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European Commission
Directorate-General for Education and Culture
ISSUE 25 2005EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN EUROPEThe Magazine
ISSN 1023-3725
EUROPE:beyond gender
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Directorate-General for Education and Culture
European Commission, B-1049 Brussels Tel. (32-2) 299 11 11 Fax (32-2) 295 01 38
Education and Culture DG, Fax (32-2) 296 42 59 e-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_cu lture/index_en .htm
Edited by: Jaime Andreu Romeo
Coordination: Frank Pierobon and Jean Jauniaux
Graphic design and illustration: Rumeurs and Mostra communication, Brussels The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Commission.
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005 European Communities, 2005 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium
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Foreword
Towards a more egalitariansociety as regards gender
What the new Constitution couldoffer women and men in Europe
The school of equality
Gender equality, a subject of study and research
The words to say it
Migrant father, missing father?
Women as senior executives:the right vocational training
Technical training courses case studies
@lfa-bet@ or how to teachmigrant women the numerical approach
Soccerlingua: scoring goals
The voice of women
WWW Women Writers Words
Meetings without borders
New Europe, new equality, new citizenship
Girls in the scrum
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Foreword
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Dear reader,
For Europe and Europeans, equality between women and men is a fundamental right provided
for under Article 23 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which was
solemnly proclaimed in Nice in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council and the
Commission. It is also enshrined in the EC Treaty, which states under Article 3 that, in all its
activities, the Community shall aim to eliminate inequalities and to promote equality between
men and women.
The Constitution supports our efforts to promote gender equality and non-discrimination by
giving an added impulse, as the new Article 3 refines the existing Treaty duty to state that the
European Union shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote socialjustice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and
protection of the rights of the child.
This duty is particularly relevant for the policy areas under my responsibility: education, vocational
training, youth, culture, citizenship and multilingualism. Therefore, the Directorate-General for Education
and Culture has been ensuring that the European programmes supporting transnational projects in these
domains play an important role in addressing discrimination in all its forms. The nature of our policies and
activities puts us in the front lines of the battle for equality between women and men, and non-
discrimination in general.
As the classic author Charlotte Bront put it, Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate
from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education; they grow there, firm as
weeds among rocks. Our aim has always been that the European programmes fertilise the heart of each
citizen with the values of tolerance.
All European programmes have the promotion of equal opportunities as a core principle. A large number
of projects promoting equal opportunities and combating discrimination have been financed under these
programmes, from Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci to Youth, Citizenship and Culture 2000. Some of them
are illustrated in this magazine. I hope they will be a source of inspiration for concrete actions in the areas
you are working in.
I wish you an enjoyable read of our twenty-fifth edition of the Education and Culture magazine,
Equality between womenand men in Europe
Jn Figel'
Commissionerfor Education,Training, Cultureand Multilingualism
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Equality between men and women was at the heart of a great
many social and political struggles in postwar Europe. It was
an indicator of a decisive evolution in civil society in several
European countries. This evolution was independent of the
European integration process, but it goes without saying that
discrimination between the sexes like all discrimination
is contradictory to the principles and values at the heart
of the European project. Furthermore, this type of discrimination
would hamper and hinder the most central policies in the
current, historical phase of the European Union, aimed at
inspiring a spirit of economic and social renewal across the
continent. However, we cannot hope for any significant and
durable change without the participation of the women of
European society. Without women, without their contribution
to employment, their creativity and their participation in
politics, Europe will not be able to achieve the ambitious
programme of reforms planned for the current decade.
Discrimination against women constitutes an obstacle to
a flourishing democracy in the European Union and a waste
of talent, energy and motivation.
In numerous legislative texts and in a good number of
political debates, equality between men and women, also
called gender equality, is already prominent. However, men
and women are not, in fact, remunerated, valued or perceived
on an equal basis, and this long-standing situation is
becoming increasingly less acceptable.
There is still a lot of ground to be covered between the
principles and the reality. This path must start in education,
at all levels, and continue through culture, politics and society
as a whole. Of course, undeniable progress has been made in
many respects, but certain disparities remain, perpetuated by
deep-rooted resistance.
European society is evolving slowly and surely under its own
steam. The balance of power and values between the sexes
seems to be evening out.
These basic trends are highlighted in numerous statistical
analyses. In its February 2005 report on equality between
men and women (1), the European Commission emphasised
this development by collecting information in the areas of
employment, education and social life in the 25 European Union
Member States. The overall result was that disparities between
men and women seem to be waning.
In particular, the rate of employment is continuing to increase
and now covers 55.1 % of women. However, an average wage
difference of 15 % in favour of men continues to prevail in the
enlarged Union. Before enlargement, this percentage was 16 %.
This situation is partly explained by the higher proportion of
women in part-time employment (30.6 %) than men (6.6 %).
Furthermore, part-time employment is less common in the new
Member States owing to the rigidity of the labour market and the
lower levels of pay. Although unemployment increased only
slightly in 2004, there is still a significant gap between women
(10 %) and men (8.7 %).
Reconciling family and professional commitments in daily life
remains a major preoccupation for women. The rate of
employment of mothers with young children is 13.6 points lower
than that of women without children. As the Commissions report
points out, this is the result of limited access to childcare and
gender stereotyped family patterns. Indeed, women perform the
major part of the domestic work and consequently have more
limited time for paid work. Men do less than 40 % of all domestic
work and between 25 % and 35 % of childcare work in couples
with children aged up to six years.
If we then look at the world of education, the disparity in the
respective participation of women and men is even greater, but in
the opposite sense. According to the same report, women still
outnumber men in education. The percentage of women with a
diploma in higher education increased to 58 % of the total
student population in 2003, if we take into account the high level
of education in the new Member States.
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(1) Report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, theEuropean Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regionson equality between women and men, COM (2005) 44, 14 February 2005.
, b g h n m l k c v x ., b g m n m l k c vg , j h l g g
Towards a more
egalitarian
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gender
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A fundamental challenge
The European Union has long been committed to promoting
gender equality as much in its internal policies as in the
international arena. During the fourth World Womens
Conference, which was held in Beijing in 1995, a certain number
of facts were presented that called for decisive action. At the 10thanniversary of the Beijing conference, the European Parliament
assessed the situation in a resolution and encouraged both the
Member States and the European institutions to go even further
in order to fully take into account the gender dimension, notably
in European education, training, and health policies and in the
fight against social exclusion.
For its part, the European Commission devised a Community
framework strategy (2) in 2000 founded on a dual approach: the
integration of the gender dimension in all Community policies
and activities (gender mainstreaming), and setting up specific
actions specifically targeting gender equality. It is also based on
three major points: raising awareness, collecting precise data andstrengthening collaboration between all the players concerned.
Through this strategy, the Commission is encouraging gender
equality in five areas: economic life, political and social life,
civil society and, finally, the fight against stereotypes.
Given that women are underemployed, the primary and most
important area of focus is the world of work, where we must
endeavour to reduce the differences in wages and improve the
rate of employment amongst women. This will require an even
greater effort given that the women who are the most affected
(especially if they have children) are from regions where
unemployment is increasing.
Because there are fewer women higher up the hierarchical ladder,
the second area concerns in particular decision-making, in
political and economic life, with a view to ensuring a better
promotion of equal participation and representation as regards
women in decision-making bodies.
In order to encourage the balance between personal life and the
world of work, promoting the full exercise of social rights takes
us back to a desire to improve the implementation of Community
legislation, in particular as regards social welfare, parental leave,
maternity protection and career development. The civil life
section concerns the fight against violence linked to sex and the
crackdown on trafficking in women. Finally, stress is placed on theneed for a change in the roles and stereotypes linked to sex.
The 200005 framework strategy was extended until 2006,
and the Commission has included the funding programme for
gender equality in a broader social programme entitled Progress
which will begin in 2007 in line with the start of new programmes
concerning education and training. Furthermore, the Commission
presented a proposal (3
) to the European Parliament and theCouncil for the creation of a European Gender Institute, whose
task it will be to gather information and create a reliable database
and to support the action of the European Union in the long term.
Through its programmes in the sectors of education, training,
youth, culture, citizenship and multilingualism, the Directorate-
General for Education and Culture plays a strategic role in the
elimination of sexist stereotypes and the promotion of respect for
differences in other people. Moreover, the promotion of gender
equality is one of the objectives of programmes such as Socrates,
Leonardo da Vinci and Youth. On a policy level, for instance, the
aim is to strengthen the qualification level of women and
strengthen the participation of women in scientific and technicalfields and those linked to the new technologies, all areas that
remain male bastions. Encouraging women to embrace scientific
vocations, despite generally accepted ideas, will not only help
them to blossom intellectually and professionally, but also
provides a response to Europes shortage of qualified scientists at
a time when it is committed to becoming a knowledge-based
society.
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(2) See the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Councilamending Council Decis ion No 51/2001/EC establishing a programme relating tothe Community framework strategy on gender equality and Decision No
848/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Com-munity action programme to promote organisations active at European level inthe field of equality between men and women [COM (2004) 551, 19 August2004].
(3) Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation concerning the crea-tion of a European Institute for Equality between Men and Women [COM (2005)81, 14 February 2005].
m x n j h k g , j h l g gm n j h k g , j h l g g, b g h n m l k c v .
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T
he achievements made by the Community in terms of
equality are already considerable. Equality between women
and men is a principle of Community law that expressesa true basic right, as confirmed by the European Court of
Justice. This principle of law, which is enforced in all areas
governed by the Community, had led to positive action; it is
enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was
adopted in Nice, and serves as a reference for judges and
legislators in interpreting the law and decision-making. Indeed
the principle of gender equality has been a common thread
running through all Community policy since the Treaty of
Amsterdam, which also included specific measures relating to
wage equality and equal treatment in employment and work.
The Charter of Nice also states the need to reconcile professional
and family life, which translates into a large number of social
rights, all of which are decisive tools in helping to evolvetowards true equality. Furthermore, numerous rules of secondary
legislation (hard law as well as soft law) amplify and reinforce
the Community standard of equality and provide the necessary
framework for a social acquis that is already considered as
a hallmark of our Europe.
This acquiscomplements other existing regulations concerning
equality between women and men, present in the international
treaties ratified by the Union or the Member States. Should the
standard recommended in the Charter of Fundamental Rights be
less extensive than that set out in these other regulations, the
Charter itself stipulates that the furthest-reaching provision
must prevail. This provides Europe with a highly efficient legaltool as regards equality between women and men.
The drafting of the European Constitution provided an
opportunity to act on two fronts to better emphasise equality
between women and men. On the one hand, it was necessary to
maintain the existing acquisand, on the other, this had to be
improved by writing new laws on gender as well as furtherspecifying the legal guarantees contained in all regulations
governing gender equality.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to obtain all of this from
the Convention on the future of Europe, even though a major
battle was waged by the Commission and the European
Parliament and by womens organisations. The Convention, in
which only 17 % of the seats were held by women, showed great
resistance, not only to the incorporation of new rights, but also
to maintaining a Community acquisthat, in the final phase of
its work, it finally agreed to keep. It was only at the level of the
intergovernmental conference that the text was enriched with
the most significant new items, in particular the mention ofequality between women and men in Article I-2 of the
Constitution. By examining what figures in the text with regard
to gender equality, and what emerges from an interpretation of
all of the Constitutions texts in these terms, we can see an
improvement if we take into consideration the following
remarks:
> The Constitution maintains the Community acquis
concerning equality between women and men, as well as the
above-mentioned regulations. Between this statutory corpus
and the objective of equality between women and men that
the Union has set itself in all its policies, the issue of gender
equality has taken on a whole new dimension that hasfurther increased with the enlargement of the Union and the
adoption of a new legal framework for external action as well
as the disappearance of the former pillars, which have been
transformed in the Constitution into Community policies.
Prof. Teresa Freixes
Professor of Constitutional Law
(Independent University of Barcelona)
Jean Monnet Chair for European Constitutional Law
EU network of independent experts in fundamental rights
What the new Constitution
could offer women
and men in Europe
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> The new Constitution tackles very specific new areas such as
the fight against the trade in humans, focusing especially on
the trade in women and children and sexual exploitation.Similarly, the need to combat all forms of domestic violence
and to do everything possible at Member State level to prevent
and crack down on these criminal acts and help and protect
the victims is proclaimed in a declaration annexed to the
Constitution.
> The Constitution has added several general clauses to the
Charter of Fundamental Rights. Henceforth, it will be
necessary to refer to these clauses to precisely determine the
constitutionally appropriate interpretation of all of the
fundamental rights, which naturally include gender equality.
Of course, the distinction between rights and principles
with reference to the explanations that the Presidium willgive on the Charter, and requested by the Convention for the
future of Europe may hinder that interpretation favouring
the highest standard regarding equality between women and
men with a view to aligning the underlying social rights and
actual equality itself. The principle of the single and
systematic interpretation of the constitutional text may,
in this sense, provide a suitable response to the needs of
equality.
> The Constitution states that equality between women and
men is a characteristic of European society and this initial
claim, in Article I-2 concerning the Unions values, allows us to
interpret this equality as also covering the gender dimension.Indeed equality is not defined as such as a strict value and its
content remains to be identified through the reference made
to it in all of the Constitutions texts. In other words, equality
between women and men is set out in the Constitution as a
legal structure, as the Unions objective, as a fundamental
right (including positive actions) and, finally, as a common
thread running through the Communitys policies; it can alsobe found in those parts of the text concerning the world of
work, migration policy and external action. We can therefore
claim on this basis that equality between women and men also
constitutes one of the Unions fundamental values, under the
general title ofequalityand is thus protected by the sanction
procedure of Article I-59. This legal expression of equality
between women and men is in fact the principal new item in
the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
, b g h n m l m
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The world of education and training is one of the places in
which we can most clearly observe the problems, prejudices
and preconceived ideas concerning the respective roles of
men and women in European society. Thus, whilst women make
up the majority of students aged between 20 and 24 (55 % in
2004), and generally obtain better results, there are no more than
20 % in the teaching profession at university level (according to
data collected in 2002).
The stereotypes persist, both as regards the supposedly male
character of scientific research and the male stranglehold on all
forms of power (of which the control of knowledge is clearly
part). Therefore, we can see a severe imbalance in the technical,
technological and scientific subjects, which girls still tend to
neglect. There are two to four times as many male students
studying scientific and technical disciplines, although a more
in-depth analysis would show great disparities within these
specialisations themselves. There are far more women following
technical training for professions in healthcare and the
environment than in IT, for instance; this leads us to believe that
this is due to the continuous portrayal of certain domains as
characteristically male technology, industry or female services, healthcare.
For as long as women do not feel accepted in these domains,
which are strategic for the development and prosperity of
European society, this imbalance will continue to exacerbate the
lack of students in science subjects and will consequently reduce
the potential for innovation and scientific research in the Union.
This is why the Council of Ministers of Education agreed in 2003,
amongst the decisions taken within the framework of the Lisbon
strategy (March 2000), to increase the total number of students
qualified in mathematics, sciences and technology by 15 % by
2010 and, at the same time, reduce the gender imbalance. The
objective, established by the Stockholm European Council in2001, is to attract 100 000 new female students each year so that
they represent 15 % of graduates in these disciplines in Europes
25 Member States in 2015. These guidelines are based on a range
of common objectives to be achieved by 2010 (1) and henceforth
constitute the framework for political cooperation at Community
level as regards education and training. The question of equality
is one of the key objectives of this new political framework and
the work programme that underpins its implementation.
The education ministers have undertaken to fully integrate the
dimension of equal opportunities into the objectives and
workings of education and training, and to ensure fair access to
the acquisition of skills for the underprivileged and those who,for the time being, do not fully benefit under the existing
systems. In order to ensure that these commitments are
implemented in reality and encourage the exchange of good
practices between Member States, the concrete progress achieved
at national level in this domain will be regularly assessed through
follow-up reports on the implementation of the Lisbon objectives.
The specific tools of the Socrates and
Leonardo da Vinci programmes
These programmes endeavour to fight against exclusion in all its
guises: they naturally aim to promote equality between men andwomen, just as Community cooperation at political level is
devoted to doing. The Socrates programme, which is dedicated to
education, and the Leonardo da Vinci programme, devoted to
vocational training, are two important strategic instruments in
the promotion of equal opportunities. Their strength is derived
from the fact that they act as closely to the field as possible,
directly involving players from the world of education and
training through cross-border exchange and mobility projects.
Each of the projects that these programmes support must outline
at every stage in their development (conception, implementation,
assessment) how gender equality is taken into account and
promoted.
The Community programmes Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci offer very concrete opportunities tofurther equality between men and women in the world of education and vocational training.This action, which is essential within the framework of the Lisbon strategy, will reinforce the
expected results of the political cooperation between the Member States. The success of rebalancingthe genders, both as regards education and the world of work, relies on the active participationof all concerned. The positive results already obtained provide us with a glimpse of all that stillremains to be done.
(1) For more information on the implementation of the Lisbon strategy inthe areas of education and training:http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/2010/et_2010_en.html
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Why study gender issues? This is the first question we asked
Marlise Mensink, coordinator of the Athena network.
Marlise Mensink: The gender dimension comes up time and
again in the life of a society just as it does in the personal sphere
of each individual. It is present in the world of work, in issues
concerning public health, in cultural frameworks, etc., with
consequences for individual identity. Gender studies allow us to
approach this dimension in a scientific manner. By explaining the
mechanisms according to which identity and individual roles are
built socially, such studies provide useful information for society.
The findings of our research allow us to objectively compare
situations over periods of time and in different geographicalregions, and this could prove to be of great help within the
framework of a policy to promote equal opportunities.
Is the situation the same across Europe?
Historically, the Scandinavian countries were the first in Europe
to devise, set up and recognise study programmes on women and
gender at university level. On this basis, similar programmes were
set up in the rest of Europe, but the idea has not yet been
accepted everywhere. Significant residual resistance remains.
We must fight every day to have this kind of study recognised as
a discipline in itself. In this respect and generally speaking,
I am not convinced that the university environment really plays
a driving role as regards equal opportunities.
One of Athenas tasks is to measure the consequences of
the Bologna process for studies dedicated to gender...
The initial results of our survey concern 74 universities in
26 countries. This year, 41 of these partners are offering
a masters degree in gender studies. The remaining universities
blame delays in setting up the system, but the cause is sometimes
a lack of clarity in the recommendations of the institution
concerned. Masters degrees in the domain of gender studies are
offered through programmes in different disciplines, although
this is in fact essentially an interdisciplinary issue. Some of the
study programmes offered focus on practice and others,
of course, research. The main disciplines that include gender
studies programmes are the social sciences, sociology andanthropology, as well as equal opportunities itself, social work
and even the arts, literature, political science, history,
international relations, European studies, education, psychology
and theology. Although the transition has taken place quite
easily in certain universities, it is necessary to take into account
the real risk that gender studies might not be perceived as an
individual discipline. And that is worrying insofar as this situation
makes it particularly difficult to disseminate and exchange
certain data and the results of various pieces of research.
The Athena network groups together approximately 100 higher
education institutions located in 30 countries. Through this
synergy, it aims to stimulate cooperation and debate
regarding the analysis of various issues in society linked
to gender problems. Coordinated by the University of
Utrecht in the Netherlands, this thematic network
is supported by the Erasmus action within the
framework of the Socrates programme.
, b g h n m l k c v x ., b g h n m l k c v x
, b g h n m l k c v x . mGender equality,a subject of study and research
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Apart from the Bologna process, which major issues is the
Athena network dealing with at the moment?
First of all, it is strengthening the links between university
teaching and research through the development and
improvement of European courses at doctorate level, a theme we
are paying particular attention to this year. We must also
continue to build bridges between academia and the rest of
society. This is why we encourage cooperation with study and
documentation centres on womens positions in society, public
libraries and organisations that run training courses for women.
We also dedicate work seminars to certain precise themes, such as
public health, in order to supply the debate with research results.
The network organises conferences and training courses andproduces publications (The making of European women's studies
series). We are also organising Noise, a summer school that is
taking place in Barcelona in 2005, as well as meetings within the
framework of our student network the Athena Student Forum,
which gives students from a large number of countries the
opportunity to exchange their thoughts on major issues
concerning women. Furthermore, a host of information on the
various actions of our workshops can be found on our website
(http://www.athena2.org).
Contact
Athena: Advanced Network
in Activities in Womens Studies in Europe
Athena Central Coordination
c/o International Office Womens Studies
Utrecht University, Faculty of Arts
Muntstraat 2A 3512 EV Utrecht, The Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.athena2.org
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x n j h k g , j h l g g
. m x n j h k g , j h
kj
Athena
Athena
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Schoolbooks convey a large
number of female and male
stereotypes, reflecting a
traditional sociological reality without
fully taking into account the evolution
of roles, identities and customs.
In order to encourage people to think
about the continued existence of
these preconceptions and commonplaceideas, the Polite project is working
on raising the awareness of publishers
and authors of school publications
worldwide as to gender issues.
This project, which benefits from
the support of the association of
publishers and the Italian department
for equal opportunities, is supported
by the Socrates programmes
Comenius action.
After reviewing the most common
textbooks in use, the Italian sponsors
of the Polite project (Pari opportunit nei
libri di testo or Equal Opportunities and
Textbooks) drafted an ethical code
according to which publishers of
textbooks agree to focus particularly on
the development of gender identity and
the culture of equal opportunities asdecisive aspects in the education of
people in training, whatever their gender.
The publishers have access to a variety
of tools developed by the Polite project,
in particular a handbook which outlines
various available teaching media that
meet with equal opportunities criteria.
This handbook, entitled Knowledge and
freedom Male and female in textbooks,
schools and life, is available on the
projects website (http://www.aie.it/polite).
Still today, bringing up the children within the family
remains the exclusive domain of women particularly
within migrant families. Fathers do not perceivethemselves as playing an active role in the upbringing of
their children, states Elfi Thurow, coordinator of the
Committed Fathers project. Thanks to pilot experiments
conducted in seven countries, this project, supported
by the Socrates programme's Grundtvig action, is
encouraging fathers to get more involved.
Making fathers more sensitive to how their children are brought
up may help them to make current models less rigid and existing
roles more flexible, both at an individual and social level, Elfi
Thurow believes. Supported by the Grundtvig action, which
encourages lifelong forms of adult education, the Committed
Fathers project has attempted over two years to identify efficientforms of dialogue with a view to making migrant fathers aware
of the part they can and must play in order to provide their
children with a successful upbringing. Ten organisations have set
up pilot projects in seven countries (Austria, the United Kingdom,
Romania, Poland, Germany, Italy and Spain). In seeking to
perfect a system of teaching that particularly addresses fathers,
our approach also aimed at improving democracy between the
sexes in these families. But the question was how to reach this
target group. At the beginning of the operation, we were not at
all sure that people would understand us. But after two years of
work, I believe that the project has met the challenge with great
success, states Elfi Thurow.
Meetings in a tearoom
The approaches used in the seven different countries were
adapted according to situation. In Cologne (Germany) for
instance, the health centre for migrants targeted fathers of
Turkish origin, seeking to make contact with them by organising
seminars and meetings in mosques and tearooms. During thesemeetings, different themes concerning, for instance, the role of
parents and child development were broached, including the
problems of drug and alcohol dependency in teenagers.
In Florence (Italy), the project endeavoured to encourage the
husbands of pregnant women to take greater responsibility for
the preparations for the birth. In Barcelona (Spain), the focus was
placed on improving the contact between fathers and the schools
their children went to, through cultural mediators and the
organisation of extracurricular events. Other initiatives were
undertaken in Graz (Austria) seminars on the respective
structures of the education system and the family, with the
emphasis on the role of the father as well as in Manchester,
where men recorded traditional stories and tales for childrenwithin the framework of activities that allowed the involvement
of both fathers and children. In Poland and Romania, discussions
on intra-family relations made it possible to identify and
sometimes go beyond traditional automatic reflexes and become
aware of the stakes of parental upbringing and the consequences
of certain types of behaviour.
In the end, we managed to reach fathers originally from some
20 countries, from Iran to the Congo to Russia, says Birgit
Oberhofer, whose school for adults, PBW, based in Cologne,
headed the European project. Each initiative involved a detailed
analysis of the methods and results it was able to gather. All this
information allowed us to highlight the linguistic, cultural,religious, administrative and practical factors that can be
problematic in the way in which these fathers live out their role.
Amongst all the operations carried out in these different
The
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The
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countries with a view to interacting with migrant fathers,
we were able not only to find a large number of differences and
specific characteristics but also major abiding features; and thisconfirmed our conviction that in all cases, cultural mediation and
cooperation with migrant organisations are crucial in helping
fathers fulfil their role.
Community associations
These sorts of actions would be worthless if the migrants
themselves did not get involved. This is a prerequisite for greater
mutual understanding between the educational institution and
the migrant families. Indeed the children, who are at the centre
of this action, are the ones who suffer the most from being
uprooted, from the often harsh and precarious living conditions
of their parents and the cultural shock they have to overcome toget the best out of their schooling. By involving Community
associations, we have achieved much better results, explains
Birgit Oberhofer. We also had to adapt to the daily routines of
the people we wanted to reach. If the men work all day, how can
you possibly hope that classes organised in the afternoon will
achieve their objective? What we learned through these
experiences was that each time, we have to adapt our method of
communication to the situation at hand, and carefully choose the
place and time for the meetings.
Comprehensive information concerning the pilot project,
including the main broad conclusions, is available on CD-ROM.
This is a long-term job: it is not only about educating the fathers,it is also about making them responsible and bringing them closer
to their children and the latters experiences, because the main
problem is the situation created by immigration itself. Indeed,
children often find it easier to integrate than adults. They adapt
more quickly to the new culture, which also engenders conflicts
in the contrast between this new culture and the values andtraditions of the parents generation.
The multilingual CD-ROM referred to by Birgit Oberhofer was
created within the framework of the project to bring together an
analytical presentation of all the projects that come under the
aegis of Committed Fathers, by showing the underlying
theoretical concepts and offering and critically evaluating
a series of educational tools (1).
Contact
Birgit Oberhofer
Parittisches BildungswerkLandesverband Nordrhein Westfalen e. V.
Loher Str. 7, DE-42283 Wuppertal, Germany
(1) To obtain the CD-ROM, contact: [email protected]
As it includes a series of highly in-depth
analyses on learning with the help of
textbooks, the handbook proposes ideas
that help in understanding the different
ways of approaching the knowledge and
culture of those people in training, who
are not neutral, but female and male.
Like knowledge itself, which is never
neutral either.
Beyond borders
Depending on precise teaching need and
the lessons of individual past experience,
this publication provides inspiration for
all. Amongst its numerous themes,
it offers thoughts on the use of linguistic
forms in the construction of sexuation
or on the psychology of development
and learning. Polite has also made a video
cassette which features examples of
dramatised situations with fictitious
dialogues as a basis for discussion within
the framework of actions to raise
awareness. This tool was presented before
a group of education professionals during
an international conference that included
teachers from Austria, Spain, France,
Ireland and Portugal.
The fight against dropping out and
exclusion from school, specifically
through the promotion of equal
opportunities, is also one of the priorities
of the Comenius action and covers the
entire education cycle from nursery
school to secondary education. It aims
to strengthen quality, the European
dimension, mobility and the teaching
of languages.
Contact
The Polite project website:
http://www.aie.it/polite/
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To encourage top women managers to fully exercisemanagerial positions within the public health sector, the
Swedish region of Vstra Gtaland has introduced new
vocational training methods.
With 49 000 employees, the regional authority of Vstra
Gtaland in the west of Sweden is the countrys
second-biggest employer. The public health sector has
17 hospitals, of which only seven are run by women. Although
women represent 83 % of staff, their numbers become fewer and
fewer the higher up the hierarchical ladder they climb.
To encourage more women to occupy managerial posts,
the Vstra Gtaland department of regional development andhuman resources has set up a certain number of vocational
training projects, which have been earmarked by the Leonardo da
Vinci programme for financial support. Starting in 2002,
the regional government drew inspiration from leadership
methods specifically designed for women and formally set out in
a publication entitled A start guide for attracting and sustaining
women in leadership positions, the fruit of an earlier Leonardo
da Vinci project. The results of this programme were also used by
the Directorate-General for Education and Culture to devise
support actions.
Training adapted to senior women executives
There is considerable demand in Sweden for learning, training
and education throughout working life. A wide range of skills are
offered but they do not meet the specific needs of top managers,
in particular women, says Carina Abru, head of the Women and
Management project for the Vstra Gtaland authorities. The
region of Vstra Gtaland has extended this initial experience by
setting up new training programmes within the Earlall network
the European Association of Regional and Local Authorities for
Lifelong Learning. We have designed a programme aimed at the
acquisition of new skills in areas related to leadership and
management in conjunction with the gender dimension, issues of
internationalisation in the public sector and trans-regionalperspectives, points out Carina Abru. While training allows
people to better understand the psychological motives behind
decision-making and conflict management, it also relies on the
exchange of experiences and the construction of knowledgeexchange networks with female colleagues in partner regions.
Work visits have been organised in Catalonia (Spain), Wales
(United Kingdom) and Tuscany (Italy). This cooperation will allow
us to exchange our knowledge and training methods, while
better pinpointing the difficulties encountered by women who
hope to embark upon a career anchored in their skills and
qualifications. It is a question of using mobility in training
alternated with group meetings to plan and assess the
experiences of colleagues in other countries and plan out one's
own training. All this based on the tools produced by an earlier
Leonardo da Vinci project, entirely supported by the Vstra
Gtaland region.
Following the assessment of this vocational training programme
in the autumn of 2005, the Vstra Gtaland region plans to
concoct a new pilot project in collaboration with six regions from
other countries and several European universities. We are in the
process of developing international cooperation with training
programmes that fully embrace the gender dimension. Our
project uses examples of current managers whose experiences
and competences can help the leaders of tomorrow. This will
enable us to calm the fears encountered in various European
countries and to offset the lack of qualified professionals
including managers and administrators in the healthcare
sector. The public sector must ensure it is able to attract andretain more competent leaders [...] amongst whom numerous
women, concludes Carina Abru.
ContactThe Earlall network: Internet: http://www.earlall.org
Vstra Gtaland region: Internet: http://www.vgregion.se
E-mail: [email protected]
Women as senior executives:
the right vocational training
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Technical training courses
case studies
By encouraging active learning methods based on
corporate experiences, the Loupe project renderstechnical subjects more attractive, in particular for girls.
A project supported by the Leonardo da Vinci vocational
training action programme.
Higher education in technical subjects is suffering from
dwindling interest from students in general and in
particular girls. Across all of the countries of the European
Union, female students are in the minority in technology,
mathematics and science subjects in non-university higher
education. The proportion of young women rarely reaches 30 %.
For Eliane Smits van Waesberghe, from the national Dutch
association for women in technical education (VHTO), schools
need to have greater recourse to active learning methods in orderto attract more students, including girls. Indeed, these methods
strengthen the relationship to the concrete and real, thus
reassuring students who risk being scared off by the abstract
nature of mathematics. They restore the pragmatic dimension,
which is essential for technical and professional training. This is
the hallmark of the European Loupe project, which is the fruit of
cooperation between organisations based in Spain, Estonia, Italy,
Sweden and the Netherlands, and is coordinated by the VHTO.
Loupe not only gathers, analyses and distributes available
information on the various existing active training courses, but
also offers a selection of practical work typical of this form of
education, in order to make it more attractive to students who
wish to choose technical training. Vocational training based onthe completion of practical work, according to a format dictated
by the reality of corporate life, facilitates the insertion of
qualified young men and women into the job market. But this
method of learning requires a closer link between the world of
technical teaching and the private sphere. Another appealing
feature of the Loupe project is that it provides information on
innovative teaching experiences that have been successfully
employed in specific countries in the Union. The vocational
training systems used in Sweden and in the Netherlands have
broad experience of this methodology. But this is not yet the case
in countries like Spain, Estonia and Italy.
More girlsAt the final conference of the Loupe project (http://www.vhto.nl/
loupeconference), a specific search engine was presented in the
form of a CD-ROM. It is also available on the Loupe project
website (http://www.loupesearchtool.net). Within the context of
proactive learning, this tool allows users to design innovative,tailored projects, which take the gender dimension fully into
account. The main idea is to indicate certain constraints that must
be borne in mind in order to come up with a truly efficient
project. Designed as a tool to raise awareness, this search engine
invites users to think about innovation and the impact of gender
on their projects.
Furthermore, from June 2005, all teachers will be able to consult
detailed descriptions of concrete examples on the Loupe project
website and assess whether they are adapted to their subject area
as well as to the objectives they have fixed with their students.
Taken from experience and tested in the field of education, each
case comes with a detailed description, which, amongst otherthings, specifies the tasks attributed to each student. Before
submitting the cases, we analyse them according to three criteria:
practical reality, innovation and taking gender into consideration
in the different disciplines, explains Eliane Smits van Waesberghe.
The Loupe tool highlights those experiences that were the most
appealing to both teachers and students, including girls. But it
also suggests elements that could strengthen the appeal of a
project. Multidisciplinary projects are generally the most
successful: they are linked, for instance, to the environment or
health. This helps to explain their integration and their role in the
functioning of society, observes Eliane Smits van Waesberghe.
Moreover, subjects based on these principles attract more girls,as do technologies linked to the environment, medical research
and industrial design.
Contact
VHTO
National Organisation for Women in Technical Education
and Functions
Eliane Smits van Waesberghe
PO BOX 2557 1000 CN Amsterdam The NetherlandsInternet: http://www.vhto.nl
The Loupe project website:
http://www.loupesearchtool.net
Loupe
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@lfa-bet@ or how to teach migrant women thenumerical approach
The @lfa-bet@ project unites
organisations that work in very
different contexts with highly variedpopulation groups. Why?
There is significant variation in the living
conditions of migrant people, and in
particular women, according to socio-
economic environment. Furthermore,
the possibilities for access to a computer
at work are not the same in an agricultural
region as they are in a big town. Through
the @lfa-bet@ project, we are hoping to
bring together the most complementary
skills in order to efficiently deal with all
eventualities. Amongst the partners,therefore, is an association specialising in
adult education (Formazione 80 in Turin),
an organisation (Heure exquise!) which
designed a telematics network in
Mons-en-Baroeul (a dormitory town in the
suburbs of Lille where around 30 groups of
different ethnic origins co-habit), a teaching
network (in the north of London) which
encompasses some 100 000 school children
as well as adults, and the Slovak Technical
University and Institute of Education
Sciences in Bucharest, both specialising
in distance learning.
What are the objectives of
the platform?
The @lfa-bet@ project aims to identify
and pool the most efficient teaching
models, both from an organisational and
educational point of view, in order to
come up with numeracy actions that can
be easily adapted to the constraints
imposed by the considerable disparity in
the places in which we offer our training
courses. It is important to remember that
we especially want to reach migrant
women. We have already gathered all the
necessary information on what are known
as good practices, i.e. proven types of
training in other parts of Europe from
which we can take inspiration to set up
similar actions. Moreover, we haveplanned a series of publications to make
this type of information more accessible
and we also want to increase the number
of multimedia access points in certain
areas so that migrants, who are our
primary target in this project, have as
much access to electronic services as
European citizens. The platform reinforces
local synergies between all the people
involved in the course of migrants lives:
cultural mediators, public authorities,
schools, institutional decision-makers, etc.
To what extent can computer training,
even where this is elementary, improve
the quality of life of a migrant?
The rudimentary skills needed to use the
resources offered by the new technologies
known as numerical competence
as well as access to an appropriate
computer, are sufficient to transform
a life. In my town of Turin, a Peruvian
woman who earns a little money by doing
cleaning jobs spends a large share of her
earnings on calling her family. Despite
the high cost, in her eyes the public
telephone remains the most accessible
way of staying in contact with her
country. If this woman had the simple
possibility of exchanging e-mails with her
friends and family, this would bring about
a change to her life. Furthermore, by
learning a few basic notions, and provided
she had adequate access to a computer,
she would also be able to deal with
certain administrative formalities and
would not waste entire mornings waiting
in queues to obtain forms on paper that
are easily available online. Finally, thanks
to the computer, she could acquire new
knowledge and skills and improve her
employment potential.
The main beneficiaries of the
@lfa-bet@ project are people of
extra-Community origin. What isthe specific situation of women
in this respect?
Immigrant women very often have to
take on enormous responsibilities, and
they need a maximum of support. They
are also in the majority in a large number
of schools for adults, where they show
their willingness to master all the tools
that could further their social integration.
Many women are keen to study in the
evening, after completing their domestic
tasks. They also wish to help their childrenin their schooling, and all the more so
if they encounter problems at school.
This reality can be seen day in, day out
in schools for adults. But this does not
mean the project is closed to men!
Contact
Associazione Formazione 80
Corso Re Umberto 10-12
10121 Turin, Italy
Internet: http://www.formazione80.it
The level of education and skill of migrants, and especially migrant women, is highly varied. In general, the latter tend
to be on the wrong side of the numerical gap, with no numerical skills or access to information and the latest forms of
communication. However, in a great many cases, with a little help, access to new information technologies can offer
migrant women the means to better integration and real emancipation. With this in mind, Piazza Pucci is coordinating
a project entitled @lfa-bet@, for which the association Formazione 80, based in Turin and
specialising in adult education, has received the support of the e-Learning programme.
This new education and culture programme encourages recourse to technology in lifelong
learning to train people in the new technologies who have not benefited from complete
and uninterrupted schooling.g m
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Players like Zidane, Ronaldinho, Nedved and Ballack speak
three languages. A player like Ruud van Nistelrooy speaksDutch, English, German and Spanish. The stars have to speak to
the rest of their team, understand the referee, catch what the
public are singing, but also manage in everyday life and do the
shopping at the supermarket, emphasises Richard Weaver, the
promoter of Soccerlingua.
With the help of an interactive DVD in five languages, an album
and a website, this project encourages fans and young players,
aged between 10 and 14 years old, to be inspired by their idols,
not only for their ability as footballers, but also for their
multilingual talents. We show them that learning English,
German, Catalan, Italian or Spanish can be fun, especially in the
company of a few of these famous players, points out RichardWeaver. We make them feel that the knowledge of other
languages is useful for everyday life. For instance, speaking about
football in another language can lead to making acquaintances in
other countries.
A quiz on football knowledge, linguistic tests and interviews
feature on the menu of tools developed for this initiative.
Different football stars relate their experiences of multilingualism
in particular stars of womens football. The project has
succeeded in giving an equal part to men and women. For
instance, interviews were recorded with female players from the
English, Spanish, German, Czech and Brazilian national teams.
We really want the results of our project to be as attractive for
the girls as for the boys. Womens football is the fastest-
developing sport in the entire world and in our DVD and book we
present the greatest female and male players together.
The tools will be available in the summer of 2005. We will
distribute several thousand free copies to football federations as
well as to sporting club networks and schools. We also have
contacts with magazines that will publicise this initiative. The
project, which is also included in the European Year of Education
through Sport (2004), has aroused the curiosity of clubs such
as Barcelona (a partner in the project), Bayern Munich, Schalke04, Manchester United, Arsenal, Lazio, Real Sociedad, etc.
Currently, only some major professional clubs are known to
maintain preferential ties with local schools. But all the teams
train young players. A certain number of these young players
already have the opportunity to travel. We help them to become
aware of the possibilities offered by these trips to meet other
cultures, providing they are interested in languages.
Contact
European Sports Linguistics Academy
31, rue Keyenveld
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel. (32-2) 513 51 74
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.soccerlingua.net
Soccerlingua: scoring goals
Boys seem to find learning languages more difficult than girls.This is both a question of motivation for foreign languages and
the more pronounced disinterest in boys than in girls for theschool environment as a whole. Within the framework of theSocrates programme, the Lingua action raises awareness of
the diversity of languages within Europe and, in sodoing, has found the ideal stimulus for encouraginga taste for languages amongst adolescent boys:football.
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The voice of women
In 2003, girls accounted for 52 % of the participantsin all of the programmes under the Youth project.
With actions such as the European Voluntary Service
and Youth for Europe (exchange programme for
young Europeans), this programme stimulates active
participation and citizenship in young people through voluntary
work. How? By encouraging mobility, international exchange and
meetings combined with debates.
Thanks to the actions of the Youth programme, thousands of
young people travel abroad and get together every year, sharing
new experiences. In Cyprus and Israel, for instance, young girls
from a variety of horizons have taken an active interest in the
specific role that women can play in resolving conflicts.In Finland, a group belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority
brought together young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Serbia and Montenegro to discuss the links between cultures and
genders. Year after year, the Youth programme ensures a
balanced distribution of young girls and boys amongst the
participants according to the different participating countries.
We all know that a stark contrast between the roles of the sexes
is more predominant in Mediterranean cultures than in any other
in Europe. There is probably no answer to the question of whether
the behaviours of the sexes are more theatrical than real, all the
more so given that the evolution of European society is very
sensitive in the south, where traditional reflexes are juxtaposedwith resolutely modern ways of living and thinking. Euro-Med
Youths objective is to intensify the participation of young women
from the southern Mediterranean in all levels of economic, social
and political life by financing a series of projects that bring
together young people from Europe and Mediterranean countries
around a series of societal themes: womens rights, the impact of
religion, the situation of single mothers and access to work,
culture and healthcare.
The European Year of Education through Sport in 2004 made
it possible, amongst other things, to support the emancipation
and improved status of young girls, in particular immigrants and
those from underprivileged backgrounds. The 200 or so projects
co-financed within this framework created links between
educational or academic institutions, and sporting organisationsfrom 28 countries.
Some of these projects aimed expressly to modify attitudes and
stereotypes linked to gender. In Sweden, for instance, young
immigrant girls were invited to discover team sports, enabling
them to establish links with educational structures and
associations. Another pilot project, also conducted in Sweden,
was given the mission of training sports managers amongst young
underprivileged people, including girls. In Greece, the European
Year took advantage of the Athens Olympic Games to create a
network of teachers and educators seeking to overcome
discrimination through sport.
Subject to its ratification and its coming into effect, the Treaty
establishing a Constitution for Europe offers new perspectives for
European action in the domain of sport. And a host of indicators
stress the extent of the task to be accomplished in the area of
gender equality in sports. In 2003, the European Parliaments
report Women and sport, established on the initiative of Mrs
Genevive Fraisse, drew particular attention to the strong
disparities in access to sports activities between women and men,
and also between women themselves, based on social background
and conditions of employment.
Within the European Union, 29.5 % of men, as opposed to 16 %
of women (and 63 % of young men aged 15 to 24, as comparedto 37 % of young women of the same age) say that they regularly
take part in physical or sporting activity. Contrary to other equal
opportunities themes, the parliamentary report points out, the
number of women practising sports corresponds to the classic
north-south divide in Europe. For instance, according to the
Kompass study carried out on the Council of Europes initiative in
1999, 70 % of Swedish women practise a sport (an identical rate
to that of men) compared with only 15 % of Italian women
(32 % of men).
Youthand equality
Gender equality is also promoted through youth,
culture, sport and civil society: all domains in which the
Directorate-General for Education and Culture is active.
Sport:
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The standards and values that define male and female roles in
society, as well as mens and womens perception of behaviours
and attitudes, are greatly shaped by culture. European action in
this domain aims, in particular, to eliminate certain cultural
prejudices and social stereotypes. For instance, the Face of
20th Century Woman project allows us to take a critical look at
female characters in European stage productions at the beginning
of the 20th century. German, Danish, Italian, Norwegian and
Swedish theatrical research organisations pooled their
competences to analyse the works of Strindberg, Ibsen, Chekhov,Brecht, Pirandello and Garcia Lorca.
Other initiatives highlight womens creative output in Europe
up to the present day as the CyberfeminismLab project shows.
This network of Belgian, Dutch, German, British and Finnish
associations uses the best of the new technologies to improve the
visibility of female artists and theoreticians.
But despite the wealth and relevance of these few examples, we
must not lose sight of the groundwork done by the Culture 2000
programme to encourage the opening of minds to intercultural
dialogue and to respect for difference, whether cultural or sexual.
Designed to highlight both the common cultural space and
each of its components, the European Unions Culture 2000
programme encourages people to meet and share the ways in
which they live and how they see and observe things, so that
diversity is no longer an obstacle, rather on the contrary is the
basis for cultural wealth.
For many years now, the European Commission has overseen
different actions aimed at stimulating civic participation. The
Community action programme for the promotion of activeEuropean citizenship supports non-governmental organisations
and associations, some of which work towards promoting gender
equality.
Full implementation of the social rights applicable to all women
and all men is one of the European Unions objectives. It is within
this context that the Commission supports, for instance,
the Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) organisation,
a network of around 50 womens associations based in
29 countries, and which is particularly active in the areas of
sustainable development, social justice, the environment,
health and participative democracy.
Another example is the Facepa network, which groups together
womens movements specialising in adult education. Its Ponts de
Dialogues project, in particular, supports movements of gypsy
women, in whose eyes the fight for gender equality means
going beyond both sexism and racism.
Culture:
dialogue and openingminds
Civil society:
networks taking shape
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Women who write
Passion underpins the project to promote women writers
developed by the department of literary studies at Romes
La Sapienza University, with the support of the Culture 2000
programme.
The works of Paola Masino or Alba de Cspedes are relatively
well-known in Italy, but it is not easy for their names to cross
borders, laments Francesca Bernardini, professor of literature at
Romes La Sapienza University (Italy).
Both the public abroad and young Italians are not given enough
opportunities to discover these writers. By working specifically onavailable archives, within the framework of the Women Writers
Words project (WWW), we have sought to publicise these authors.
The works of female writers represent a magnificent heritage: we
must make them more accessible.
The initiators of Women Writers Words have carried out an
investigation and drawn up an inventory based on the archives of
various female writers. Research dedicated to Paola Masino has
led to the publication of an eponymous work written by
Marinella Mascia Galateria, published with the support of the
Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori (126 illustrated pages, 2001).
Intense European collaboration
This work to consolidate archives and coordinate existing
material highlights womens literary output. Numerous experts
and lovers of literature across Europe have shown an interest.
Several conferences, bringing together a panoply of experts,
have been held in France and Spain dedicated to themes such as
women writers and the holocaust, says Francesca Bernardini.
We have worked with the universities of Madrid, Lille and Paris,
with various private institutions, Italian foundations (such as the
Fondazione Mondari), public organisations, the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities, the Institute of Statistics, as well as various
journals.
Through projects such as this the Culture 2000 programme is able
to shed light on womens contribution to Europe's cultural and
artistic heritage. Other projects emphasise the evolution of
sociocultural stereotypes through time and space, or improve
everyones access, whether man or woman, to cultural and artistic
activity.
Contact
Universit della Studi di Roma La Sapienza
Dipartimento di studi filologici, linguistici e letterari
Piazza Aldo Moro, 5
III Piano, Edificio ex Facolt di Lettere e FilosofiaI-00185 Rome, Italy
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://dsfll.scu.uniroma1.it/
WWW Women Writers Words
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Meetings without borders
After many months of preparation, the 45 girls taking part
in the Modern Girl and Ancient Womanhood project
finally got together in Finland. In the small town of
Kokkola, the Villa Elba youth centre welcomes young girls from
the underprivileged strata of the population every day. ModernGirl and Ancient Womanhood is an ambitious project. In order to
improve the quality of our communication, we have used drama,
music, dance and photography. These tools have allowed young
women to say a great deal about themselves, to better
understand one another and better define themselves, says Ritva
Saarikettu, who coordinates the international department of the
Villa Elba.
Our joint project involved comparing the feelings of young girls
who have experienced very different situations, so as to uncover
what they had in common as well as their differences. We worked
in Algeria, Finland, France, Israel and Malta [] with a great
variety of social strata, religions, political situations and relationswith modernity. We wanted to pinpoint the influence of the
expectations of the social environment, context and family.
Selected passages
In 10 days, the young girls had the time to broach a great many
subjects. This is what Katri, a Finn, had to say about the media:
Neither advertisements nor the media transmit a realistic or
desirable image of women. But the media has tremendous
influence [] and it is not easy to manage this problem. And
Malika and Nadira from Algeria: In general, there are two groups
of women, a minority group made up of independent womenwho have a professional career, and a large majority group
consisting of housewives who obey the man of the house. In our
country, even womens organisations reflect this duality.
For Sagier-Fathia, everything is political: It is impossible not be
affected by politics when you live in Israel. First of all, I consider
myself to be an Arab woman. Nevertheless, Im Israeli [] while
being Palestinian at the same time. The conflict is tearing me
apart, it is cutting me into pieces.
Ritva Saarikettus conclusion: During discussions, we sought to
determine what constructs the reputation of a girl. In spite of the
variety of contexts, certain similarities were revealed. The girls
considered that it was frowned upon to drink and smoke in public
or to have numerous relationships. We also discussed womens
power of decision, regarding their bodies as well. On this subject,
the issue of abortion provoked highly turbulent debates. Amongst
the other themes which provided food for discussion was the
general situation of migrant women.
A short video documented this meeting. The cassette was sent to
all the participating organisations. At the Villa Elba, we still useit a lot. We show it to different groups of girls [] in order to
continue the discussion.
Contact
Villa Elba Youth Centre
C/o Villa Elba, Sannanrannantie 60
FIN-67100 Kokkola
Suomi/FinlandRitva Saarikettu
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.kokkola.fi/elba
When young girls from Algeria, Finland, France, Israel and Malta get together for 10 days to
talk about their identity, ideas start to buzz. This project was supported by the Euro-Med
Youth action, an activity within the Youth programme that encourages intercultural dialogue
and mutual understanding in order to combat racism, discrimination and xenophobia.
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New Europe, new equality, new citizenship
What are the main challenges women face
in the Baltic States?
The main problems concern violence towards women, their low
numbers in politics and in decision-making processes, the poverty
of single-parent families and the difficulty for women topenetrate the job market. There is not a profound difference
between the women of western Europe and the women of the
Baltic States. This issue was extensively debated during seminars
we recently organised in different towns in Lithuania within the
framework of the European project New Europe and Perspectives
for Women in the Baltic States. These 12 seminars brought
together 200 women working in womens associations. The
majority opinion that came out of these round tables was the
following: the women in the EU-15 are freer. They have more
choice regarding their professional career, spend less time in the
kitchen, travel more and are more emancipated. The differences
between the countries can be felt in particular from an economic
viewpoint, even though Lithuania does hope to make rapidprogress in both the economic and social spheres.
The womens movement has been active in Lithuania since
the beginning of the 19th century. What is the current
situation of womens organisations?
Some 105 organisations currently belong to the Womens Issues
Information Centre. Most of them are working towards obtaining
equal opportunities for women and men in Lithuania. Some
32 institutions, some of which are supported by municipalities,
come to the aid of women who are victims of domestic violence.
Around 20 associations focus on the victims of human trafficking
and prostitution. Last but not least, certain womens
organisations organise computer training courses.
What is the role of your Womens Issues Information Centre?
The Centre coordinates these organisations in order to emphasise
the gender perspective in all aspects of womens lives. Our
platform works in partnership with the governmental sector and
international agencies so that this perspective is taken into
account in both development programmes and in political and
social reform choices. The Centre also publishes materials that
enable women to find out about their rights. By compiling
statistics on gender, initiating research projects and organising
conferences and seminars, we are dealing with the most critical
issues and we are drafting recommendations for political and
legislative change.
What are the objectives of the New Europe and Perspectives
for Women in the Baltic States project, supported by
the European Union, and which you are conducting together
with an organisation in Riga?
The project aims to encourage the women of Lithuania and Latviato play an active part in the changes that have been occurring
since our accession to the European Union. European legislation,
and all its various components, has numerous consequences for
women, especially as regards equal opportunities, equal
employment and social security, but also as regards domestic
violence. We rely on our network of NGOs that are active in the
domain of equal opportunities, as well as all other players in the
field, including the municipalities. The 12 days of seminars
organised in Lithuania and the three seminars hosted in Latvia
have provided material for brochures, published in both
languages, on equal opportunities and related European
legislation. A major part of this awareness campaign also features
on our website (www.lygus.lt/mic) and in our electronicnewsletters. This is how the project reaches all the professionals
in the sector, as well as any citizens interested in womens issues.
What future milestones does your programme foresee?
The fourth national conference on women will be held on Sunday
27 August 2005 in Vilnius. Some 500 participants from 10 of
Lithuanias regions will review the 15 years of their countrys
independence and provide details on progress made since the
Beijing conference in 1995. The parallel celebrations and events
will attract several thousand people. The regions will present their
situation before speaking about the challenges and expectations
in each of the domains covered by the Beijing action plan.
Contact
Coordination: Womens Issues Information Center (WIIC)
Vilnius, Lithuania
Internet: http://www.lygus.lt/mic
Partner: Coalition of Gender Equality
Valnu iela 32-506
LV-1021 Riga
The Womens Issues Information Centre, based in Vilnius in Lithuania, is coordinating aproject supported by the Community action programme in favour of active citizenship.Can being a member of the European Union modify the lives of women in the Baltic States?Dovile Rukaite, coordinator of the New Europe and Perspectives for Women in the BalticStates project, gives her point of view.
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Girls in the scrum
Can a sport as seemingly virile as rugby encourage mutual respect
between men and women by mixing the sexes? This is what the Oval
Planet project is attempting to prove, an experiment conducted in France
within the framework of the European Year of Education through
Sport 2004.
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Coordinated by the French Rugby Federations national
strategic management team, Oval Planet aimed to
promote the educational values conveyed by the practice
of this team sport within secondary schools in France, beginning
with the training of physical education teachers. When the
project was reviewed by the Directorate-General for Education
and Culture, Frances national trainer, Fabrice Brochard, wasdelighted: The Oval Planet project has trained 745 physical
education teachers in the game of rugby to be taught in schools.
And of these 745 teachers, almost half of them are women!
Nearly 41 000 pupils have come into contact with the game.
A mixed sport
While Fabrice Brochard is clearly overjoyed with the success of
Oval Planet, he is not overly surprised by the proportion of
women teachers attracted by the operation. Physical education
lessons in secondary schools are often mixed. Unless you separate
the classes, mixing the sexes is standard. Furthermore, we have
paid particular attention to adapting our training to teachers, in
particular women, who were not accustomed to teaching fieldsports. As well as practical lessons, we developed efficient
documentation: a pack containing written documents, a CD-ROM
on teaching the game and video cassettes concerning refereeing
and safety conditions for players. We have distributed nearly
1 220 packs in total.
In the eyes of the specialists, the success of mixing the sexes on
the rugby field demonstrates, amongst other things, the virtues
of the social dimension of this sport. Rugby offers a new
dimension to the life of a group, says Fabrice Brochard. Following
this experience, teachers say they have learnt something about
their pupils. Rugby involves physical contact, like some combat
sports, but with the added dimension of the team sport. This iswhy rugby matches organised in tense situations for instance
in districts ravaged by ongoing conflict profoundly modify
human relations. Within the structured framework of a sport,
people find the means to deal with their physical, energetic and
mental burdens, while adhering to the rules and developing a
mutual understanding of the word respect. In a context such as
this, barriers fall.
The triggerThe boost provided by the Commission through the European
Year of Education through Sport has proved to be decisive in
uniting energies, creating a project around recognised values,
providing the human and financial resources to succeed, and
setting up the conditions for lasting action, says the French
trainer. The validation of our project by the European
Commission has acted as a real trigger, by somehow providing a
certain nobility and a passport to enter into the education
system, which has often shown great caution in the past towards
external initiatives.
An experiment that is set to continue: This year, following the
Oval Planet operation, we have received six times as manyrequests for training as in former years.
Contact
Fdration franaise de rugby
9, rue de LigeF-75431 Paris Cedex 09
France
Internet: http://www.ffr.fr
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Education and Culture
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