Cabinet Ministers are holding a special meeting this morning to mark International Women's Day.
They are expected to pass an agreement which requires EU countries to prosecute people who carry out violence against women.
Ireland signed up to the Istanbul Convention in 2015, but it still hasn't been ratified.
It comes as a new European Commission report shows the number of women working across the EU has reached an all-time high.
However, the situation is different across Member States.
Last year, eight received recommendations to improve participation by women in the labour market - these included Austria, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Slovakia.
Women are more at risk of poverty, with salaries around 16% lower than for men - this leads to the pension gap, which stood at 35.7 % in 2017.
They also remain largely under-represented in Parliaments and government.
Only 6 of the 28 national parliaments across the EU are led by a woman and seven out of ten members of national parliaments in the EU are men.
