Ending gender-based violence requires economic justice. The time for reform is now.

On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, governments must finally be held accountable. Unfair tax systems must be dismantled. Unequal pay and discrimination against women must end by January 1, 2026.

These ongoing systemic failures are precisely what keep women in violent relationships. Financial hardship fuels domestic violence and substance abuse – key factors, especially in Northern Europe, contributing to violence against women.

The current system also forces children to remain in harmful environments. Adolescent girls, in particular, are pushed into homelessness when they try to escape violence, leaving them without financial stability or safe housing and making them vulnerable to rape and exploitation, including by networks tied to prostitution and drugs.

Across the Western world, including Europe, states claim they have taken all necessary measures to end violence against women. In reality, they have repeatedly failed to use the tools already at their disposal to prevent and address this violence. Rates continue to rise because governments and the European Union are effectively placing women in financial captivity with their abusers.

Financial dependency: A system-made trap

A common scenario is a woman remaining in a psychologically or physically violent relationship because leaving would push her below the poverty line – or directly into homelessness.

Germany serves as a stark example of a system is stuck in the past.

Women in Germany are still paid, on average, 18% less than men for the same work. Requiring companies to publish reports on their pay gaps has proven ineffective. Equal pay should not be optional or merely encouraged: it should be enforced, immediately, by law.

In Germany, one in four homeless people is a woman, and among homeless 18–25-year-olds, a staggering 38% are girls. Homelessness is directly linked to gender-based violence and the failure of political institutions to meet the financial needs of those fleeing abusive homes.

Unfair taxation and social security contributions worsen financial dependency, preventing women from securing safety and independence. If EU countries are serious about ending violence against women, they must reform their fiscal systems. For example:

• Increase tax-free allowances to a liveable annual amount, ensuring the right to a dignified life (for Germany: +€26,000 per year).
• Introduce a fairer tax structure: 15% up to €55,000, rising progressively to 20–45% with no upper ceiling.
• Make social security contributions mandatory for all and raise the contribution ceiling to €120,000 annually. With everyone contributing, low- and middle-income earners would experience approximately a 10% reduction in costs.

Such reforms would increase overall tax revenue and social security contributions while easing the burden on low- and middle-income earners. Crucially, they would strengthen women’s financial independence and lift significant parts of the population out of poverty, benefiting the wider economy.

Europe’s political failures

Europe has become, for many, a hostile landscape marked by rising violence against women, discrimination, and racial segregation. Migrant women are further exposed to gender-based violence, including by Frontex personnel who have not been adequately vetted for sexism or cultural intolerance.

Meanwhile, EU Commission regulations have pushed member states to the brink of financial collapse, diverting funds into militarisation and “security” while more women and children find every door closed when seeking refuge from unbearable conditions at home. What use is a government that prioritises the interests of political parties over the needs of its citizens? Why vote for representatives who abandon their promises the day after being elected?

A healthier democratic model would hold political representatives in a permanent probation period, directly accountable to citizens through assemblies and other transparent mechanisms.

The outdated political party system has failed not only women but humanity as a whole. Political parties act like parasites, living off the taxes of the 90% – low and middle-income earners – while feeding the richest 10% with special breaks and incentives.

Meanwhile, infrastructure collapses, healthcare fails, families cannot afford a warm and healthy meal each day, and Europe’s leaders pretend nothing is wrong—including the crisis of violence against women. Through unfair fiscal policies, they actively perpetuate it.

On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, governments will once again issue hollow statements. Yet without genuine economic equality – without dismantling the financial structures that trap women with their abusers – violence will continue.

Ending gender-based violence requires economic justice. The time for reform is now.

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