FEPS Secretary General
08/03/2022

Tackling gender-based violence, on which an EU directive proposal is being published today on the occasion of International Women’s Day, is key to restoring momentum to the feminist cause.

On this day, it is also opportune to recall the origins of this celebration, which date back to more than a hundred years ago, when it was closely tied to its socialist roots. It was then established as a day of activism under the impulse of feminist ‘second-wavers’ in the 1960s. Their claims still loom large: tackling persistent gender-blindness across policy domains, economic empowerment, reproductive autonomy, and the elimination of violence against women.

Over half a century and a devastating pandemic later, it’s a legitimate question to ask where we stand on gender equality in the European Union. Taking stock in 2022, progress has recently stalled, with serious risks of regression.

According to the Gender Equality Index 2021, compiled by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the fragile gains Europe has made are imperilled. Far from being able to rest on one’s laurels, given some seeming advances, the data indicate that the EU gender pay gap has only marginally decreased, from 16 per cent in 2010 to 13 per cent in 2020. Indeed, it has even increased in some Central and Eastern European countries due to deeply-rooted patriarchal social norms and stereotypes.

Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic provoked a widespread ‘she-cession‘, placing women at much higher and more immediate risk of job and income loss, while precipitating an alarming surge in gender-based violence. Lockdowns created environments for physical, psychological, sexual, and economic violence against women and girls, with limited access for victims to support services. The restrictions and economic uncertainties however merely compounded existing inequalities between women and men, with enduring consequences likely to outlive the pandemic.

Shadow pandemic

Resisting the temptation to blame it all on the virus, we should not lose sight of the fact that this ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence – as the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, put it – stems from a long-term systemic phenomenon which knows no geographical boundaries, despite abrogating universal human rights and contradicting European values.

Moreover, members of certain social groups face a heightened risk of misogynist violence. A third of women with disabilities (34 per cent) have suffered intimate-partner violence in their lifetime, compared with 19 per cent of others. About half of lesbian and three-quarters of bisexual women report having experienced gender-based violence in public, in contrast with one third of heterosexual women.

Not only does gender-based violence cause acute pain and suffering to the victims. It also places considerable costs on the economy and society as a whole. According to EIGE’s estimate, the resulting price to pay by the EU amounts to €366 billion annually – that’s close to half the cost of the EU’s historic recovery instrument, but every year.

Despite the undeniably urgent need for action to end gender-based violence, heavy structural, economic and cultural barriers stand in the way. Persisting stereotypes and gender-blind approaches to laws and policies continue to cause delay. While monitoring is a challenge because of a serious lack of data, what is often missing more than the data is real political will – conveniently dismissing the issue as a ‘private’ matter, not worthy of public attention.

Istanbul Convention

The rhetoric against ‘gender ideology’, present in several member states, has been mirrored in political clashes in the European Parliament over the Council of Europe’s Istanbul convention, drafted in 2011 but still not ratified by the EU as a whole, though it constitutes one of the most progressive blueprints to address gender-based violence and is the only available, legally-binding, international tool. International bodies and treaties nevertheless converge in explicitly recognising gender-based violence as “a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men”. In this spirit, national and local measures are starting to emerge across the Union.

This year Spain will be the first country in Europe to record all femicides officially, placing the left-wing government in a pioneering role in acknowledging the power dynamics at the root of gender-based violence. Belgium will use the EU recovery funds to support women victims of violence through dedicated social-housing investment. Finland foresees legislative reforms to include consent-based definitions of rape and to protect victims’ rights better. To date, 14 countries have adopted national action plans to address violence against women.

In spite of these promising practices, policies however remain uneven and patchy. According to the independent Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, which monitors implementation of the Istanbul convention, in many cases they are rendered unfit for purpose due to a lack of gender-specific legislation.

Minimum standards of protection

The EU must live up to its fundamental values of equal opportunity and the right of non-discrimination by offering a minimum standard of protection across the EU to combat gender-based violence effectively. Echoing the calls of women’s rights movements such as the European Women’s Lobby, these efforts should be multi-layered.

Ratification of the Istanbul Convention must be topped up with a legislative proposal on combatting violence against women and domestic violence. This would not only align the EU with the Council of Europe but address forms of violence not foreseen a decade ago, such as cyberviolence or intersectional manifestations. Challenging the underpinning social norms will also require removing all obstacles facing women – through adequate pay transparency, minimum-wage standards and a fair distribution of care responsibilities.

In line with the European Parliament’s resolution of last November, the time is ripe for the EU to include gender-based violence in the areas of serious crime listed in article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘eurocrimes’). This would not only offer an effective remedy to this endemic concern but signal that on gender equality the EU legislative framework was moving beyond a purely economic purpose – such as equal pay in article 157 – to a social rationale.

For the EU to achieve such a transformative approach to equality with a unified voice, it will above all need to bolster consensus, rather than division, around a recognition that what was hitherto deemed ‘private’ in some countries is now legitimately a public concern – or, as the second-wavers put it, that ‘the personal is political’.

This article was originally published on Social Europe and can be found here.

Photo credit: Celiafoto/Shutterstock

Find all related publications
Publications
05/03/2024

A European feminist foreign policy?

The need for a progressive and transformative approach
19/02/2024

Women CSO leaders for systemic change

How to support feminist leadership in Europe
01/02/2024

Bridging the gender pay gap in the Western Balkans?

A country case study of Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia
24/01/2024

Progressive Yearbook 2024

Looking back to look ahead
Find all related events
Events
Past
08/03/2024
Budapest, Hungary

How to pursue gender equality in the context of right wing, authoritarian regimes?

The cases of Hungary and Serbia
04 - 06/03/2024
Abuja, Nigeria

The Africa we want and the United Nations we need

Africa Summit of the Future Dialogue
23/02/2024
Barcelona, Spain

Accelerating progress

Towards a feminist future of work, without violence against women and from a European perspective
Find all related news
News
18/03/2024

FEPS President on Euronews talk-show ‘Brussels, my love?’

NATO extension, Portuguese elections, far-right and gender equality were the topics of the debate
08/03/2024

Discover the updated EU Care Atlas!

04/03/2024

FEPS at the ‘Africa Summit of the Future Dialogue’ in Abuja, Nigeria

23/01/2024

Call for tender – FFP Research and network coordinator

This call for tender is now closed.
Find all related in the media
In the media

FEPS President on Euronews talk-show ‘Brussels, my love?’

by Euronews 16/03/2024
FEPS President Maria João Rodrigues discusses NATO expansions and elections in Russia and Portugal on Euronews talk-show ‘Brussels, my love?‘

Une réforme de l’UE qui intéressera forcément les Suisses

by Le Temps 24/11/2023
'EU reform bound to be of interest to the Swiss', an opinion piece in Le Temps on EU Treaties changes by Maria João Rodrigues, FEPS President, Guillaume Klossa, Director of think tank EuropaNova and Daniela Schwarzer, Executive board member Bertelsmann Stiftung

« Le moment est venu de lancer un débat sur la réforme de l’Union européenne »

by Le Monde 22/11/2023
'The time has come to launch a debate on the reform of the European Union', an opinion piece in Le Monde on Eu Treaties changes by Maria João Rodrigues, FEPS President, Guillaume Klossa, Director of think tank EuropaNova and Daniela Schwarzer, Executive board member Bertelsmann Stiftung

A credible future beyond growth has to be feminist

by euobserver 17/05/2023
Euobserver article about the #BeyondGrowth conference mentions FEPS 'Defining Care' Policy Brief