The European Union is a global leader in gender equality: 14 of the top 20 countries worldwide on gender equality are the EU Member States. Thanks to robust equal treatment legislation and jurisprudence, efforts to mainstream the gender perspectives into different policy areas, and laws to address particular inequalities, the EU has made significant progress in gender equality in the last decades.
However, no Member State has achieved full gender equality and progress is slow. Member States on average scored 67.4 out of 100 in the EU Gender Equality Index 2019, a score which has improved by just 5.4 points since 2005.
This Gender Equality Strategy frames the European Commission’s work on gender equality and sets out the policy objectives and key actions for the 2020-2025 period. It aims at achieving a gender-equal Europe where gender-based violence, sex discrimination, and structural inequality between women and men are a thing of the past. A Europe where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are equal. Where they are free to pursue their chosen path in life, where they have equal opportunities to thrive, and where they can equally participate in and lead our European society.
The implementation of this strategy will be based on the dual approach of targeted measures to achieve gender equality, combined with strengthened gender mainstreaming. The Commission will enhance gender mainstreaming by systematically including a gender perspective in all stages of policy design in all EU policy areas, internal and external. The strategy will be implemented using intersectionality– the combination of gender with other personal characteristics or identities, and how these intersections contribute to unique experiences of discrimination – as a cross-cutting principle.
In detail, 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 will propose binding pay transparency measures by the end of 2020.
Discover more here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/strategy/gender-equality-research-and-innovation_en
Gender equality: a strengthened commitment in Horizon Europe https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-law-and-publications/publication-detail/-/publication/c0b30b4b-6ce2-11eb-aeb5-01aa75ed71a1
