24/06/2026 Session
PACE expressed concern today at the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes throughout public communication spaces, including the press, radio and television, as well as online platforms and social networks.
Too often trivialised and tolerated under the banner of freedom of expression, gender stereotypes are a barrier to gender equality, undermine women’s empowerment, and damage boys and men by presenting them with stereotypes of male roles to which they feel pressure to conform, the parliamentarians emphasised.
These stereotypes are often exacerbated by intersectionality, they noted, with women from racialised groups and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women being disproportionally targeted, adding that transgender women were victims of severe forms of stereotyping.
Adopting a resolution based on the report by Yevheniia Kravchuk (Ukraine, ALDE), PACE proposed a set of measures to eliminate gender stereotypes in the media, covering education, co-operation with civil society, online platforms and technology companies, as well as research and data collection.
It proposed, in particular, developing media literacy programmes at all education levels, and incorporating into school curricula “a critical analysis of gender stereotypes across traditional and digital media”.
Furthermore, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends nationwide public awareness campaigns – with a focus on youth – and that social media platforms design “transparent and updated community standards prohibiting gender-based harassment and sexist hate speech”.
Finally, the adopted resolution urges media organisations, journalists’ associations, the advertising sector and other cultural industries to “adopt codes of ethics and self-regulatory mechanisms explicitly discouraging gender stereotyping and sexist representations”.