On March 7th, 2025, in the first 100 days of its new mandate, the European Commission unveiled the Roadmap for Women’s Rights. While the European Commission has committed to advance gender equality in its policy work through the current Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, this Roadmap sets out long-term policy objectives that will guide the development of the new Gender Equality Strategy post 2025. The Roadmap is a guiding document and does not establish concrete actions to undertake. It sets out key principles of women’s rights and gender equality, among which, the freedom from gender-based violence and the highest standards of health. The European Commission also published a Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society in annex to the Roadmap, calling upon stakeholders to endorse it in the course of 2025.
EUD Recommendations
The European Union of the Deaf (EUD) applauds the renewed commitment of the European Commission towards mainstreaming gender equality in all areas. However, committed with its Statement on Intersectionality ensuring deaf people with diverse identities are addressed in its actions, we are concerned with the lack of specific attention addressed to women and girls with disabilities, especially deaf women and girls. The Roadmap mentions that « special attention must be paid to women facing intersectional discrimination, based on characteristics such as racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation ». However, this is not sufficient to ensure that intersectional/multiple discrimination is addressed in each area as part of the gender equality mainstreaming policy work.
For instance, the Roadmap refers to the Union of skills, a plan supporting education and training to increase European competitiveness, and the European Commission launched on the 5th of March 2025, by including a gender sensitive perspective. However, this promising plan does not address the specific needs, nor provides measures for women with disabilities, including deaf women, while they constitute one of the most excluded groups in terms of employment in the European Union (only 20% of women with disabilities in the EU work full time compared to 48% of women without disabilities according to the 2025 Report on Gender Equality in the EU). EUD would like to emphasise that deaf women can play a significant role in the economy of the European Union if specific measures are undertaken to remove the barriers they are currently facing.
It is in this perspective that the EUD recommends the European Commission to highlight the specific issues and rights of women with disabilities with diverse identities, such as deaf women, in each of the upcoming initiatives that are planned for 2025 and beyond, such as the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, the European Affordable Housing Plan, and the Preparedness Union Strategy. Indeed, deaf women face higher risks of violence, poverty, social exclusion, and are among those most affected by health and humanitarian crises. The specific barriers they face and the issues that need to be addressed – the lack of information and communication in their national sign languages – must be detailed enough to ensure the effectiveness of the gender equality mainstreaming approach. This starts with the upcoming Recommendation on harmful practices against women and girls, addressing practices such as female genital mutilations and enforced early marriage that the Commissioner for Equality, Ms. Hadja Lahbib, intends to issue in 2025. The EUD urges Commissioner Lahbib to take into account the EUD Gender Report “Combatting Gender-based Violence and Discrimination against Deaf Women and Girls in the EU”.
What is next?
Since the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 is in its last year of implementation, the European Commission will conduct a public consultation in spring 2025 to gather input for the actions to be put forward in the new Gender Equality Strategy post 2025. EUD will ensure the perspectives of deaf women are included in this process and that they will be addressed in the new Gender Equality Strategy post 2025 planned for March 2026.
