C 251/34
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
30.6.2022
Wednesday 15 December 2021
strengthening support for women’s rights defenders and women’s rights organisations in the EU, as well as organisations working on SRHR and LGBTIQ+;
26.
Stresses the need for Member States to adopt a policy placing special emphasis on better systems and services of healthcare and the prevention of diseases, including gender-specific aspects, by guaranteeing accessible and high-quality healthcare and ensuring the availability of the necessary resources to combat the main health problems such as those arising from the current pandemic crisis; stresses that health inequalities are accumulating for women with low levels of education and women with disabilities, with both categories experiencing poor health and limited access to health services; emphasises that access to healthcare in some Member States has been constrained by the COVID-19 lockdown measures and that consultations, treatment and diagnoses have not taken place; urges the Member States to strengthen healthcare systems including public services in order to expedite cancelled consultations, treatment and diagnoses;
27.
Welcomes the upcoming review of the Barcelona targets and stresses the need to achieve these and to provide early childhood education and childcare, including public pre-school education; highlights the need to provide care services for early childhood education and care that is genuinely accessible to all children and has an overarching role in increasing women’s participation in the labour market, particularly in the light of the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic; recognises the need to create and expand support facilities for older people and people with disabilities, in addition to developing long-term care facilities; calls on the Commission and the Member States to meet these objectives, which are key to boosting gender equality and the equal earner-equal carer model;
28.
Stresses that poverty and social exclusion are exacerbated among some groups of women such as single mothers, women above the age of 65, women with disabilities, women with low levels of education, and women from migrant backgrounds; insists on the importance of fighting poverty and social exclusion and its multifaceted causes; urges the Member States to take specific measures to prevent and combat the risk of poverty for older and retired women in view of population ageing and the proportion of older women in disadvantaged or vulnerable positions; deems it imperative to address the work-life balance and overcome the gender pension gap by guaranteeing a fair pension for all women and access to universal and solidarity-based social security systems, and by better enforcing the principle of equal pay for equal work in order to close the gender pay gap and prevent its accumulation in women’s careers; is extremely concerned by the fact that the poverty gender gap has increased in 21 Member States since 2017 (32);
29.
Highlights that there is still a misconception that homelessness among women is a relatively minor social problem in Europe; points to the lack of basic data on the nature and extent of women’s homelessness, which makes the problem less visible; stresses the importance of recognising gender-based violence and the gendered experiences of trauma as a root cause of women’s homelessness, and of looking at wider societal problems intersecting with broader socioeconomic and structural barriers, such as poverty, the lack of affordable housing and other structural factors; urges the EU and its Member States to integrate a gender perspective into policies and practices addressing homelessness and to develop a specific strategy to combat women’s homeless and ensure that services work appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of homeless women;
30.
Recalls the need to combat intersectional forms of discrimination, especially against marginalised groups, including women with disabilities, Black women, migrant, ethnic minority and Roma women, older women, single mothers, LGBTIQ+ people and homeless women; stresses the importance of addressing their needs and concerns in EU polices and initiatives; calls on the Commission to devise specific guidelines on the implementation of the intersectional framework and to present an EU action plan with specific measures to improve the socioeconomic situation of women who face intersectional forms of discrimination and combat the feminisation of poverty and precarious work;
(32)
Gender Equality Index 2020 report.