The Promotion of Gender Equality within Local Development ...

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Prefacecare roles between men and women as data, it isimpossible to ignore the differences in the femalecondition and problems of reconciliation that theydenote, for example, in urban and rural areas, bothin support for participation and in a perspective ofsupport for permanent employment. The elementsthat differentiate the female condition in the localdimension are related to a myriad of otherenvironmental factors: from the economic vocationof a territory (industrial, tertiary, tourist, agricultural,specialized, etc.), to the cultural andrelationship models of the community, from theavailable resources to redistribute care work,whether institutionalized (infancy services, largecompanies that more easily adopt reorganizationmodels for work schedules, roots in the thirdsector and the spread of practices such as TimeBanks) or other, (relationships with neighboursand exchange models, family structures andintergenerational solidarity) to policies on timesand transport.It is actually the context’s relevancy in designingthe terms by which women represent a resourcefor development that suggests that the localdimension is a resource for Equal opportunitypolicies.In fact, in the first place, like the developmentpolicies, the Equal opportunity policies have agreater probability of meeting the needs formeasures in as much as the more they are plannedand implemented “close” the population thatexpresses the need, the better. In the secondplace, the local dimension facilitates that policyintegration process that characterizes the essenceof gender mainstreaming. The labour and trainingpolicies often have a greater possibility of beingplanned and implemented in synergy with otherpolicies that support female inclusion in the labourmarket, such as care policies (children, the elderly,the infirm), transport policies, scheduling policiesand all those measures that have an impact onthe quality of life and the safety both of theworkplace, and more generally, the territory.Finally, the Equal opportunity policies promoted atthe local level have greater chances of involvingthe relevant actors (local authorities, enterprises,civil economy, management and labour, thepopulation). The question of capacity building andmobilization of local stakeholders is furthermorea central element in the implementation ofequality policies, and emphasizes the need topromote women in policymaking processes andat all decisional levels (empowerment), whetherwith the greater involvement of women in thedecision-making places or the involvement ofequality bodies and other women’s organizations.At the same time, the equality organizationsshould be involved in networking processes bothin terms of connection with other local actors aswell as connection with other levels of government.This could also take place through“concertation”* tables that deal with this issuesand/or protocols, for example, in the sphere ofterritorial pacts in order to provide openly forpromotion and gender mainstreaming in thechoices implemented to foster Local development(Campbell, 2003).Unfortunately, although the world of womenrepresents a resource for the territory and thelocal context, primarily when a medium to longtermperspective is adopted (Rubery, Fagan, 1999),this topic is rarely analyzed in its complexity andmultidimensional nature, from the gender pointof view. In this framework, a project such asW. In D., promoted by the Dipartimento per i Dirittie le Pari Opportunità (Italian Department for Rightsand Equal Opportunities) of the Presidenza delConsiglio dei Ministri (Presidency of the Councilof Ministers), seems important. The project’sambitious objective is, to define methodological* For “concertation” we intend activities in order to involve main stakeholders and reach consensus on a specific issue.VII
The promotion of gender equality within local development processes: Italysteps for verifying the gender policies thatcontribute to Local development. This means, inother terms, verifying the hypothesis on thenegative influence which occurs when the Equalopportunity principle is not applied in the localdevelopment of a territory and, vice versa, towhich degree the lack of local development limitsimprovement in the position of women.The little involvement of women in local developmentprocesses, and the minimal attentionreserved for the gender principle in those samedevelopment policies, continue to be constant inmost European countries. The issue is at the centerof the V Program of community action for equalopportunity between men and women in theframework W. In D. was funded. The project goesfrom the conviction that it is necessary to promotea strong coordinated action at a European levelto support these issues and make the necessarycultural change in order to concretely apply thegender mainstreaming principle in local socioeconomicdevelopment processes.The transnational partnership of the project wasformed to include various cultural attitudes andvarious experiences in gender oriented equalopportunity throughout the European Union, aswell as different organizational-institutionalsystems found in the Member Countries. Thepartnership structure of W. In D. is as follows:• Promoter with the role of direction andcoordination of the project activities: Departmentfor Rights and Equal OpportunitiesPresidency of the Council of Ministers, Italy• Transnational partners:European Policies Research Centre (EPRC)University of Strathclyde, UKInstitut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques (IGOP)University of Barcellona, SpainNational Commission for the Promotion ofEquality (NCPE), Malta• National partner: Institute for Social Research(IRS), ItalyIncluding Spain and Italy in the project led to the“typical” problems of Mediterranean countries ontopics of gender oriented equal opportunity,although they were part of two rather differentpolitical institutional contexts, especially in thearea of administrative decentralization.The Maltese partner allowed for a perspective onthe experience of a small country that is stilldealing with numerous problems in the sphere ofequal opportunity. For this reason the recent entryinto the European Union represents, at the sametime, a challenge and a chance for rapid progress.The Scottish partner, finally, guarantees the Anglo-Saxon perspective, characterized by a moreadvanced situation in gender equality terms andtherefore working more on a gender mainstreamingapproach and on a wider concept ofequal opportunities, open to all forms of discrimination.Through a comparative research action, the projectproduced an Intervention model and Guidelinesfor introducing and strengthening the equalopportunity principles in the local developmentprocesses. This tool is intended to meet a doubleneed: to foster and consolidate local strategies thatfavour female participation in local developmentprocesses in the various localcontexts; to define an integrated approach for fosteringthe inclusion of gender mainstreaming in localdevelopment processes, shared by all theproject partners.The intervention model was outlined starting withthe results of the research and from thesolicitations and needs that emerged in the panelsorganized in each of the partner countries withthe participation of institutional stakeholders,VIII
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5.Scenarios and perspectivesThe ana
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BibliographyATI (Temporary Enterpri
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Bibliographysuccess of local develo
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BibliographyRTI Institute for Socia
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