On March 5, the European Commission published the new Gender Equality Strategy. This Strategy follows the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, and turns the objectives of the Roadmap for Women's Rights into concrete actions.

The strategy recognises that gender inequalities are intersectional and lead to further violation of the fundamental rights of women, particularly, among other vulnerable groups, for women with disabilities.

With this Strategy, the Commission is taking powerful stances on topics previously left aside and issues of growing concerns,such as menstrual and menopause poverty, endometriosis, or anti-gender narratives and digital violence.

Several challenges affecting formal and informal ceres are acknowledged by the Strategy:

• The gender employment gap is particularly pronounced for women with disabilities.
• The gender employment is notably caused by a lack of access to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Long-Term Care (LTC) services. Caring responsibilities fall first on women and are among the main reasons why they work part-time or are economically inactive. This negatively affects their pensions.
• Supporting men carers to take family leaves and flexible working arrangements is key to closing the gender care gap.
• The women-dominated care sector is characterised by precarious conditions, such as low wages, heavy schedules, lack of collective bargaining, and lack of training.
• Gender-sensitive education is central to ensure all children access high-quality and inclusive education and training, notably for girls from underrepresented groups, including children with disabilities.

A set of important measures are foreseen by the Commission to address these issues:

• A new initiative with the World Health Organisation to explore ways to improve the quality and accessibility of women’s healthcare, including women with disabilities.
• A mapping of best practices in addressing the gender pension gap and enhance its monitoring via the Social Scoreboard and recommendations in the European Semester.
• An analysis on older women and the gender gaps in pension benefits and poverty in the 2027 Report on Adequate Social Protection in Old Age.
• Reports on the implementation of the Council Recommendations on ECEC and on LCT.
• A report on the implementation of the Directive on Work-Life Balance and two studies on the rights to family leave for self-employed people.
• Addressing persistent stereotypes leading to the lack of uptake of leaves by men.
• A comprehensive European Care Deal (2027) based on the achievement of the European Care Strategy and on an Implementation Dialogue on Care. The dialogue will review progress on provision of ECEC, LTC, fair working conditions and training in the care sector. Measures will focus on working conditions, career development, affordability, accessibility and quality of care, men’s participation in formal and informal care, and digital opportunities.
• Better support to teachers and schools in tackling gender stereotypes, by supporting the development and promotion of materials on this topic.

To ensure a strong implementation, the Commission calls on Member States to adopt National Gender Equality Action Plans by end of 2027 and assures that the 2028-2034 EU budget will reinforce gender mainstreaming and the respect of gender rules, including for the National and Regional Partnership Plans.

If you want to learn more, check out the new European Care Survey by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

Conducted in 2024, it provides updated and comparable data across all EU Member States on how women and men organise and experience unpaid care, housework, the use of informal and formal care services, and their leisure time.