Policy Brief No. 2. Gender Equality and Religious Freedom: Alternative Methods for Managing the Conflict

• Pages: 17-23
• Author: Montserrat Gas-Aixendri

TARGET AUDIENCE

Technical sta of public administrations (local, regional and national), public policy ocials, legis-

lators, legal practitioners, and professionals working in international bodies in the elds of equality,

human rights and diversity management.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Gender equality and freedom of religion are fundamental rights of equal rank that often generate

tensions in the European public sphere. The most recurrent conicts arise in relation to the internal

organisation of religious denominations, ecclesiastical records in the event of changes in gender iden-

tity, and religious speech on sexual morality.

Exclusive reliance on anti-discrimination law and criminal law to resolve these conicts shows se-

rious limitations and may, paradoxically, aggravate polarisation. Protecting one right does not re-

quire weakening the protection of the other. This policy brief advocates a complementary approach

based on alternative methods of conict management: dialogue, good practices, mediation and edu -

cation.

The recommended policies are framed within the 2030 Agenda and contribute to SDGs 4, 5 and 16.

KEY POLICY QUESTION

How can public administrations manage conicts between gender equality and religious freedom in

ways that protect both rights without eroding state neutrality or the autonomy of religious denomi-

nations?

17

GENDER EQUALITY AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE 2030 AGENDA:

TEN POLICY BRIEFS

Francisca Pérez-Madrid (coord.)

Dykinson, Madrid, 2026

POLICY BRIEF

GENDER EQUALITY AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM:

ALTERNATIVE METHODS FOR MANAGING THE CONFLICT

Montserrat Gas-Aixendri

Full Professor of Law, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

1

THE POLICY

PROBLEM

Gender equality and freedom of religion enjoy the same constitutional status in the

European and international legal order. Both express human dignity and both are pi-

llars of democratic pluralism. Yet over recent decades their coexistence has generated

growing conicts that public administrations must manage with caution.

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993) arms the universality, in-

divisibility and interdependence of all human rights: no abstract hierarchy may be es-

tablished among them. However, legislative and judicial practice reveals a tendency to

prioritise gender equality without suciently balanced justication, which may infrin-

ge the institutional autonomy of religious denominations and erode state neutrality.

A frequently overlooked aspect is the specic situation of women within religious com-

munities: limited access to leadership roles records that do not recognize changes in

gender identity or disciplinary rules that disproportionately aect women rarely reach