The Project “Are we equal? Gender equality in action” held in La Vancelle, France during the International Women’s week was had the objective of stimulating and advancing gender equality for 30 young Europeans from 5 different countries, in an intercultural and safe environment and to create the basis for further initiatives and cooperation in the field of creative work and human rights.
Gender equality is a fundamental value of the European Union and one of the sustainable development goals set by the UN. We believe that although considerable efforts were made in the past decades, the dialogue about advancing gender equality should continue in order to
give access to equal opportunities to every citizen, as gender differentiation still influences the development of individuals in social, cultural, economic and professional fields. "Are we equal? Gender equality in action" is a youth exchange which aims to provide tools for European youth to understand and express through arts, the dialogue about gender equality.
Objectives:
- To stimulate and advance gender equality for 30 young Europeans from 5 different countries, in an intercultural and safe environment.
- To create the basis for further initiatives and cooperation in the field of creative work and human rights.
- To promote awareness, best practices and fundamental concepts on the topic of gender equality and equal opportunities among young people;
- To improve the skills of European youth regarding using art and culture in the field of gender equality;
- To increase the social cohesion and facilitate an intercultural dialogue among young European citizens, through non-formal methodology;
- To help young people to acquire specific knowledge in the field of gender equality, intercultural, social and communication competences, useful to provide work skills for the participants;
- To improve the knowledge of foreign languages, especially English and French.
Luckily, in this project, I was the Leader of the Romanian group for the first time. I must tell you something, when I found out that I was going to be the leader of the group I was nervous, but also very excited and eager for the experience to start. The support provided by EFYL through the Bootcamp, files and presentations was on point and helped me pass successfully the challenges of this project. Being a leader isn’t only about gathering the travel tickets and waking everyone up before each morning session, it’s about COMMUNICATING, not only with your country team but especially with the organizers, facilitators, volunteers and the other participants and leaders.
As for the content of the workshops in the project, I felt that the information provided was new and qualitative to me and I feel blessed to have participated in this type of project. The topic of Gender Equality has always been highly and intensely debated across time and I am glad that I met people from different cultures with different points of view. This helped me broaden my horizons and find out more about the way gender equality exists or not in specific parts of the world. - Razvan Irava
For example, from a global perspective, women are much less likely to find themselves in management positions in companies and they are less likely to form start-ups. If they do, the companies they form or manage are on an average part of less productive sectors and/or generate significantly lower sales:
• Only 30% of formal small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world are owned and/or run by women.
• Even with the same level of education, women are predominantly employed at lower hierarchical levels, only 25% hold management positions
• In 32% of all companies, there is not a single woman who is part of the senior management (Sub-Saharan Africa 40%, Latin America 55%).
One of my goals was to improve the above facts about gender inequality in entrepreneurship, and for that, I presented them the project “#PlayEurope”. A European project that aims to raise awareness about the importance of being “active citizens” among young people from different EU countries, using the cooperative enterprise model and social entrepreneurship education. The goal of #PlayEurope is to encourage active citizenship through the instrument of social entrepreneurship, increasing interest of young people in social issues and democratic participation, showing them how and to what extent social entrepreneurship can be a concrete pathway to become better citizens. - Razvan Irava
One of the tools that #PlayEurope uses is a step-by-step guide containing 8 important actions to follow:
# STEP 1 SET UP YOUR OWN IDEA: WHO AM I AIMING TO HELP?
You saw a problem and want to fix it. Do you have an idea of where to start, but are you still unsure if your idea works? Let us help you!
# STEP 2 FOCUS ON YOUR RESOURCES AND NEEDS: WHICH IS YOUR STARTING POINT?
What do you do when you go shopping? Or when you are organizing a party? Or studying for an exam?
# STEP 3 WHICH IS YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE?
One of the first steps you need to undertake before deciding to start your own social business is to identify which product or service you want to offer to the market.
# STEP 4 BUILD UP YOUR OWN TEAM.
Teamworking is fundamental in a social business model to achieve good results.
# STEP 5 HOW TO FINANCE YOUR BUSINESS.
This is one of the crucial part of building up your social enterprise! Each and every coin that flows into the company requires you to make a decision.
# STEP 6 MAKE YOUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE KNOWN: ONLINE MARKETING AND PR ARE THE WAY!
If someone doesn’t know that you exist, how can they ever do business with you?
# STEP 7 HOW TO MEASURE YOUR SOCIAL IMPACT.
If you want to create a successful social business, you should be able to verify its positive impact on society.
# STEP 8 KEEP CALM AND CREATE YOUR BUSINESS PLAN!
Do you want to be sure that your Business plan is really interesting for investors?
