The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search
Published by reda_7, 2018-02-06 09:49:07

Aware about gender equality

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

Civic and social competence



Competence area Civic


Skill title Aware about Gender Equality



Description of the skill

Aware of the main principles of equal opportunities to men and women with especial emphasis

on the gender equality problems of migrants and refugees.
Ability to understand and avoid stereotypes regarding female or male roles in the society and at

workplaces. Ability to recognise gender based discrimination and to react properly in gender
discriminatory situations.




Having this skill means that an adult educator, working with migrants and refugees:
 Are able to treat their learners-men and learner - women fairly within the legislation.

 Are able to understand and avoid stereotypes regarding female or male roles in the society

while developing and delivering the training course.
 Will avoid using gender-discriminatory terminology.

 Will react properly in any gender discriminatory situations within the classroom.

 Are able to initiate discussion in the classroom about the cases of possible gender
discrimination and how the learners could protect themselves against this kind of

discrimination.


Content application of the skill:
It is important for adult educator to be acquainted with main International and European

documents, which seek to ensure gender equality de jure and de facto. Knowing the concept of
gender equality will help adult educators to treat learners equally as well as to help the learners-

migrants and refugees to realize their human right and protect themselves again gender
discrimination.

"Gender equality, equality between men and women, entails the concept that all human beings,

both men and women, are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the
limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender roles and prejudices. Gender equality means that the

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

different behaviour, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered, valued and favored

equally. It does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but that their rights,
responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.

Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective

i
needs." (1)
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),

adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights

for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination
ii
against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. (2) The
Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring
women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life - including the right

to vote and to stand for election -- as well as education, health and employment.
Equality between women and men is one of the European Union's founding values. It goes back

to 1957 when the principle of equal pay for equal work became part of the Treaty of Rome.

“In recent years the European countries have made a gradual progress towards gender equality
by great efforts on the local, national and European level. However, to achieve gender equality a

lot still needs to be done in the fields of labour market participation, economic independence, pay,
earnings and pension, decision making positions, fighting gender-based violence, and external

actions“.Věra Jourová, European Commissioner, responsible for justice, consumer affairs and
iii
gender equality.
The European Union's achievements in fostering equality between women and men have helped

to change the lives of many European citizens for the better. Although inequalities still exist, the
EU has made significant progress over the last decades. Some encouraging trends include the

increased number of women in the labour market and their progress in securing better education

and training. However, gender pay gaps remain and in the labour market, women are still over-
represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions.

The Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019 sets the framework for the
Commission's future work towards improving gender equality and focuses on the following five

priority areas:
1. Increasing female labour market participation and equal economic independence.

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

2. Reducing the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thus fighting poverty among

women.
3. Promoting equality between women and men in decision-making.

4. Combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims.

5. Promoting gender equality and women's rights across the world.
The Strategic engagement also supports the implementation of the gender equality dimension in

the Europe 2020 Strategy. Progress is reported every year and presented in a Report on Equality

between women and men.
The human right of migrant and refugees women are also in the agenda of the European Union

and each state. The Strategy of the EWL says “Europe is facing an ageing population, low fertility
rate, increasing demand for care, pensions, and increase in migration. All are having a significant

impact on the political and socio-economic landscape for women in Europe. Migrant and ethnic
minority women are particularly vulnerable to low paid precarious work in the formal and

informal labour market. Migration and demographic change also represent an opportunity for

women’s rights. The need to engage more effectively with women in all their diversity offers an
opportunity for building and strengthening alliances for progressive feminist change across civil

society and beyond, and for making sure that we guarantee and advocate for the equal rights of
all migrant women in Europe. 5 years of austerity has also contributed to the backlash against

women rights and a lack of solidarity around the urgent need for assistance to the victims
especially migrant women and girls trafficked, raped and killed including in the Mediterranean

Sea.”

GENDER EQUALITY IN 2015: CHALLENGES AND GAPS
It is also important to know some statistics on gender-inequality in Europe and to present these

figures to the learners:

 Women are still woefully underrepresented in power and decision-making. Less than 25%
of members of parliaments in Europe and 3% of CEOs in top companies are women.

 Women have made inroads into decision-making positions in many spheres of life and,
although they still represent only 21% of board members of the biggest listed companies,

this constitutes a significant (nine percentage points) improvement over the last five years.

The most substantial improvement has been seen in countries that introduced legislative
measures. (3)

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"


 Progress towards economic independence is usually gauged by the employment rate, but
also by the number of paid working hours, which better reflects work intensity. Men spent

39 hours of paid work per week on average in the EU, whereas women spend 33 hours in
paid work. In contrast, they do the lion’s share of housework and care: working women

iv
spend 22 hours per week in unpaid work, while working men spend fewer than 10 hours .

(4) The impact of parenthood on labour market participation is still very different for
women and men, since women have disproportionally high sharing of family

responsibilities. Many women feel forced to choose between childcare and career.
 In terms of access to financial resources over a lifetime, gender equality remains elusive.

Women (particularly migrant women and women heading single-parent households) still
generate a much lower proportion of income on the labour market than men. Women in

employment, especially mothers, are much more likely to work part- time and are paid on

average 16 % less than men per hour of work (3).
 As a consequence, the gender overall earnings gap during active years has reached 41%

and leads to a very wide gender gap in pensions, which today stands at 40%. Older women
are much more at risk of poverty and social exclusion than older men and no mitigating

trends have been observed in recent years. Without new action, women are likely to

continue to be economically disadvantaged by motherhood during their career and in
retirement, in particular as a result of an unequal sharing of care and housework

responsibilities (working women still devote two and a half hours a day more to parenting
and household duties than men) (3).

 Women are still under-represented in science, mathematics, IT, engineering and related

careers. As a result, inequality in occupations is taking new forms rather than diminishing
and, despite their investment in education, young women are still twice as likely as young

men to be economically inactive (3).

 Women also represent the biggest untapped source of entrepreneurial potential,
representing only 29% of entrepreneurs (3).

 The gender pay gap is the difference between men’s and women’s pay, based on the
average difference in gross hourly earnings of all employees. Data on the gender pay gap

are only available for 2015 and show that the pay gap stood at 16.3 % in 2014 while in

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

2010 it was 16.4 %. As a consequence, they earn less than men over their life cycle, and

their pensions are lower (4).

 The impact of the gender pay gap means that women earn less over their lifetimes; this
results in lower pensions and a risk of poverty in old age. The gender gap in pensions,

which is defined as the gap between the average pre-tax incomes received as a pension by
women and that received by men, stood at 37.6 % in the 65 and over age group in 2015,

according to the latest available data (4).

 Women across the EU face a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion (24.4%, compared
to 23% for men in the EU in 2015). While this decreases with age for both women and

men gender differences increases in older age groups (22.4% and 18.6% respectively for
women and men aged 75+) (4).

 The report prepared by EIGE and mentioned above also shows the consequences of

multiple discrimination. Having a migrant background affects employment, education and
living conditions and foreign-born people are twice as likely to suffer from poverty or

exclusion as EU-born people: 40.7 % of women and 39.9 % of men born in a non-EU
country were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2015 (4).

 Number of the self – employed men is growing faster than self – employed women.

 Violence against women still constitutes the most widespread violation of women’s human
rights in Europe. From domestic violence to stalking; from prostitution to online abuse;

from FGM to rape; the persistence of old and new forms of violence against women

demonstrates the extent to which our societies are built on and perpetuate patriarchal values
and male domination and entitlement. Violence can be classified as domestic, physical,

economical, sexual and/or psychological, etc. According to FRA survey conducted in 28
EU states, one in three women (33%) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence

since she was 15 years old, one in three women (32%) has experienced psychologically

abusive behaviour by an intimate partner, either by her current partner or a previous
partner. 10 Depending on the number of different forms of sexual harassment, an estimated

83 million to 102million women (45% to 55% of women) have experienced sexual
harassment (5).

 In addition, women and girls make up the majority of human trafficking victims (68%

women, 17% men, 12% girls and 3 % boys) (3).

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

Key EU directives in gender equality and non-discrimination

 The so-called Recast Directive (2006/54/EC) on equal opportunities and equal treatment

of women and men in employment and occupation has brought together some older
directives. This directive requires the implementation of the prohibition of direct and

indirect sex discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment in pay, (access to)
employment and in occupational social security schemes.

 A prohibition of direct and indirect sex discrimination applies to statutory social security

schemes (Directive 79/7/EEC) and to self-employment (Directive 2010/41/EU). Sex
discrimination is also prohibited in access to and the supply of goods and services

(Directive 2004/113/EC). In addition, some directives apply to specific groups, such as

the Pregnancy Directive (92/85/EEC), the Parental Leave Directive (2010/18/EU) or the
Part-time Work Directive (97/81/EC). The great majority of part-time workers in the EU

being women; the requirement of equal treatment of part-timers and full-timers is also
relevant for them.

 The Racial Equality Directive (2000/43/EC) prohibits discrimination on the ground of
racial or ethnic origin in a broad range of fields, including employment, social protection

and social advantages, education, and goods and services available to the public,

including housing. The Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC), however, is
limited to the field of employment and occupation but covers the grounds of religion or

belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. The adoption of the Racial Equality

Directive and the Employment Equality Directive initiated a movement throughout
Europe, in EU Member States and beyond, towards the adoption of national non-

discrimination legislations transposing the provisions of the directives. In many Member
States, this movement implied quite profound changes to the existing legislative

framework, through the amendment of existing legislation or the adoption of new
unprecedented laws and regulations to specifically regulate the prohibition of

discrimination in accordance with the directives’ requirements.


www.equalitylaw.eu/legal-developments/16-law/76-key-eu-directives-in-gender-

equality-and-non-discrimination

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

References/links



1) ABC of Women Worker's Rights and Gender Equality, ILO, 2000. p. 48.


2) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm


3) The Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/document/files/strategic_engagement_en.pdf


4) 2017 Report on equality between women and men in the EU 2017 Report on equality
between women and men in the EU.

http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=43416


5) European Commission Special Eurobarometer 449. Bender-based Violence. Summary.
Fieldwork June 2016. Publication November 2016.


6) EU Directives related with Gender equality. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-
equality/law/index_en.htm


 Directive 2010/41 of 7 July 2010 on the application of the principle of equal treatment

between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity and
repealing Council Directive of 11 December 1986. (Implementation report of Directive

201/41)

 Directive 2010/18 of 8 March 2010implementing the revised Framework Agreement
on parental leave concluded by BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC

and repealing Directive of 3 June 1996 (Implementation report of Directive 201/18)
 Directive 2006/54of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal

opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and

occupation (recast) (Implementation report of directive 2006/54 and its working
document)

 Directive 2004/113 f 13 December 2004 implementing the principle of equal
treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services

(Implementation report of Directive 2004/113 (2015)

"Digital, Social and Civic Competences Development for Adult Educators Working with Migrants and
Refugees - DiSoCi"

7) Directive 92/85 of 19 October 1992 on the introduction of measures to encourage

improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have
recently given birth or are breastfeeding

 Directive 79/7 of 19 December 1978 on the progressive implementation of the

principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security
 Lithuanian Laws:

 Republic of Lithuania Law on Equal Treatment. https://e-

seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/TAIS.389500?jfwid=-oo3xjf4tu
 Republic of Lithuania Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men.

https://e-

seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/488fe061a7c611e59010bea026bdb259?jfwid
=-ucusi45bn




i ABC of Women Worker's Rights and Gender Equality, ILO, 2000. p. 48

ii Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm

iii The Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-
equality/document/files/strategic_engagement_en.pdf

iv 2017 Report on equality between women and men in the EU 2017 Report on equality between
women and men in the EU.
http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=43416


Click to View FlipBook Version