Equal Rights and Opportunities

All European women must have a right to get a full-time work with equal pay. Otherwise it will be hard for the European countries to reach a good social and economical growth in the future. Within the EU project "Women's participation in the European Dialogue on employment Strategies" Dialoguefem together with partners from Portugal, Greece, Germany and Italy is working with women from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The overall purpose of the project is to increase the knowledge about the European Employment Strategy as a tool of promoting women's participation on the labour market.

Therefore we inform and train women from the candidate countries about Community policies, legislation and strategy. We also exchange information and best practises i.e. pilotprojects carried out in the Member States focusing on the four pillars in the Strategy. A website presenting best practises on how to mainstream gender equality in labour market measures has also been set up.

The beneficiaries are women and authorities, employment offices, NGOs and enterprises working with promoting women's position in the labour market.

There is a big need for information and education on these issues. It is very important that women become more aware of the rights and possibilities. We can not form a modern equal and democratic society if women do not get the same rights and chances in the labour market. Today there is a risk that we will get two parallel labour markets. One for women with low salaries and one for men with better salaries and career opportunities. Therefore gender equality is a key to social and economic development and growth.

The approaches and methods used are based on successful strategies used in other projects. Partners in Member States will be responsible for a theme in the Strategy arranging thematic European Conferences and for training seminars. The project is funded by the European Commission, DG Employment and Social affairs.

by Lars Back

Ms Margareta Spang
e-mail: info@dialoguefem.com
www.dialoguefem.com