Georgia’s Law on Gender Equality, adopted in 2010, was renamed and amended in April 2025: the term “gender” was removed from it and from related laws and replaced with “equality between women and men”, and the obligation to maintain gender equality councils in Parliament, the autonomous republics and municipalities was abolished. Supporters describe the change as aligning terminology with the Constitution; critics, including the European Commission, see it as a setback. This analysis focuses on what it means for women’s equality at work, where gaps in participation and pay remain large.
Key Findings
- On 2 April 2025, Parliament adopted in third reading, with 80 votes, amendments replacing “gender equality” with “equality of men and women” in the title and text of the law and removing the requirement for gender equality councils at national, autonomous-republic and municipal level (Parliament of Georgia, 2025).
- The bill’s sponsors stated that the change aligns terminology with traditional legal concepts and with the principle of equality between women and men recognised by the Constitution (Parliament of Georgia, 2025; Georgia Today, 2025).
- The European Commission’s 2025 report on Georgia describes the changes, together with the abolition of electoral gender quotas in 2024, as backsliding on gender equality (EU Neighbours East, 2025).
- Women’s labour force participation was 44.2% in 2025, against 66.3% for men, and the adjusted gender pay gap was 11.4% per hour and 19.3% per month in 2024 (Geostat).
- In November 2025, a parliamentary commission recommended that agencies also replace “gender” in policy documents and budget processes (Parliament of Georgia, 2025).
1. Introduction
Georgia’s 2010 Law on Gender Equality established a framework for equal rights and opportunities for women and men, including in employment, and created institutional mechanisms such as gender equality councils. The 2025 amendments changed its terminology and removed some of those mechanisms. This analysis asks what these changes mean for equality at work, setting out the positions of both supporters and critics.
2. What Changed
| Element | Change |
|---|---|
| Title and terminology | “Gender equality” replaced with “equality between women and men”; definition of “gender” removed |
| Related legislation | “Gender” replaced with “women and men” or “sex” across related laws (a package of amendments to 15 related acts, according to a shadow report to the Council of Europe) |
| Institutions | Obligation to establish gender equality councils in Parliament, autonomous republics and municipalities abolished |
| Budget | Parliament’s Gender Equality Council budget of GEL 50,000 redirected to other structures |
Sources: Parliament of Georgia (2025); Georgia Today (2025); Social Justice Center (2025); Council of Europe shadow report (n.d.).
3. Women at Work: The Evidence
Women’s participation in the labour force is more than 20 points below men’s, and fell by 0.7 points in 2025. Women earn about two-thirds of men’s average monthly earnings, and the adjusted gap — after accounting for differences in jobs and characteristics — remains around 11% per hour (see GILS analysis of the gender pay gap). Women are concentrated in lower-paid sectors such as education and health, and carry most unpaid care work.
4. Discussion
The supporters’ view
The sponsors argue that the term “gender” was introduced under foreign influence, that “sex” and “gender” are synonyms in Georgian legal usage, and that the principle of equality between women and men, as set out in the Constitution, is preserved. The Prime Minister stated that there is no difference between the two concepts (JAMnews, 2025). The Rules Committee chair said Parliament and local governments should remain fully committed to equality between women and men (Parliament of Georgia, 2025).
The critics’ view
Civil society organisations argue that the amendments strip the law of substantive content and that abolishing the councils removes institutional capacity to monitor equality (Social Justice Center, 2025). The European Commission links the changes and the 2024 abolition of electoral quotas to a negative impact on women’s political participation (EU Neighbours East, 2025).
The labour dimension
For workers, the most important equality rules are in the Labour Code — including the 2020 equal pay provision and anti-discrimination chapter — and in the anti-discrimination law, which the 2025 amendments did not repeal. The practical question is whether the loss of dedicated institutions, such as municipal equality councils, weakens monitoring and policy on issues like childcare, care work and pay gaps that shape women’s employment. Whatever terminology is used, these gaps remain measurable and large.
5. Conclusion
The 2025 amendments changed the language and institutions of Georgia’s equality law amid strong political disagreement. They did not change the underlying labour market facts: women participate less, earn less and face structural barriers. Equality policy at work — on pay transparency, childcare and equal pay for work of equal value — remains necessary whatever the law’s title.
GILS Recommendations
- Maintain dedicated institutional capacity to monitor women’s equality at work, at national and municipal level.
- Continue publishing sex-disaggregated labour statistics, including the adjusted pay gap.
- Strengthen equal pay provisions to cover work of equal value.
- Expand childcare and parental leave to raise women’s participation.
GILS Position
GILS takes no position on the political dispute over terminology. Our concern is outcomes: women’s participation and pay in Georgia lag men’s by wide margins, and policy should be judged by whether it closes those gaps.
References
- Parliament of Georgia (2025). Parliament adopting the Draft Law on Gender Equality for the III reading. 2 April 2025. parliament.ge
- Parliament of Georgia (2025). Parliament endorsing amendments to Law on Gender Equality in I reading. 4 March 2025. parliament.ge
- Parliament of Georgia (2025). Interim Commission on Women and Children Affairs discussed the recommendation regarding the term “equality between men and women”. 17 November 2025. parliament.ge
- Georgia Today (2025). Georgian Dream moves to erase “gender” from legislation. georgiatoday.ge
- JAMnews (2025). Georgian parliament backs removal of term “gender” from legislation in first reading. jam-news.net
- Social Justice Center (2025). The removal of the concepts and principles of gender and gender equality from legislation will worsen the situation of women. socialjustice.org.ge
- EU Neighbours East (2025). Georgia 2025 Progress Report (European Commission) — summary. euneighbourseast.eu
- Council of Europe (n.d.). Shadow report on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Georgia. rm.coe.int
Suggested citation: GILS Research Team (2026). Georgia’s Equality Law After the 2025 Amendments. Editor: G. Pkhakadze. Georgian Institute of Labour Studies, Tbilisi. labour.edu.ge
GILS analyses are prepared with AI-assisted drafting. All figures and claims are verified against the cited primary sources and reviewed under the responsibility of the Editor.