Landmarks Of Gender Equality
Lombardy, January 2005
The Italian "Con-Tempo"
Development Partnership (DP) is trying hard to make a big difference to the
daily lives of women and men. To attain its ambition, it is creating local
resource centres for gender equality in four provinces in the Lombardy region.
It is also promoting the activities of the European Cities for Reconciliation
and seeking new members for this network.
The
DP's objective is to increase female labour market participation but it also
wants to secure a more satisfying work-life-balance for both women and men and
here, the local resource centres come to the fore. In addition to helping people
find individual solutions to reconciling their career and family obligations,
the resource centres are assisting public authorities, enterprises,
co-operatives and job centres in the development of a more supportive working
environment for employees who have care responsibilities.
All of the centres provide counselling and they also organise events that
promote information about the relevant legislation, public and private services
for vocational guidance and training, job openings and care facilities for
children and other dependants. However, each centre has developed its own
"specialty services" that address the particular needs and priorities of the
community in which it is based.
In Pavia, the local gender equality centre provides a meeting point
for both women and men, and is also setting up an employer network. In addition,
it hosts several local associations including the Time Bank. Through this Time
Bank, people can barter their own time and their skills as an alternative to
paying money for goods or services.
In Lodi, the DP has set up the centre within the municipal authority - an
authority that is already focusing on reconciliation issues and, particularly,
on promoting a culture of sharing unpaid care and housework between women and
men. The centre is located in an area where there are a number of existing
meeting points and information facilities. Thanks to EQUAL, cooperation and
exchange has been strengthened between the town's services for young people, its
centre for elderly people, the Provincial Centre on Women and Work and the
promoters of various cultural activities. The DP has also created a special
"family desk" within the municipal Health Care Unit and through awareness
raising and training it has helped the employees of that unit to integrate a
gender dimension into their work.
In the province of Cremona, the DP has established three local resource
centres based in Cremona, Crema and Casalmaggiore. The first two are
specialising in support to women's business creation and entrepreneurship. The
Cremona centre has also convinced a major employer to open a company-based
kindergarten. This is an important step in accommodating the needs of women
shift workers and, at the same time, it helps the company to reduce absenteeism
and staff turnover. This new childcare service is managed by a local cooperative
and only a small part of its financing comes from EQUAL, as the firm committed
itself to provide most of the set-up and running costs. The local resource
centre has now opened a branch within the childcare facility and this move has
greatly improved the access of shift workers to its services.
The Mantua centre focuses on intercultural approaches and mediation. It has
designed specific programmes for women immigrants, including empowerment schemes
and individual pathways to social and labour market inclusion. In Mantua, the DP
is also testing the viability of basing a "work-life-balance desk" in a large
enterprise. This help desk supports employees in a number of ways such as
assisting them in identifying the most suitable childcare services and in
finding a speedy solution to almost any kind of emergency. The help desk also
ensures that people on parental leave do not loose touch with the company.
Opportunities are provided for part-time work, on a regular or occasional basis,
and for participation in training.
These experiences enable parents not only to maintain, but to up-date, their
skills and so they are well prepared for their full-time return to the
workplace.
All of these local resource centres are open at least two days per week (one
day in the morning and the other in the afternoon). Mantua manages to stay open
three days a week, including a Saturday morning, and a few centres are making
their services available during lunchtime.
Mainstreaming at Regional and European level
The DP created a working group in order to guarantee the sustainability of
its EQUAL achievements. This working group involved social partner
organisations, public authorities and NGOs and all of these players signed an
"agreement of understanding" committing themselves to mainstream the results of
Con-tempo's experimental activities throughout the provinces involved.
In terms of its transnational achievements, the DP and its partners
in
France (two
DPs),
Spain, the
Netherlands and
Portugal have established a permanent network of
European Cities for Reconciliation. The core members are the 20 cities or
areas that have already worked together within this
EQUAL Transnational Partnership but every effort is being made to
attract new town councils and local authorities into the network. This
cross-border alliance is continuing to promote viable solutions to balancing
working and private life at the level of neighbourhoods, cities and wider areas,
whether these are primarily rural or urban. European Cities for Reconciliation
also lobbies to ensure that the issue of reconciliation is towards the top of
the policy agendas at local, regional, national and, of course, European level.
Contact
Nadia Meriggi
Con-Tempo
CE.SVI.P.
Via C. Ferrini, 12
I-27100 Pavia
Tel: + 39 0382/399 375
Fax: + 39 0382/565 476
Email: nmeriggi@comune.pv.it
www.equalcontempo.it/
Top
