Description
The project “Working Genderation” intends to contribute to the mobilization of social partners, sensitizing them on gender equality issues, incorporating these principles in the development of policies and strategies within the textile industries, of clothing and shoes. The main goals of the project are the creation, with and for the industries, of instruments and solutions to promote equality between men and women, as well as to reinforce mechanisms of encouragement, recognition, accompaniment and disclosure of means that promote equality and conciliation between the professional life with family and social life. Through different activities, the project aims to promote equality between men and women in their professional environment; to decrease differences in professional opportunities; to contribute to develop, implement and reinforce fair methods of gender equality in the industries; to educate specific audiences on the issues of equality; and to stimulate the adoption of means and methods for a healthy conciliation between the workers’ professional and private lives.
Summary of project results
The project “Working Genderation – At Work and In Life”, development of instruments and methods that promote gender equality in enterprises in the North of Portugal. It aimed to contribute to the mobilization of the social partners to the theme of gender equality, by incorporating these principles into policies and intervention strategies of companies in the sector of textile, clothing and footwear in the municipalities of Guimarães and Felgueiras, at first (since they are regions with a strong corporate sector in Northern Portugal), and then in other entities in northern Portugal. The goal of the project was to create, with businesses and for businesses, tools and solutions for the promotion of equality between men and women, as well as strengthen mechanisms of encouragement and dissemination of practices that promote equality and the reconciliation of professional, family and personal life. Working Genderation also established specific goals for the development of the project: - Exchange of experiences and knowledge with foreign partners, the best in policies and practices of gender equality, promoting the transfer of their data to study and implement in textile area in the municipalities of Guimarães and Felgueiras and, later, from the North of Portugal. Support companies in the promotion of equality and non-discrimination between women and men, creating, with and for companies, instruments and solutions in this particular area. - Support companies on the candidature for the prize "equality is quality" - Strengthening the mechanisms of encouragement, recognition, monitoring and dissemination of practices that promote equality between women and men in employment context, as well as reconciling professional, family and personal life. - Develop, implement, strengthen and promote good practice in Equality and conciliation, encouraging business-to-business transfer of good practice in these matters. - Train specific audiences for the issues of equality: employer’s agents, management frameworks, human resource managements, trainers and employees. - Promote equality between men and women in the exercise of functions and professional activities, raising awareness for the differences in career opportunities depending on the genus. -Create a Monitoring Committee, managed through a partnership with specialized professionals in gender equality and conciliation. The implementation has become relevant to the existence of a foreign team, not influenced, for evaluation and monitoring of all work/actions that were carried out throughout the project.
Summary of bilateral results
The partnerships were created to integrate and give visibility to the dimension of equality between women and men in the framework of corporate and social responsibility. At a national and local level were establish partnerships with key agencies in mobilizing human capital. As it was intended to carry out a mind changing awareness intervention among entrepreneurs, senior managers intermediate frames, and collaborators, the project actively engages organizations that best represent them. By creating all the commitment to carry out the various activities, forming a network of partners and local representatives, we started at a point for the successful implementation of the project. In international partnerships, the organizations and entities were chosen for its work of research and intervention in issues of gender equality and reconciliation of work and private life. It was possible to establish protocols for partnerships with The Icelandic Women's Rights Association, a non-governmental organization of Iceland (
www.kvenrettindafelag.wordpress.com) and Center for Equality Advancement, an NGO of Lithuania (
www.gap.lt). The project was disseminated through the involvement of the community, towards a dissemination and recruitment "mouth to mouth", in a perspective of promoting awareness campaigns and direct information.