Challenges to gender equality and women’s rights continue to thrive in Europe

The Council of Europe has just published the 2016 annual report on the implementation of its 2014-2017 Gender Equality Strategy by its member states which looks at how existing challenges to women’s rights are being addressed.
Among the challenges identified in the report is the critical vulnerability of refugee women, increasing sexist hate speech and other forms of violence against women, attacks to women’s reproductive health and rights, reduced resources allocated to gender equality due to budgetary cuts and austerity measures, barriers preventing women from disadvantaged groups to benefit from gender equality policies and standards, shortcomings to achieving women’s balanced participation in political and public decision-making, and the spread of misconceptions about gender equality through the label of “gender ideology”. More...