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Description
Starting with the premise that gender equality should be a fundamental value in our society, the EGALIS project aims to take action in the field that can generate the deepest change: education. The Romanian education system fails to integrate gender equality in the school curricula, schoolbooks and in teachers’ training, allowing teachers to fend against their own stereotyped views alone. These educational gaps are mirrored in society: the latest gender Barometer (2018) showed that prejudices on the roles of women and men in the family, in the workplace and in public life prevail.
EGALIS will act in 2 main directions: Educating young people and offering teachers training and new methodologies that aims to deconstruct prejudices against feminism, using diverse and complementary intervention instruments: The "Feminism for All" Kit, Youtube videos, infographics, an interactive game, WikiGap hackathons, reading shows, the Guide for Teaching Gender Equality in Pre-University Education and Advocacy for widely use of the new created instruments in the educational processes, formulating proposals to update the occupational standard for the “gender expert” profession in Romania in order to widen its applicability and bring gender equality closer to institutions and companies, offering legal counselling and court representation in cases of discrimination and gender violence. 520 young people between the ages of 14 and 25 will be made aware by participating in direct activities, 20,000 young people will be informed through online educational activities, 30 teachers will be involved in testing new educational tools.
Project partners are part of the Coalition for Gender Equality. Beyond the expertise in the field of gender equality, the partners have experience in complementary fields: ANA in deconstructing gender stereotypes, FRONT in organizing feminist events, Plural in working with young people, ACTEDO in legal support, Sex vs. Stork in innovative communication tools.
Summary of project results
The Coalition for Gender Equality is an informal network made up of 11 organizations that are active in the field of gender equality or that have actions addressed to this field in their activity. The coalition promotes the empowerment of women in all their diversity, taking into account the intersection of gender with ethnicity, race, class, age, disability, sexual orientation, citizenship, level of education, area of residence, etc. Starting from the premise that gender equality must be a fundamental value in society, the EGALIS project set out to act in the field that generates the most profound change: education - the Romanian educational system having large gaps in terms of the integration of gender equality , both at the level of curriculum and textbooks, as well as at the level of teacher training, which often remain a tribute to their own stereotypes and clichés. Moreover, through the project, the Coalition proposed to counter the attacks of ultraconservative groups on women''s rights, which are manifested not only in Romania but globally, in all areas of society.
Within A3, research was carried out (https://ongen.ro/wpcontent/uploads/2022/02/Ce-Este-Feminismul-Raport.pdf) through which the perceptions of middle school and high school students about feminism were identified. The research was the basis of designing an information and awareness campaign through which myths/stereotypes/prejudices related to feminism, feminists, and the women''s movement were deconstructed. A printed and online material, Feminism Friendship Kit, was created, through which the most controversial themes related to feminism and feminists identified through field research were addressed and distributed to school inspectorates, on the occasion of the Equal Opportunities Week. Based on these materials, 10 debates were organized with young people in high schools and gymnasiums. A network with advocacy potential "EGALIS Feminist Network" was formed, comprised of 22 people: politicians, decision-makers, and public figures, who publicly assumed their membership in a series of posts on the Coalition''s Facebook page. The network idea was presented in various contexts, including Global Challenges and Perspectives. (2) within A4, 3 performances-readings entitled "How (we) don''t have money, orgasm, children" were made at the Bucharest National Dance Center. The performances were inspired by the contributions of the people who participated in a micro-research conducted through a questionnaire promoted through social media. 15 videos on feminism were produced, published, and promoted on the YouTube channel of the SEXUL vs BARZA partner Association (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZB_HgrE3dI). In addition, a series of 28 articles (14 RO and EN articles) in "Reading Journal" was made, based on the bibliography behind the 15 videos. (3) Within A5, 2 Wikigap Hackathon workshops were held, lasting 7 hours/ per workshop and a meeting with a representative of the Wikipedia Platform. 26 Wikipedia pages about female personalities and topics of interest from Romanian history were published; (4) within A6, 1 manual for teachers was created for teaching gender equality in pre-university education (https://ongen.ro/2022/09/07/manual-egalitate-de-gen/) and later distributed in physically at the School Inspectorate, ANES, the Ministry of Education, Universities, non-governmental organizations in the field of gender equality/young women. The manual was tested in class by 2 teachers, then 2 consultation and testing sessions were organized with teachers and specialists in pre-university education, in Bucharest and Cluj. The manual was officially launched in September 2022: (5) within A7, 1 analysis report on the employment of a gender expert was made, and working group meetings were organized that included ANC, ANES experts, university representatives, and non-governmental organizations. A project to modify the occupational standard for Expert in equal opportunities - COR code 242230 was submitted and approved to the National Authority for Qualifications; within A8, an online guide for writing complaints to the CNCD was created, accessed by 300 unique users (https://ongen.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Ghid-petitii-CNCD-EGALIS.pdf), petitions were sent to the CNCD, 20 people benefited from free legal assistance in cases of gender violence; within A9, organizational development activities, a strategic planning workshop was organized; in which the Organizational Development Strategy of the Coalition for Gender Equality for the period 2021-2025 was outlined; 4 new organizations were attracted to the Coalition, 2 fundraising and teambuilding workshops were organized; the Resources section was created on the ongen.ro website; a fundraising campaign was carried out that emphasized the rights of girls for a life without violence, consent and healthy relationships and the elimination of taboos regarding menstruation; The advocacy efforts in which the Coalition took part during the project concerned the amendments regarding sex education in schools, gender identity and violence to the law on the rights of the child and the education law, access to abortion, the rights of refugee women in the context of the war in Ukraine, the ratification of the Convention ILO for the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work, the decision of the Romanian Government to submit to the Council of Europe a list of candidates for the position of judge at the ECHR consisting exclusively of men, the legislative projects related to the introduction of gender quotas in the perspective of the elections.
During the project, we conducted a research on the perception of middle school and high school students in relation to the concept of feminism and we created the "Feminism for everyone" Kit, which were used in 10 debates in high schools, we created the Friends of Feminism network , comprising 22 public figures, we produced 3 reading-performances and 15 videos on feminist themes, we developed a manual for teaching gender equality in pre-university education, on the basis of which 37 teachers were trained, which was tested in 3 schools with the participation of 60 students and reached over 4500 people, we organized 2 hackathon workshops with participation of 28 young people, who created 26 pages of Wikipedia about the history of women''s emancipation in Romania and the photo-video exhibition "10 years of feminist actions on the street", with a total number of 960 visitors, we provided legal assistance for 20 people in cases of gender based violence, we developed a new occupational standard for equal opportunities expert that was approved. Within the organizational development activities, a strategic planning workshop, a fundraising workshop, and a teambuilding event were organized. Following the strategic planning workshop, advocacy actions took place in priority areas: access to sexual and reproductive rights, elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work, and balanced representation in decision-making positions. In addition, the Coalition expanded by co-opting 4 new organizations. The visibility of the project was achieved by updating the Coalition''s website (www.ongen.ro) with over 100 articles and 187 social media posts, with a total of over 403,000 views. The lessons learned were related to the importance of involving young people as volunteers and to a close collaboration with public institutions relevant to gender equality (ANES, Ministry of Education, School Inspectorates).