Despite progress across Europe, full gender equality remains at least 50 years away, according to EIGE’s 2025 Gender Equality Index which introduces new indicators and a renewed pace of change. The revised Index for 2025 opens a new chapter, setting a new baseline for gender equality that is no longer comparable with the previous Index scores. With a refreshed structure...
The Communications Lab (Comms Lab) is EIGE’s approach to advancing gender equality through effective communication. The Lab helps us to respond to a rapidly evolving communication landscape — one marked by both progress and backlash, including anti-gender disinformation. Between 2023 and 2025, the Comms Lab tackled one of the most urgent challenges in gender equality: how to communicate effectively about...
Migration to the European Union (EU) has increased significantly in recent years, driven by conflict, climate change and geopolitical instability. While global data is limited, available evidence indicates that these crises disproportionately impact women and girls, increasing their exposure to gender-based violence (GBV). Migrants – particularly those who are forcibly displaced or undocumented or face intersecting forms of discrimination –...
The European Protection Order (EPO) is a legal instrument that helps ensure that victims of gender-based and other forms of violence who are protected by national protection measures in one EU Member State remain protected if they decide to travel or move to another Member State. The EPO is designed to protect a person against a criminal act that may...
EIGE’s research on femicide has focused on the definition and measurement of femicide as a specific crime, due to the gendered nature of the killings and dynamics of power imbalance between women and men. EIGE supports Member States in collecting administrative data on femicides within the context of intimate-partner relationships, domestic relationships or any relationships. This policy brief presents the...
The EU is navigating profound global and internal challenges that require coordinated, forward-thinking solutions. Gender equality emerges as a critical enabler of EU success in addressing these challenges and achieving its objectives in uncertain times. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), established at the fourth UN World Conference on Women in 1995, remains more relevant than ever. It serves as...
Systemic discrimination, unbalanced power relations, harmful norms and stereotypes fuel the perpetration of gender-based violence (GBV). In the face of one of the most widespread human rights violations worldwide, women and girls remain the most exposed. Addressing GBV and ensuring support and protection for victims require adopting adequate policies and measures, and monitoring and assessing their effective implementation. Accurate and...
The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has developed 13 indicators on intimate partner violence and domestic violence to guide the data collection efforts of the police and the justice sector. EIGE’s indicators support EU Member States to measure intimate partner violence and domestic violence and to assess the progress made to combat and monitor these forms of violence. Between...
In recent years, with unprecedented migration levels and a shifting security landscape, the need to address gender-based violence (GBV) during migration journeys has become increasingly urgent in the EU. The most recent legislative achievements in combating GBV pave the way towards more gender-responsive interventions, but significant gaps remain in migration and security policies. To effectively combat GBV in the context...
The latest edition of the Gender Equality Index, the 2024 edition, highlights the fact that the EU is battling a host of emerging challenges, from increasing effects of climate change and extreme weather events to high geopolitical tensions, rapid digitalisation, volatile political situations and growing political extremism across the region. While such phenomena claim the attention of decision-makers, they not...
This joint report by the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) provides the latest information on the use and relevance of Directive 2011/99/EU on the European Protection Order (EPO) and the challenges and best practices related to its implementation. The main aim of the report is to inform policymakers and...
Cyber violence against women and girls (CVAWG) is a dimension of violence committed against women and girls that is enabled by the increased use of digital technologies and amplified by the exponential growth of user online presence. Risks for women and girls online are further increased by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality. Research reveals...
