The European Commission presented the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030 on 5 March. The Strategy sets out the EU’s priorities to advance gender equality over the next five years. It covers:
- Combating gender-based violence
- Improving women’s health
- Closing the gender pay gap
- Promoting work-life balance
- Strengthening women’s participation in the labour market
- Ensuring equal participation in public life
We are concerned that the Strategy remains weak as it sets no legally binding actions, and it largely overlooks the situation of women and girls with disabilities despite the Strategy’s reference to intersectionality.
Where are women and girls with disabilities?
Women and girls with disabilities face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination in all areas covered by the Strategy, including employment, education, healthcare, and protection from violence. Yet the Strategy does not include structural measures or dedicated key actions to address their situation.
Women with disabilities are mentioned only in a limited number of instances throughout the Strategy:
- General mention, in the introduction, of “creating conditions for everyone to freely choose their path in life, thrive and lead, regardless of (…) their disability”;
- In Roadmap Principle 2, the Strategy recognises that “intersecting inequalities worsen barriers to healthcare access and can lead to discrimination in treatment, for instance for women with disabilities. The Commission also announced a new initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve the quality and accessibility of women’s healthcare, including for women with disabilities;
- In Roadmap Principle 5, the Strategy underlined that the “gender employment gap is particularly pronounced for (…)women with disabilities”;
- Finally in Roadmap Principle 6, the Strategy underlines that “ensuring access to education and dismantling barriers is especially pressing for (…) children with disabilities”.
These references remain general and are not accompanied by concrete actions or policy initiatives specifically targeting women and girls with disabilities.
Several missing commitments
Several major issues are entirely absent from the Strategy.
The document makes no reference to the rights guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, despite the EU being a party to the Convention.
The Strategy also fails to address forced sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities, a serious human rights violation that continues to occur in many European countries.
Accessibility and reasonable accommodation are overlooked — both are fundamental requirements to ensure equal participation of persons with disabilities in employment, education, healthcare and public life.
The absence of these issues raises concerns about whether the Strategy will effectively contribute to advancing the rights of women and girls with disabilities.
Intersectionality must translate into concrete action
The Strategy refers to an intersectional approach. However, intersectionality must go beyond general statementsand be translated into concrete policies, funding and legislative initiatives.
Intersectionality manifests in different ways for women and girls with disabilities. For example, through higher poverty rates, barriers to access sexual and reproductive health and care services, increased risk of violence for those living in residential institutions.
We call on the European Commission to meaningfully engage with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities , especially those representing women and girls with disabilities when supporting Member States in implementing the Directive on Violence Against Women. National plans, workshop, and guidelines for law enforcement and authorities must include concrete actions to protect women and girls with disabilities from gender-based violence.
It is also crucial that the new initiative with the World Health Organisation (WHO) will improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare for women and girls with disabilities. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality’s Gender Equality Index 2025, only 16% of women with disabilities in the European Union have a good or very good self-perceived health. This is lower than men with disabilities (18%) and women without disabilities (83%). Without specific measures addressing the barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities, the Strategy risks leaving millions of women behind.
More actions needed
We call on the European Commission and EU Member States to ensure that the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy fully includes women and girls with disabilities.
This requires:
- Integrating disability across key actions under the Strategy,
- Aligning gender equality policies with the EU’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
- Addressing key issues such as violence against women with disabilities, forced sterilisation, access to healthcare, employment opportunities, inclusive education and the provision of reasonable accommodation for women and girls with disabilities,
- Collect disaggregated data on gender and disability.
We particularly regret that the Commission did not take forward the recommendation to nominate an EU Coordinator on Combating Violence Against Women, whose role could have been to better address intersectionality and ensure the rights of women in all their diversity.
We call the Commission to include these actions under the next phase of the Disability Rights Strategy. We also call for the EU external action (GAP IV) to include of women and girls with disabilities.
Achieving gender equality in Europe will not be possible unless the rights of women and girls with disabilities are fully recognised and protected.