European Gender Policies: projects to foster gender equality and women empowerment

ALDA works to encourage civic and democratic participation in liaison with gender equality and equity thanks to the creation of the Gender, Inclusion and Human Rights Hub (G,I & HR Hub). The latter develops projects devoted to the social inclusion of the most vulnerable categories, while leading the drafting of the internal policy on Gender and Anti-Discrimination. During the last few years, several projects have been developed to foster gender equality and women empowerment, such as GET UP and WEMIN. 

For this reason, ALDA is now closely following the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) decision to establish itself as the EU knowledge center for gender equality. Also stakeholders recognised this position thanks to the EIGE gender-sensitive policies, case studies, evaluation toolkits and the Gender Equality Index. 

From a general perspective, the EIGE Gender Equality Index is published every year and reports in percentage the gender segregation in Europe, taking into account important fields such as work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. The European overall score for 2022 was 68.8 out of 100; however, some countries performed better than others. Considering the importance of EIGE data and their relevance, ALDA continues to develop projects aimed at gender inclusion with an intersectional approach, taking into account the different social identities of the individual. 

Gender Equality is one of ALDA’s priorities, and through the new Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Policy, ALDA aims to eliminate bias creating a positive workplace

Besides, if one is willing to further dig into this topic, Spain represents a positive example within the European context. Hence, it had an outstanding performance, achieving almost 92 per cent in the health sphere. Surely Spanish score for 2023 will be even higher thanks to the comprehensive law enacted last February. It has been positively welcomed by UN experts thanks to its favorable insights: 

• It allows anyone over 16 years old to change their legally registered gender
• Ease abortion limits for those aged 16 and 17
• Introduce paid menstrual leave. 

As already mentioned, Gender Equality is one of ALDA’s priorities, and through the new Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Policy, ALDA aims to eliminate bias creating a positive workplace. The Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Committee, in synergy with the G, I & HR Hub, drafted this new policy willing to shape the actions of all individuals directly dealing with ALDA, starting from the Governing Board to the project partners and visitors. It is meant to promote equal participation through programs and initiatives that reduce gender inequality, disseminating those objectives in ALDA’s public sphere. 

Overall, the latest initiative against stereotypes is the MOVING-ON project that aims to improve the participation of kids from the Roma Sinti and Travellers community and travelers in the world of sports by going to understand what are the biggest physical or social barriers they face every day.