Care in the European Union: fighting stereotypes while reinforcing them?

3 min read

The European Union’s European Care Strategy (2022) represented a milestone. For the first time, the EU put care squarely on its political and legal agenda, promising better access to quality services, improved working conditions and better balance between professional and family life for caregivers. A closer look at EU discourse on care, however, reveals a troubling paradox: while aimed at dismantling stereotypes, it simultaneously reinforces others, particularly those tied to gender, race, class and migration. 

A gendered history of care 

Care has always been a deeply gendered issue in Europe. Data from the European Institute for Gender Equality shows that women still shoulder the vast majority of unpaid care work, from cooking to child care to elder care. The 2022 Gender Equality Index also found that one third of women who left their jobs during the pandemic did so because of care responsibilities. 

Despite decades of EU action on gender equality, care remains one of the areas in which inequalities persist most clearly. The EU has long recognised the principle of gender equality, enshrined since the Treaty of Rome (1957) and later reinforced in the Amsterdam and Lisbon Treaties. However, the way in which equality is framed has shifted, from being tied to economic competitiveness and employment to becoming a broader matter of justice. Care, however, has lagged behind: it is often treated as a ‘private’ issue or a barrier to women’s full participation in the labour market rather than a societal responsibility. 

The European care strategy: promise and limits 

The European care strategy sets out to »improve the situation of both those in need of care and those providing it«. It calls for better access to affordable and high-quality services, investments in early childhood education, and stronger long-term care systems. Importantly, it highlights the need to value the care workforce, which remains one of the most feminised and lowest-paid sectors in Europe. 

The Strategy acknowledges that stereotypes about women’s supposedly »natural« caregiving skills – including empathy, patience and communication – may depress wages and undermine recognition. It also stresses that men must equally be seen as capable caregivers, both at home and in professional settings. To address this and as an anti-stereotyping measure, the Commission has pledged communication campaigns and encouraged Member States to promote a fairer division of unpaid care work. 

But this creates the problem that by focusing narrowly on stereotypical gender roles, the Strategy risks missing the structural roots of inequality. Information and communication campaigns may raise awareness, but they do little to change the underlying power dynamics that keep care work undervalued, precarious and racialised. 

Invisible inequalities 

Beyond gender, care is also shaped by class and migration. Across Europe, a considerable proportion of paid domestic and care work is performed by migrant women, often in precarious conditions with limited labour protections. The Strategy briefly acknowledges this reality, noting that migration can help to fill labour shortages in long-term care. Nevertheless, it frames this primarily from an economic standpoint, in terms of ‘attract talent’ from outside the EU, rather than as a matter of rights and justice.

This mercantilist take on migration risks reinforcing a kind of neocolonial division of labour: European households and institutions outsource care to racialised women from the Global South or Eastern Europe, whose work is undervalued and invisibilised. 

The paradox of anti-stereotype action 

The EU’s approach creates a paradox. On one hand, the idea is to break down stereotypes by encouraging men to share care duties and by recognising that caregiving skills are not »innately« female. On the other hand, it entrenches old stereotypes by treating migrant women as a reserve army of cheap labour that can be used to sustain Europe’s care systems. In short, it tackles gender stereotypes in theory, while reinforcing racialised and class-based stereotypes in practice. As feminist scholars argue, stereotypes are not merely individual prejudices but tools of power, mechanisms that reproduce hierarchies of gender, race and class. By ignoring this, EU discourse obscures the systemic discrimination at play. 

Moreover, by reducing discrimination to the persistence of stereotypes, the EU risks confusing correlation with causation. Stereotypes do not represent the root of inequality; they are outcomes of entrenched systems of power. Campaigns alone cannot dismantle these systems. Structural measures are needed: fair wages, stronger labour protections, investment in public services and recognition of the intersectional dimensions of care work. 

Towards a structural and intersectional approach 

What would a more transformative approach look like? First, the EU should move beyond communication campaigns and adopt binding measures to improve working conditions in the care sector. This includes valuing caregiving skills properly in wage structures and ensuring access to labour rights and protections for domestic and care workers, many of whom are migrants. 

Second, policymakers must embrace an intersectional perspective. Care inequalities are intrinsically linked to gender, class and migrant/national hierarchies that determine who receives care and who provides it. Ignoring these dynamics perpetuates the very inequalities the EU seeks to address. Care is a broader societal responsibility, and thus it should concern all actors, specially the state, public administrations and companies. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the voices of care workers themselves, especially migrant women, must be at the centre of policymaking. Their associations and unions have fought for recognition, dignity, and fair conditions for decades. They know better than anyone the daily realities of discrimination and the reforms needed to change them. 

Beyond rhetoric 

The European Care Strategy is an important step in bringing care to the heart of EU policymaking. But without a shift from rhetoric to structural action, its promises may well remain hollow. Fighting stereotypes is not enough if policies continue to depend on precarious, racialised labour. Care is not just a private burden or an economic sector, but a collective responsibility and cornerstone of social justice. For the EU to live up to its values of equality and dignity, it must ensure that those who provide care – so essential to our societies – are finally recognised, protected and empowered.