EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026 – 2030: Another Strategy, Another Missed Opportunity

The European Commission’s new Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030 recognises the growing backlash against gender equality. Yet, similarly to the recently renewed Anti-Racism Strategy, it largely reiterates existing commitments and, crucially, fails to recognise the link between equality and mental health in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, this amounts to another missed opportunity to advance equality. 

Ignoring mental health in gender equality policy means ignoring one of the key drivers of inequality. 

The Strategy’s focus on care and gender-based violence is welcome. These areas both reflect and reinforce gender inequalities across the EU and have significant implications for mental health. The attention given to gender-based cyberviolence is also positive. However, the proposed actions remain largely limited to monitoring, evidence gathering and regulatory dialogue with very large online platforms. Such an approach risks falling short of delivering real-world accountability or meaningful support for women and girls who remain disproportionately exposed to digital violence. 

Mental Health Europe supports the call for Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention and welcomes the Commission’s commitment to support the development of national gender equality action plans by 2027 — priorities also highlighted in our recent report Rethink to Rebuild: Towards Rights-Based and Gender-Just Mental Health Systems in Europe. 

While the Strategy reaffirms the goal of achieving the highest standards of physical and mental health, it stops there. No concrete action on mental health follows. This represents a missed opportunity to meaningfully connect gender equality and mental health policy. 

Positive elements include the emphasis on a gender perspective in the upcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Commission’s support for an EU-wide legal definition of rape based on consent, and the commitment to publish a study on housing discrimination from an intersectional perspective. Such a study should also examine the experiences of migrants, people affected by racism, including Roma communities, and LGBTQ+ people. This is particularly important given the heightened risk of homelessness among groups such as trans young people. 

MHE also welcomes the possibility of addressing sexual harassment at work within the upcoming Quality Jobs Act, correctly recognising it as a psychosocial risk. This initiative provides an opportunity to implement commitments made under the Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health (2023), including treating mental wellbeing on par with physical health. 

The planned review of the European Care Strategy should likewise take into account the mental wellbeing of both formal and informal carers. Supporting carers’ mental health is essential for ensuring both the sustainability and quality of care, and requires a gender-just and intersectional approach. 

At a time when anti-gender narratives are gaining ground, the framework should have placed far greater emphasis on women’s mental health. Recent global survey data reinforces this concern. For example, a King’s College London survey found that 31% of Gen Z men agree that a wife should always obey her husband. Yet the initiative does not sufficiently acknowledge the need for urgent and comprehensive action to challenge such narratives and their implications for women’s mental and physical wellbeing. 

As highlighted in MHE’s recent report, mental health must be considered across all policy areas to address the structural factors that shape wellbeing and ensure policies reflect a gender-just and intersectional approach that emphasises prevention. 

MHE calls on EU institutions and Member States to: 

• Ensure that upcoming initiatives, including the Anti-Poverty Strategy and the Quality Jobs Act, embed a gender perspective and address the mental health impacts of poverty and employment conditions. 

• Ensure that measures relating to housing and the digital environment apply gender-just and intersectional approaches and prioritise the protection of people’s mental and physical wellbeing. 

• Prioritise the mental wellbeing of formal and informal carers in the review of the European Care Strategy, recognising this as a key gender justice issue and essential for sustainable care systems. 

• Develop and implement a comprehensive EU Mental Health Strategy with adequate funding, clear timelines, objectives and monitoring mechanisms. 

• Ensure national gender equality action plans meaningfully address mental health and adopt a holistic approach to women’s wellbeing, with particular attention to LGBTQ+, racialised and migrant women, survivors of gender-based violence and other marginalised groups.