This contribution examines EU citizenship as a ‘market’ and gendered notion and explores how these two dimensions are interlinked as they build on and reinforce each other with exclusionary effects that limit the scope of EU citizenship as a fundamental status. The normative model underpinning EU citizenship has been criticized as ‘market citizenship’ and described as exclusionary of those who are not rich or failing to engage with the market via employment or self-employment. The case law of the European Court of Justice suggests that quite a number of those affected by EU citizenship’s market orientation are women, prompting questions as to how and why EU law constrains and shapes the capacity of women to exercise their EU citizenship rights. By undertaking a critical analysis of the recent EU citizenship jurisprudence from a gender perspective this contribution shows that EU citizenship is not only a ‘market citizenship’ that attaches value primarily to work and financial self-sufficiency but also a gendered construct and that the two reinforce each other in limiting the reach of EU citizenship.