• CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

    STILL FAR FROM EQUALITY FOR WOMEN AT WORK

    ETF USES SOCIAL MEDIA TO FACILITATE WOMEN’S DAY EVENT

  • More and more women are getting educated. In the European Union, 60% of university graduates are women and female students routinely outperform males at secondary schools. But when it comes to using this education to get a good job, the situation is very different. For a host of reasons, women are still finding it hard to turn their achievements in education into tangible benefits on the labour market. No matter which yardstick you use – salaries, participation rates or the number of women at the top of their profession – in most countries, women still lag considerably behind men.

  • The ETF brought over one hundred women and men from around the world to Turin to consider why this is so at an international conference on Women and Work on 7 – 8 March. Participants were asked to pay special attention to three aspects of gender equality in the workplace; how women make the transition from education to work, what is needed for the full social inclusion of women and what are the barriers women face when they wish to set up a business.

    In its search for fresh ideas, the ETF decided to use fresh tools to facilitate the debate by harnessing the power of social media. Last January saw the launch of an online forum looking at global women’s issues to prepare for the conference (http://womenandwork.ning.com/). Moderated by social media specialist Silvia Cambie, it has continued to attract debate and comment in the months since the event took place and currently has a total of 83 members.

  • Twenty members of the forum, many of whom actively blog on women’s issues in their countries of origin, attended the first day of the Women and Work event. They discussed why women do not always get a fair deal in the workplace and hammered out a list of recommendations on how to improve the situation. As the day progressed, they kept a wider online audience in touch by blogging and tweeting as they went along. The bloggers also produced three short videos summarising their recommendations which were shown to policy makers and representatives of NGOs on the second day of the conference and which are still available on YouTube.

  • The factors that prevent women from achieving parity with men in the workplace are many and varied, according to the bloggers, and start operating from very early on. Many young people work as volunteers and trainees as a way of gaining work experience. “I’ve noticed that male trainees are given more substantial and interesting tasks than young women who are given mainly communications and administrative tasks,” said Lebanese blogger Paola Salwan, “after these first jobs, men can more easily find a substantial position, while women will be hired as assistants, no matter how many degrees they have.”

    The fact that women have children, and will need time off when they do, can make employers less willing to take on young women in the first place. “Leaving university comes at a time when women may also want to start a family,” said Italian student Alice Averone, “women are always asked by employers about their personal lives and their future plans in a way that men never are.”

  • Sometimes women’s attitudes can be part of the problem; many suffer from low self-esteem and do not aim high enough in the job market. “Women tend to self-select by thinking that they are not capable of certain jobs,” said French student Florie Lefevbre.

    Much can be done to give women a fairer deal at work according to the bloggers but improving the situation calls for the involvement of many different actors.

    Jung Chang

    Discussions at the conference were strongly inspired by the Chinese best-selling author Jung Chang, who presented her personnel experience of a life in education under suppression in China. Jung Chang encouraged all governments to ensure free and accessible education for all.

    Jung Chang, best know for her family autobiography, Wild Swans, stated in her keynote speech to conference delegates that “free and open education with equal rights for men and women is a fundamental right”.

  • Their recommendations were aimed at policy makers, educators, employers, the media and individuals and ranged from improving childcare to encouraging mentoring schemes for professional women or ensuring would-be entrepreneurs get access to capital and know-how.

    Helping to make this a reality is up to all of us – both women and men –said Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, in her keynote speech to the conference. It is also up to all of us to ensure that gender issues do not get swept aside in these times of economic crisis.

    “This is not only because accepting anything less than equal rights for half of the world’s population is morally indefensible but also because leaving the tremendous potential of women underexploited is something we simply cannot afford,” she said.

    How social media can empower women

    Social media can empower women, according to Silvia Cambie, director of Chanda Communications and the driving force behind the Women and Work online forum. It can do this by giving women a safe place to meet and share problems. It can also provide a platform for campaigning and for attracting the attention of opinion leaders she says. “The more conservative a society is, the better organised and the more committed you will find the women are,” says Cambie, “Saudi Arabia has some great women bloggers.”

    Social media can contribute to women’s professional advancement by facilitating international networks and mentoring. “Women definitely need to join a structure – we are still a minority in the labour market so a structure helps you deal with the problems that minorities have,” says Cambie, “it acts as a kind of scaffolding throughout your career.”

    But while women are very good at social networking, they are often less adept when it comes to using networks to advance their careers. “Women make the mistake of thinking that the corporate world is a meritocracy and it isn’t. They think if we focus on the task in hand and do it well, we will be noticed and that is not always the case,” says Cambie, “men are better at focusing on the power games and the politics that go with the corporate dynamic.”




  • by Rebecca Warden, ICE

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