes a reality on the ground.

On 8 March 2022, the European Commission adopted a new EU-wide proposal for a directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence.  The co-legislators reached political agreement on 6 February 2024 on this proposal. The Directive is the first comprehensive legal instrument at EU level to tackle violence against women, which is still too pervasive. It criminalises certain forms of physical violence, both offline and online. The Directive also provides for comprehensive measures for victims’ protection, access to justice and support, such as shelters, rape crisis centres and helplines.

Another milestone achievement is the Directive on gender balance in corporate boards, which seeks to improve the gender balance in corporate decision-making positions in the EU largest listed companies. After 10 years of negotiations, the Directive was finally adopted on 22 November 2022. This new EU law will help break the glass ceiling on the boards of listed companies and give the many women qualified for top jobs a real chance to get them.

As of August 2022, the new EU-wide work-life balance rights for parents and carers started applying. In September 2022, the Commission presented the European Care Strategy, linked to new targets on early childhood education and care to enhance women’s labour market participation. 

The European Commission launched a campaign to challenge gender stereotypes, on 8 March 2023. The #EndGenderStereotypes campaign, disseminated throughout 2023, tackled gender stereotypes affecting both men and women in different spheres of life, including career choices, sharing care responsibilities and decision-making.

In October 2023, the Commission became a party to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence - the Istanbul Convention. The EU is now bound by ambitious and comprehensive standards to prevent and combat violence against women in the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, asylum and non-refoulement and with regard to its public administration. This includes funding, policy, and legislative measures.

In Autumn 2023, the Commission established an EU network on the prevention of gender-based violence and domestic violence.  The network provides the space for Member States and stakeholders to discuss new and emerging issues of violence prevention, exchange of knowledge and good practice.

In December 2024, the Commission published a Eurobarometer on Gender Stereotypes. The results show that EU citizens consider that gender equality is beneficial for both women and men. However, gender stereotypes persist in different domains, with variations among Member States and age groups.  

Annual report on gender equality

The 2025 report on gender equality in the EU is the fifth and last report under the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025. The report takes stock of where the EU and its Member States stand on gender equality. It highlights the EU’s achievements in the five key areas covered by the strategy and gives inspiring examples from the Member States and EU-funded projects in these areas.

Consult all past reports on Gender Equality (No reports were published in 2016 and 2020)

Strategic engagement for gender equality

The strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019 defined the framework for the European Commission's work towards gender equality in the referred period.

The strategic engagement focuses on the following 5 priority areas:

• increasing female labour market participation and economic independence of women and men
• reducing the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thus fighting poverty among women
• promoting equality between women and men in decision-making
• combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims
• promoting gender equality and women's rights across the world

The strategic engagement sets out objectives in each of these priority areas and identifies more than 30 concrete actions. It reaffirms commitment to gender mainstreaming: a gender equality perspective will be integrated into all EU policies as well as into EU funding programmes.