Militarisation is diverting resources from welfare to warfare.
War and austerity disproportionately impact women.
Abortion and reproductive rights must be protected across the EU.
Care work must be recognised, shared, and supported by public systems.
Gender-based violence is structural and requires structural responses.
Feminism is a central force against fascism, authoritarianism and social regression.
FEMINISM AGAINST WAR, PATRIARCHY AND INEQUALITY
CONTEXT
In the current historical moment, the key values of feminism — the struggle against all patriarchal oppression and violence, shared responsibility for care, and antifascism — are more necessary than ever.
In Europe, political decisions are being taken — inhumane migration laws, support for authoritarian regimes, exploitative economic policies, and militarisation — that generate or deepen oppression. Therefore, as feminists, we oppose all forms of oppression and the actions of European governments and institutions that reinforce it.
We recognise that European feminism has often been Eurocentric, presenting itself as the only or principal valid version. For this reason, it is necessary to learn deeply from feminist movements in other regions and cultures (for example, in Latin America, Africa, the Arab world, and Asia).
By connecting with other struggles, European feminism can learn from the strategies, resistance, and creativity of movements across the world, rebuilding a global solidarity based on mutual learning — not on imposing a single model.
We need to build unity through new alliances, focusing on what unites us rather than what divides us. When we speak about intersectionality, we must also step outside our own frameworks and listen to younger generations. Their forms of feminism may appear different, but they share the same goal: defeating patriarchy — including its most extreme expression, war.
All our proposals for care, education, respect, and sustainability of life now collide with increasing militarisation and rearmament — expressed through weapons spending, military presence in schools (indoctrination), and proposals for a European army.
Defeating patriarchy includes confronting its most extreme expression — war.
Warfare versus Welfare
Patriarchal capitalism and the militarisation of the economy are reshaping relations of domination. European elections in recent years have pushed politics further towards war and rearmament.
The “Rearm Europe” plan, quickly renamed “Readiness 2030” without changing its substance, foresees investment of more than eight hundred billion euros in weapons. NATO countries are also being pushed to increase military spending to five percent of GDP. According to SIPRI, military spending has grown exponentially since 2015 — and these are the weapons now being used in ongoing wars. Decisions taken in 2024 and 2025 will shift vast resources from social investment to military expenditure.
Wars have a disproportionate and specific impact on women. They are treated as spoils of war, subjected to sexual violence, trafficking, and forced prostitution. Many are left widowed, without resources, responsible for families shattered by conflict, and forced into displacement. War destroys not only lives, but also territories, communities, and livelihoods.
Militarisation is also ecologically destructive. The military industry is among the most polluting sectors globally, with long-term environmental consequences. At the same time, war budgets divert essential resources away from the ecological transition.
War increases women’s invisible labour. As public services are cut, care responsibilities fall even more heavily on them. Militarisation also normalises violence in society and reinforces patriarchal gender roles, especially when it expands into schools and communities.
For this reason, we oppose militarisation and recruitment policies — even when presented as “equal” — because they reinforce patriarchal power structures and deepen gendered violence.
Europe has renounced its potential as a peace-building political actor and instead embraced a militarised role.
In doing so, Europe has accepted pressure from the United States to increase NATO military spending and maintain US dominance in key conflicts…
The result is a Europe that will pay for war through further cuts to welfare systems.
Feminism offers a clear alternative: peace, dialogue, and diplomacy over armed conflict. We propose creating a European observatory to document the impact of war on women. We demand a permanent feminist presence at peace negotiation tables. Without a feminist perspective, there can be no just or lasting peace.
EDUCATION
We defend a secular, co-educational, public and free education system as a central tool for dismantling patriarchy. Education must actively challenge gender stereotypes and include gender studies at all levels, forming critical and autonomous citizens.
The EU urgently needs a comprehensive political framework that guarantees educational equality and confronts patriarchal culture — both visible and hidden — within institutions. The rise of the far right and the influence of reactionary political movements are driving regression in education. Socio-emotional education is under attack, gender stereotypes are being reintroduced, and decades of feminist progress are being challenged.
We must defend and expand an education system that is secular (free from dogma), co-educational (built on diversity), public and free (a universal right, not a privilege).
Health and Reproductive Rights
The reactionary right in Europe threatens women’s autonomy over their bodies and life choices. The right to decide on motherhood is non-negotiable. Access to free, safe and legal abortion must be guaranteed in public health services across all Member States.
We demand full decriminalisation of abortion and the removal of all legal, economic, administrative, and social barriers. Sexual and reproductive healthcare — including contraception, family planning, prenatal care, maternal health, and abortion — must be universally accessible.
The right to abortion must be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Respect for sexual orientation and gender identity in healthcare must also be guaranteed. Sovereignty over one’s own body is not a concession — it is the basis of full citizenship.
Sovereignty over one’s own body is not a concession — it is the basis of full citizenship.
Care Responsibilities
Ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 189 by all EU Member States is an urgent step towards recognising and dignifying care work, both paid and unpaid.
Care sustains society. Cuts to public services — often justified by military spending — shift even more of this burden onto families and, disproportionately, onto women. Feminist politics places care at the centre of social organisation. We defend strong public services and a universal care system. Real equality requires shared responsibility between the state, the market, and men. Care must be de-feminised.
Gender-based Violence: A Structural Emergency
Patriarchal violence takes many forms: femicide, domestic, sexual, psychological, digital, economic, institutional, obstetric, vicarious violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
The pandemic exposed the structural nature of this violence. Militarisation and patriarchal culture further intensify it.
We demand full implementation of the Istanbul Convention across the EU. Femicide must be explicitly recognised in legislation, acknowledging that these killings are not isolated acts but the extreme expression of systemic oppression.
An attack on one woman anywhere is an attack on all.
FOR A FEMINIST POLITICAL ECONOMY:
CLOSING THE GENDER GAP!
At the European level, there is still a double exploitation of women in the productive and reproductive spheres: the neo-liberal and the patriarchal exploitation. The non-recognition and unequal redistribution of women’s care work go hand in hand with the increasing privatisation of public services.
This is compounded by the persistence of the gender gap in income, wages and pensions; the crystal ceiling in careers and horizontal segregation; the precariousness and privatisation of the sectors of work with the highest rate of female employment. Policies are urgently needed to guarantee equality and non-discrimination in the different spheres of women’s lives and to strengthen and expand the welfare state, including affordable and accessible health care, childcare, housing and social security systems to support individuals and families. A feminist economic policy based on care, not profit, is necessary to combat all forms of gender inequality.
Economic Equality: Autonomy as a Barrier Against Violence
Economic independence protects women from violence.
European policies must guarantee decent work, equal pay, and equal opportunities. The Social Progress Protocol must be included in EU Treaties to ensure that social rights prevail over market freedoms.
The gender pay gap (13 percent hourly, rising to 40 percent when adjusted) and pension gap (26 percent) create dependency and vulnerability. Austerity and militarisation worsen this crisis.
We demand upward harmonisation of social protection systems and action against precarious work affecting women disproportionately.
Migration with a Gender Perspective
Women face specific risks in migration, including sexual violence and exploitation. The current Asylum and Migration Pact must be replaced with one that integrates a comprehensive gender perspective and guarantees safe and legal pathways. Migration policy must protect people — not fortify borders.
Antifascist Feminism: The Radical Antidote
Feminism is a central force against authoritarianism and the regression of rights. The far right governs in several European countries, attacking reproductive rights and equality from within institutions. We defend all women — including women with disabilities, migrants, LGBTQIA+ persons, young and older women. Our solidarity is internationalist.
EMPOWERMENT FOR ALL:
WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
We consider women’s empowerment and freedom, the right to sexual and reproductive health and safe abortion, and the civil rights of LGBTQIA+ people as fundamental human rights. Yet they are under attack in some EU member states, such as Poland, Hungary and Italy. Instead, we see the ‘Ley Trans’ passed in Spain as a reference point for future European legislation.
We demand:
Occupy the political calendar beyond 8 March and 25 November.
Strengthen unified campaigns such as “My Body, My Choice” for 2026.
Launch a pan-European campaign for abortion rights.
Build dialogue with women from the Global South through in-person seminars.
Form broad alliances for international feminist solidarity.
Our strength lies in unity that recognises diversity, in anger transformed into strategy, and in solidarity without borders.
Feminism is not a sectoral struggle — it is a transformative project for democracy, peace, and social justice in Europe.
