ETUCE_Newsletter

ETUCE project « Promoting gender equality within teacher trade unions and in the teaching profession”

Short summary of the project: aims and activities

Gender equality has been a key principle of the EU since the Treaty of Rome in 1957, where the principle of equal pay for men and women was already recognized. Using the legal basis provided by the Treaties, the Union has adopted thirteen directives on gender equality since the 1970s.These directives covered, among other things, equal treatment concerning access to work, training, promotions and working conditions, including equal pay and social security benefits, as well as guaranteed rights to parental leave.

The EUCE project “Promoting gender equality within teacher trade unions and in the teaching profession” aims at informing national teacher trade union organisations on the 50-years-old EU legal framework and on the current EU policy priorities and instruments on gender equality, including its importance for the achievement of the EU Lisbon goals. By improving teacher trade unions’ knowledge, understanding and therefore ownership of gender issues, this project will try to enhance teacher organisations’ work at national level – but also within their own structures - towards accomplishing gender equality. The European Social Partners instruments on the issue will also be presented to teacher trade unions and they will be trained on how these instruments could be implemented specifically within the education sector.

The project specific objectives are the following:

Raising awareness amongst ETUCE member organisations on gender equality issues and the teaching profession as well as on major EU priorities, policies and instruments in the field.

Analysing the actual gender equality situation in the education sector and within national teacher trade unions’ structures in the EU/EFTA and candidate countries.

Assessing the ETUC-UNICE/UEAPME-CEEP framework of actions on gender equality and the ETUC Charter of Gender Mainstreaming in trade unions from teachers’ perspective and help teacher trade unions in implementing and monitoring these two instruments at national, regional and local levels.

To achieve its goals within the project period, several activities are planned during the 16-months long-term project period. These activities vary from an awareness raising and information Seminar, through the development of a survey amongst ETUCE member organisations aimed at identifying the situation of women within their own structures and the situation of the teaching profession regarding gender balance. A proactive policy for action by the ETUCE at European level and by its member organisations at national level and at their own structures level will therefore be developed.

On 1st December 2008, a questionnaire was sent to all ETUCE member organisations. The questionnaire aims to identify how gender equality is managed and promoted at unions’ level (structures and policies), and also in the education policies at national level. Furthermore, the questionnaire aims at assessing to what extent and by which measures national teacher unions have been implementing the European Framework of Actions on gender equality.

The responses to this questionnaire will be analysed and the preliminary results of the survey will be presented in an information and rising awareness seminar, which will take place in Brussels on 25-26 May 2009.

Partner Organisations & members of the project Steering Committee