News

Putting gender on the map of European regional policy

October 2007

Amongst the 150 workshop of this year's Open Days one was focused on integrating the gender perspective into local and regional policies. True to the slogan of this European Week of Regions and Cities the workshop showed how policy makers, business leaders and gender quality experts are "making it happen" and how gender mainstreaming can boost territorial development.

The message reached key people who are in a position of adopting the EQUAL good practices and tools in their own context. 99 participants were counted. They came predominantly from local and regional governments and administrations. Gender equality bodies and experts were a minority, and a substantial group of economic development agencies, chambers of commerce and business consultancies indicates that gender mainstreaming is gradually considered as a management tool outside of gender equality policies. The presence of representatives of national ministries of finance and economy from several new Member States seems to point in the same direction.

Chaired by Bettina Vollath, Regional Minister for Education, Youth and Women from Styria (Austria) key players from Ireland, Finland and Poland shared successful strategies and tools. The contributions mirrored different stages of development and approaches that currently exist in the EU.

Gender equality policies as an integral part of all policy areas mainly implemented in the Nordic countries and are particularly well developed in Sweden. This has been achieved through systematic and comprehensive implementation of gender mainstreaming over an extended period of time. However, in the framework of EQUAL other Member States are following suit.
The gender dimension is being introduced into a continuously growing number of policy areas. Throughout the EU this development can be observed in different portfolios at national, regional and local level, education and training systems, research and development, economic sectors and also in the activities of the civil society.
Under the heading "diversity" a growing number of Member States is integrating gender issues in their wide-scale anti-discrimination and equal opportunities policies. "Diversity management" is increasingly used as a personnel development tool in the business world.

Gendering a region in Austria

The Austrian Region of Styria is an impressive example of both the first and the second stage. Minister Vollath explained how two EQUAL projects brought about change. In fact, the projects had managed to anchor gender mainstreaming in regional employment and inclusion policies, in local government and administration as well as in a group of private sector companies. These encouraging results led the Styrian Government to agree to Vollath's proposal of integrating the gender perspective into all regional policies. Across party lines, the Styrian Parliament opted for a three-year- programme to initiate and support gender mainstreaming in all ministries. Styria's Prime Minister declared the endeavour one of his own priorities. "There is no such thing as gender neutrality. Every policy area, every decision, every measure has an impact on citizens and that means on women and men", says Bettina Vollath. "Due to past discrimination and different realities of women and men this impact is not the same. We are taking account of that fact by starting our activities in policy fields where gender gaps are particularly deep and persistent or by tackling them through specific actions for women." Heide Cortolezis, gender adviser to Styria's Government adds that decision-makers and practitioners in fields usually regarded as gender neutral are now being supported to incorporate gender aspects in the region's economic development and innovation policies, its tourism strategy as well as in public transport and spatial planning.

A gender equality structure as part of the Irish National Development Plan

Anne-Marie Gauran, policy analyst and ex-head of Gender Equality Unit (GEU) within Ireland's National Development Plan (NDP) presented the experience of a dedicated structure, set up to influence the implementation of the European Structural Funds, in particular the ESF. During the last programming period (2000-2006) the GEU built up a comprehensive support system to gender mainstream the policy areas covered by the NPD. An important part of this task was the development of tools such as gender impact assessments (GIA) that – applied to intended measures – indicate the impact on women and men; gender disaggregated statistics and gendered indicators; gender fair criteria for the selection of projects and concepts for monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, through so-called poverty and rural proofing the unit contributed to assessing the effects of ESF measures on the situation of other disadvantaged groups. Strategies to bring on board political decision-makers and senior administrators, capacity building activities that targeted the staff responsible for implementing ESF programmes and even one-to-one advice were developed and used. Even if the new Irish Government decided that the GEU will cease to exist, Anne-Marie Mc Gauran is convinced that a specific structure is highly useful to make things happen. "We succeeded to raise the awareness of a large number of people and to build up gender mainstreaming competencies throughout the country. This is a only a beginning", she states. "In the future we need more senior political decision-makers drive the process. And we need sanctions if ESF programmes do not live up to what is incorporated in the Regulations in terms of gender equality. Making gender mainstreaming a condition for receiving funding from the ESF performance reserve would be a good point to start with."

Equality planning in Finland

In Finland gender mainstreaming is often called equality planning, particularly when used as a management tool in the private sector companies. For Järmo Salminen , the Executive Manager of Planar Systems Finland, gender equality is not only a requirement of Finnish legislation, but also an economic must for the US based high tech company. "As responsible leader of operations in Europe I am bound to maximise profits and to use all opportunities to make our share holders happy", he says, "Leaving the potential of women untapped would be against business interests." Together with three other enterprises Planar was selected to pilot equality planning in the Finnish ICT sector in the framework of EQUAL. An equality team was set up at Planar that assembled women and men from all job categories and age groups. Management and team agreed on equality objectives that were translated into personnel policies. These guarantee equal treatment when it comes to recruitment, career options, promotion and reward systems, zero tolerance to any kind of harassment related to gender, age, religion, ethnic background or sexual preference as well as equal pay for work of equal value. Since most female employees believed to suffer wage discrimination, full transparency of the company's pay system was established. Every three months a staff meeting is held and new developments in Planar's policies and market strategies are communicated. Obviously checking results against the equality goals and proposals for further improvements are part of the exercise.

Capacity Building in Poland

In the framework of EQUAL Poland has undertaken a huge effort to integrate a gender perspective in project activities. Partnership agreements of 100 projects were analysed and found lacking in terms of understanding the concept of gender mainstreaming and mastering the necessary methodology. Agnieszka Siekiera from the EQUAL National Support Structure reported how an awareness raising and training programme changed the situation. Building on the achievements and tools generated by two EQUAL projects focusing in gender equality, a training model was created. It enabled all EQUAL project coordinators to integrate gender aspects into project management. A training scheme for trainers is also part of the model as is a website providing lots of information and tools and a highly pro-active network of trainers. This network plays a crucial role for enrooting gender mainstreaming in the projects and in the organisations which form these partnerships. "It is not that one person travels to Warsaw to participate in a workshop, but a team of two trainers spends two full days with all members of an EQUAL partnership at their place ", explains Marta Rawłuszko, gender expert at UNDP Poland and manager of the Gender Index project. She emphasises that this approach helps to engender a common learning experience and to tailor the training to the needs of the different people and organisations. So far 1.500 people from over 600 organisations were trained. The method will be used by the ESF Management Authorities and Support Structure to raise awareness of future project promoters and to include gender mainstreaming into project cycle management which is considered as key tool for ESF implementation.

The pioneering role of EQUAL and the ESF

Panellists agreed that EQUAL and/or ESF funding helped to develop and implement all those activities and also the strategies to disseminate them across Europe. They underlined the need to make gender mainstreaming tools available for programme and project managers and to work on transferring them to other countries and contexts. This is also the remit of the Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming (GM CoP) that was founded a year ago by Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the two regions of Flanders (Belgium) and Styria (Austria). The CoP has launched an Internet platform that is designed as both a virtual meeting and exchange place and a warehouse stocking an increasing a wealth of gender mainstreaming tools.

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News Putting gender on the map of European regional policy October 2007 Amongst the 150 workshop of this year's Open Days one was focused on integrating the gender perspective into local and regional policies. True to the slogan of this European Week of Regions and Cities the workshop showed how policy makers, business leaders and gender quality experts are "making it happen" and how gender mainstreaming can boost territorial development. The message reached key people who are in a position of adopting the EQUAL good practices and tools in their own context. 99 participants were counted. They came predominantly from local and regional governments and administrations. Gender equality bodies and experts were a minority, and a substantial group of economic development agencies, chambers of commerce and business consultancies indicates that gender mainstreaming is gradually considered as a management tool outside of gender equality policies. The presence of representatives of national ministries of finance and economy from several new Member States seems to point in the same direction. Chaired by Bettina Vollath, Regional Minister for Education, Youth and Women from Styria (Austria) key players from Ireland, Finland and Poland shared successful strategies and tools. The contributions mirrored different stages of development and approaches that currently exist in the EU. Gender equality policies as an integral part of all policy areas mainly implemented in the Nordic countries and are particularly well developed in Sweden. This has been achieved through systematic and comprehensive implementation of gender mainstreaming over an extended period of time. However, in the framework of EQUAL other Member States are following suit. The gender dimension is being introduced into a continuously growing number of policy areas. Throughout the EU this development can be observed in different portfolios at national, regional and local level, education and training systems, research and development, economic sectors and also in the activities of the civil society. Under the heading "diversity" a growing number of Member States is integrating gender issues in their wide-scale anti-discrimination and equal opportunities policies. "Diversity management" is increasingly used as a personnel development tool in the business world. Gendering a region in Austria The Austrian Region of Styria is an impressive example of both the first and the second stage. Minister Vollath explained how two EQUAL projects brought about change. In fact, the projects had managed to anchor gender mainstreaming in regional employment and inclusion policies, in local government and administration as well as in a group of private sector companies. These encouraging results led the Styrian Government to agree to Vollath's proposal of integrating the gender perspective into all regional policies. Across party lines, the Styrian Parliament opted for a three-year- programme to initiate and support gender mainstreaming in all ministries. Styria's Prime Minister declared the endeavour one of his own priorities. "There is no such thing as gender neutrality. Every policy area, every decision, every measure has an impact on citizens and that means on women and men", says Bettina Vollath. "Due to past discrimination and different realities of women and men this impact is not the same. We are taking account of that fact by starting our activities in policy fields where gender gaps are particularly deep and persistent or by tackling them through specific actions for women." Heide Cortolezis, gender adviser to Styria's Government adds that decision-makers and practitioners in fields usually regarded as gender neutral are now being supported to incorporate gender aspects in the region's economic development and innovation policies, its tourism strategy as well as in public transport and spatial planning. A gender equality structure as part of the Irish National Development Plan Anne-Marie Gauran, policy analyst and ex-head of Gender Equality Unit (GEU) within Ireland's National Development Plan (NDP) presented the experience of a dedicated structure, set up to influence the implementation of the European Structural Funds, in particular the ESF. During the last programming period (2000-2006) the GEU built up a comprehensive support system to gender mainstream the policy areas covered by the NPD. An important part of this task was the development of tools such as gender impact assessments (GIA) that – applied to intended measures – indicate the impact on women and men; gender disaggregated statistics and gendered indicators; gender fair criteria for the selection of projects and concepts for monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, through so-called poverty and rural proofing the unit contributed to assessing the effects of ESF measures on the situation of other disadvantaged groups. Strategies to bring on board political decision-makers and senior administrators, capacity building activities that targeted the staff responsible for implementing ESF programmes and even one-to-one advice were developed and used. Even if the new Irish Government decided that the GEU will cease to exist, Anne-Marie Mc Gauran is convinced that a specific structure is highly useful to make things happen. "We succeeded to raise the awareness of a large number of people and to build up gender mainstreaming competencies throughout the country. This is a only a beginning", she states. "In the future we need more senior political decision-makers drive the process. And we need sanctions if ESF programmes do not live up to what is incorporated in the Regulations in terms of gender equality. Making gender mainstreaming a condition for receiving funding from the ESF performance reserve would be a good point to start with." Equality planning in Finland In Finland gender mainstreaming is often called equality planning, particularly when used as a management tool in the private sector companies. For Järmo Salminen , the Executive Manager of Planar Systems Finland, gender equality is not only a requirement of Finnish legislation, but also an economic must for the US based high tech company. "As responsible leader of operations in Europe I am bound to maximise profits and to use all opportunities to make our share holders happy", he says, "Leaving the potential of women untapped would be against business interests." Together with three other enterprises Planar was selected to pilot equality planning in the Finnish ICT sector in the framework of EQUAL. An equality team was set up at Planar that assembled women and men from all job categories and age groups. Management and team agreed on equality objectives that were translated into personnel policies. These guarantee equal treatment when it comes to recruitment, career options, promotion and reward systems, zero tolerance to any kind of harassment related to gender, age, religion, ethnic background or sexual preference as well as equal pay for work of equal value. Since most female employees believed to suffer wage discrimination, full transparency of the company's pay system was established. Every three months a staff meeting is held and new developments in Planar's policies and market strategies are communicated. Obviously checking results against the equality goals and proposals for further improvements are part of the exercise. Capacity Building in Poland In the framework of EQUAL Poland has undertaken a huge effort to integrate a gender perspective in project activities. Partnership agreements of 100 projects were analysed and found lacking in terms of understanding the concept of gender mainstreaming and mastering the necessary methodology. Agnieszka Siekiera from the EQUAL National Support Structure reported how an awareness raising and training programme changed the situation. Building on the achievements and tools generated by two EQUAL projects focusing in gender equality, a training model was created. It enabled all EQUAL project coordinators to integrate gender aspects into project management. A training scheme for trainers is also part of the model as is a website providing lots of information and tools and a highly pro-active network of trainers. This network plays a crucial role for enrooting gender mainstreaming in the projects and in the organisations which form these partnerships. "It is not that one person travels to Warsaw to participate in a workshop, but a team of two trainers spends two full days with all members of an EQUAL partnership at their place ", explains Marta Rawłuszko, gender expert at UNDP Poland and manager of the Gender Index project. She emphasises that this approach helps to engender a common learning experience and to tailor the training to the needs of the different people and organisations. So far 1.500 people from over 600 organisations were trained. The method will be used by the ESF Management Authorities and Support Structure to raise awareness of future project promoters and to include gender mainstreaming into project cycle management which is considered as key tool for ESF implementation. The pioneering role of EQUAL and the ESF Panellists agreed that EQUAL and/or ESF funding helped to develop and implement all those activities and also the strategies to disseminate them across Europe. They underlined the need to make gender mainstreaming tools available for programme and project managers and to work on transferring them to other countries and contexts. This is also the remit of the Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming (GM CoP) that was founded a year ago by Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the two regions of Flanders (Belgium) and Styria (Austria). The CoP has launched an Internet platform that is designed as both a virtual meeting and exchange place and a warehouse stocking an increasing a wealth of gender mainstreaming tools. Top	Home page Activities & results How does EQUAL work? EQUAL in the Member States News All news Newsletter Useful links

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