ETUCE Training Seminar
Teacher trade union actions challenging
gender stereotypes in education and gender
segregation in the labour market
9 May 2012, Brussels
Martin Rømer
European Director
Project Background
Gender Equality is a major topic for ETUCE
Equality Standing Committee - last meeting on 28 March 2012 in Brussels
Women’s Caucus on 29 March 2012 in Brussels
ETUC Action Plan on Gender Equality within teacher trade unions’
structures and in the teaching profession,
Adopted by the ETUCE Executive Board in Brussels, March 2010
Gender stereotypes &
inequalities in the labour market
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Gender stereotypes are one of the main causes of gender inequality
on today’s labour market
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traditional role models
women are highly successful in attaining education and gaining qualifications but
career paths are often interrupted or blocked by family responsibilities
Gender segregation in the labour market, i.e. women working in
different professions than men, is mainly brought about by gender
stereotypes
The EU Strategy for Equality between Women and Men highlights
women’s underrepresentation in entrepreneurship: women only
represent 33% of the self-employed and only 30% of start-ups
Gender stereotypes, the unequal division of family responsibilities
and gender segregation in the labour market, together with other
factors lead to a gender pay gap of 17,8%
Gender stereotypes &
inequalities in the labour market
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ETUC Campaign on Equal Pay, Bernadette Ségol’s speech for 8 March
2012 in London addressed Women and austerity: Impact and
resistance; new ETUC Action Plan on Gender Equality
inequalities persist not only in gender pay differentials. Women also
remain underrepresented in economic and political decision making
processes (Renewed Social Agenda)
EU2020 Strategy clearly recognises the essential role of education in
meeting the challenges of the European employment & social policy
Education is the basis for a well-functioning economy, therefore
measures to promote solid education equally accessible to everyone
regardless of gender or social status have to be taken
The Role of Education
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Education systems play an important role in shaping gender
stereotypes – valid for all levels of education
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gendered identities relate to educational processes and outcomes
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Gender differences in school achievement
Choice of studies
Long-term labour market conditions
Gender inequality persists in today’s education systems in terms of
subject preferences and performance, as well as in qualitative aspects of
the education and training experience. Gender stereotyping in the
education system is one of the main causes of gender inequality on the
labour market.
Teacher union activities
A precondition for creating a labour market free of gender discrimination
is to meet the challenge of gender equality in education.
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Teachers’ training needs to be adapted in terms of practical and
theoretical aspects
It should include gender sensitive education
Teachers and teacher unions play a key role here and need to receive the
appropriate training and information
Project Background – Former Project
2008 ETUCE Project on gender equality
within teacher trade unions and in the
teaching profession
Including a survey covering pre-school
and school education, also VET.
Project Objectives
Improve awareness of national
teacher unions on major EU
policies and legal instruments for
legal in the field
Help teacher unions with
implementation of the European
social partners’ instruments on
gender equality in the education
sector
Assessing the actual status of
gender equality in the education
sector and within teacher unions
Findings of survey
Weak representation of women
at the high level of decisionmaking in teacher unions, in
particular in comparison to
teacher unions’ membership in
general
Lack of adopted written trade
union policies on gender equality
Teacher unions were
insufficiently informed and hardly
involved in national/school level
activities aimed at challenging
gendered inequalities in schools
today.
ETUCE Action Plan
Gender Equality within teacher trade unions’ structures and
in the teaching profession
Adopted by the ETUCE Executive Board in Brussels, March 2010
Recommendations for ETUCE and national teacher unions’
action
Four policy themes:
I.Addressing gender roles
II.Promoting women in decision-making
III.Supporting work-life balance
IV.Tackling the gender pay gap
ETUCE Project on Gender Stereotypes
01 November 2011 – 31 October 2012
General Project Objective
• Fully exploit the potential of the education sector to overcome
gendered discrimination in the labour market with a view to promote
not only more gender equality within the teaching profession itself but
also to trigger a change in student’s future career choices by providing
teachers and teacher unions with the know-how and tools that are
necessary to promote a gender sensitive approach in education and
consequently in society as a whole.
• The project seeks to support the implementation of the benchmarks set
in the Roadmap for the Strategy for Equality between Women and Men
and shore up the work of the Council of Europe as regards the
implementation of the Recommendation CM/REC(2007)13 of the
Committee of Ministers to member states on gender mainstreaming in
education.
Specific Project Objectives
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Identify and examine the link between gender inequality in the labour market
and education;
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Raise awareness amongst teachers, teacher unions, students and pupils on the
issue of gender equality to mitigate gender stereotypes in students’ (future
employees) choice of career paths;
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Provide teachers knowledge and information on gender sensitive working
environments to enable students to choose a career path irrespective of gender
stereotypes;
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Change teaching approaches (subject and content-wise) by improving teachers’
attitude on gender stereotypes and their personal competences;
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Promote gender sensitive education at European and national level;
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Encourage national teacher trade unions to cooperate with national education
employers on including gender sensitive education in national social dialogue
systems and collective agreements by feeding the project outcomes into the
European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Education.
Project Advisory Group
Kounka Damianova –
SEB, Bulgaria
(chair of the Equality Standing
Committee of ETUCE)
5 representatives of
national teacher
unions from five EU
countries
Dorota Obidniak –
ZNP, Poland
Anne Jenter –
GEW, Germany
Joelle Casa –
flc CGIL, Italy
Odile Cordelier –
SNES fsu, France
Project Activities
- 4 Advisory group meetings
- Peer Learning Activity for teacher trade unionists in charge of
gender equality issues in their union 9 May 2012, Brussels
- Training Seminar on 10 May 2012, Brussels
- Closing Conference in September 2012, where the participants
have the opportunity to discuss, amend and validate the
guidelines drafted on the outcome of the PLA and Training
Seminar
Expected Project Results
1. Knowledge on concrete measures in schools such as textbooks, teaching
practices and teacher education programmes that can contribute to
gender sensitive education.
2. This knowledge is used to create and spread innovative ideas on how to
overcome gender stereotypes and traditional career choices through
education.
3. Knowing both practical and theoretical aspects of gender stereotypes in
the labour market and education throughout Europe makes it possible to
provide teacher trade unions with the necessary training to ensure
gender sensitive education.
4. After obtaining this relevant knowledge the teacher trade unions are
better prepared to engage in a dialogue with the employers, thus
promoting social dialogue within the education sector by establishing
initial discussions with the employers on including gender sensitive
education.
Outcome of Project activities
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Peer Learning Activity report
Training Seminar report
Closing conference report
Project brochure containing:
Guidelines on how teachers and teacher unions can concretely
contribute to the inclusion of the gender equality dimension in
education. The guidelines aim at promoting gender sensitive
education at European and national level for a gender sensitive work
environment based on new education approaches. (EN,FR,DE,ES &PL)
• CD-ROMs containing the reports and all project documents in the
various languages for dissemination amongst ETUCE member
organisations
• Dissemination and publication of the project at
www.csee-etuce.org
Thank you for your attention
ETUCE website: www.csee-etuce.org