ripeerseu – R&I Peers

17 July 202212 September 2023

RI PEERS Final Project Event

On 12 July 2022 in Salerno, Italy and online, R&I PEERS project partners orgnised the project’s final multi-sectoral conference on the theme of “Gender Equality policies and actions: Lessons. Impact. Sustainability.” Presentations from the event are included below, and feedback is welcome.

Also, be sure to check out the RI PEERS Project video!

R&I PEERS Multi-sectoral Conference:

1. Welcome & Introduction to the RI-PEERS Multi-sectoral Conference – Digital Leadership Institute and University of Salerno

2. Gender & Policy: Mina Stareva, Policy Officer, European Commission – Presentation (PDF)

3. Lessons learned: Experiences from Gender Equality Changemakers, Chairperson: Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc, ZRC SAZU

R&I PEERS Project: Francesca D’Ambrosio, University of Salerno – Presentation (PDF)
GENDERACTION Project: Marcela Linkova, Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences – Presentation (PDF)
CHANGE Project: Himi Hana, Beit Berl Academic College – Presentation (PDF)

4. Impact: Gender equality policies in the local ecosystem, Chairperson: Francesca D’Ambrosio, UNISA

Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc, ACT Project, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Presentation (PDF)
Amani Charrad, The National Agency for the advancement of scientific research – Presentation (PDF)
Prof. Cristina Rossi La Mastra, Business and Industrial Economics, Department of Management Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano
Alessandra Pedone, Confindustria Salerno – Presentation (PDF) and “Siamo Pari” Video (MP4)
Sigal Fishman, Galilee Research Institute – Presentation (PDF)

5. COGE Awards: Patrizia Grifoni, National Research Council – Presentation (PDF)

6. Sustainability: the way ahead,Chairperson: Katja Legisa, DLI

Yolanda Ursa, GENDER STI Project, GrupoInmark
Shadrack Mkansi, Science Awareness Platforms South African Agency For Science and Technology Advancement, SAASTA
Yiannis Laouris, MD, PhD, MS, Senior Scientist Cyprus Neuroscience & Technology Institute – Presentation (PDF)

7. Panel Debate:

Bice Della Piana, PhD, Associate Prof., Dep. Management & Innovation Systems, University of Salerno
Mauro Cozzolino, Associate professor of clinical psychology, University of Salerno
Fernando Ferri, National Research Council

###

15 July 202231 July 2022

The RI PEERS Gender Equality Observatory

Gender Equality is an increasingly critical issue upon which the European Commission is focused. Many observatories for monitoring and facing gender inequalities are active and operational at different scales on the European continent, from the local to the European level. These observatories are characterized by their respective purposes, themes, data collections, geographical dimension, and depth of study on specific topics.

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, a partner of the R&I Peers project, configured the R&I Peers Observatory (link: https://ripgep.eu/OBSERVATORY) as an online and dynamic resource aiming to provide a global vision and facilitate access to the various observatories that are already working in Europe on Gender Equality. The R&I Peers Observatory enables access to Observatories on Gender Equality from the organisation to the European level, as well as to News and Projects on Gender Equality.

Contribution to the online observatory is encouraged through a participatory approach. Once registered, participants can add news or even a new observatory. Information on the R&I Peers Observatory is strictly moderated and verified with a view to ethics, appropriateness, etc.

10 July 202231 July 2022

Different Geniuses – Stories and Business Footprints

“Different geniuses – stories and business footprints”: 17 companies from Salerno share good practices in the field of gender equality

On July 7, 2022, at the headquarters of Confindustria Salerno, the presentation of the editorial project “Different geniuses – stories and business footprints,” curated by Francesca and Giuliana Saccà, took place.

The volume, starting from the experiences of Salerno entrepreneurs, testifies how gender equality is a founding element of doing business in our province. These stories are a starting point to spread this culture even more within companies and to show that gender equality is often synonymous with innovative organizational models, performance improvement and, ultimately, greater competitiveness of the company.

The volume tells the stories and good practices regarding gender equality of seventeen companies in the Salerno area: Agrioil spa in Roccadaspide; Bioplast srl of Fisciano; Diellemme srl of Salerno; Fmts group of Pontecagnano Faiano; Antonio Sada & figli s.p.a. of Pontecagnano Faiano; Incoerenze srl of Pellezzano; Maf srl of Pontecagnano Faiano; Michele Autuori srl of Salerno; O.m.p.m. officina meridionale di precisione meccanica srl di Angri; Pauciulo Strategie s.a.s. di Nocera Inferiore; Al.to srls di Battipaglia; Re ad s.r.l. di Salerno; Rinaldi group srl di Giffoni Valle Piana; Tekla s.r.l. di Sarno; Playgarden s.r.r.l. – Tenuta dei Normanni di Salerno; Wade world network italia s.r.l. di Salerno; R.p.n. s.r.l. of Nocera Inferiore

The initiative is part of the activities promoted by the Plural Women’s Committee of Confindustria Salerno as part of the European Horizon 2020 project “R&I Peers” aimed at investigating the role of gender diversity as an engine of innovation and change in companies. Starting from a survey to measure the degree of maturity in terms of gender opportunity in member companies, we tried to evaluate the contribution of women in terms of improving business performance.

From data of the sample of the 42 companies that participated in the Survey that measures the spread of policies to support equal opportunities in companies, it emerges that:
• over 90% of companies have widely adopted life-private/work balance policies reserved for women to safeguard maternity and breastfeeding, guaranteeing particular flexibility for women for permits related to family care, integrating them with “retention” policies to reduce the risk of resignation and loss of know-how and professionalism in the company
• more than 80% of companies promote product or process innovations and patents that are generated by women
• in 80% of the companies surveyed there is a high presence of women in the highest paid roles in the company. So women hold top leadership roles and participate in meaningful business decisions.

The opportunity to hear from the hands-free voice of female entrepreneurs their very personal way of doing business and interpreting their leadership: all this is Geni Diversi – stories and business imprints, with the aim of recreating real snapshots by grasping strengths and areas of improvement of the business realities of the Salerno area.

Stories and business footprints that revealed the stories of their beginnings, passing through the crucial stages experienced, also focusing attention on the theme of innovation and their personal approach to it, networking skills, relational skills, problem solving, decision making are just some of the distinctive features of these companies that opened their doors, facilitating a storytelling that had the ambition to bring out the personal-professional experiences of their protagonists. It is the theme of gender equality that dominates, crossing stories with the desire to insist on gender policies, work and life balance strategies and the ability of companies to address the delicate issue of smartworking, flexibility and more generally the work-home interface.

The underlying goal of the entire project has been very concrete: to enhance the female talents present in our industrial fabric, but not exclusively.

The broader intent is to demonstrate what and how consistent are the social, economic and socio-organizational returns of gender diversity in companies, through the story of some “best practices” collected in the volume, with the hope that it can contribute to the evolution of the debate on these issues for a more balanced and healthy society in the relationship between life and work between men and women.

1 May 202128 May 2021

Gender Equality Success at a Cypriot Youth NGO

In the context of the second R&I Peers Multisectoral Conference, participants had the opportunity to receive first-hand feedback from external project stakeholders about their experience of implementing Gender Equality Plans. One panelist, Niki Karoulla, President of Active Zone Outdoor and Physical Education Teacher in Primary Education, shared her experience of a GEP implementation at Active Zone Outdoor, a non-profit organisation she runs in Cyprus.

As a first action in their GEP implementation, Karoulla says Active Zone Outdoor–which enjoys a membership of fifteen organisations and reaches 250 young people with sporting activities in Cyprus–focused on creating gender balance in two key areas: Within the AZO board of directors, and among participants in AZO external events that focus on outdoor sports activities for youth, ages 18 to 30.

In both cases, AZO reported successes. As of 2019, their 15-member board of directors enjoys involvement by seven women, with Karoulla herself as President. Karoulla also reports that “Click and Go, ” a project promoting non-traditional sports to women, succeeded at reaching equal gender engagement across trainers, leaders, and participants. Key to this success Karoulla says, was “promoting ‘atypical’ sports to women, like mountain climbing, and also by including women leaders in mountain climbing among their training team. This latter especially “challenged important gender stereotypes in this sport,” Karoulla said.

An additional success story Karoulla shared was a program called the Youth Policy Project, which aimed to “cultivate a culture of awareness for equal gender representation in Cyprus. In dialogue among policy-makers, youth, media, coaches, trainers and athletes, Karoulla says their event succeeded in having fifty-fifty participation across the board, a genuine accomplishment.

Karoulla says that key to these successes may be that Active Zone Outdoor is an organisation “made up of young people with an open mindset” which facilitates actions to support gender equality. “Maybe also because I am female,” she adds. Looking forward, Karoulla says she hopes the experience of implementing a gender equality plan at AZO can show that other NGOs can benefit from such strategies. Critical to this she says, is that “people in charge of the organisation have to treat gender issues as impacting both male and female. It is not just an issue for women,” Karoulla says. “It is an issue for all of us.”

1 November 20204 December 2020

Practical Tips for Tackling Sexism in Media and Public Discourse

The Hellenic General Secretariat for Family Policy and Gender Equality recently published two Practical Guides respectively targeting media professionals and journalists, and women politicians and candidates for public office, in order to tackle sexism in media and public discourse.

These guides include practical tips and communication techniques to help women in the public sphere respond to, and even prevent, sexism and stereotype-driven behavior. The guides contain general information and statistics on the position of women in public discourse and their empowerment needs. They outline concepts, provide a conceptual framework within which sexism may operate, and provide case studies and examples that can be used by anyone interested in tackling stereotypes and sexist behavior in public debates.

Tips for Tackling Sexism in Media:

Journalists can constructively contribute to decreasing sexism and stereotyping behavior in media in the following ways:

When we cover a story as journalists, we make women ‘visible,’ even when they do not shout.
We change the narrative – Tip 1: The story that suggests women are weak and at the mercy of their emotions, and men are logical and strong, as well as women’s saviours, is a problematic narrative. We include in our reporting men who show sentiment and kindness, and women who need no saviour.
We change the narrative – Tip 2: As journalists, we do not abide by stereotypes that suggest that showing sentiment is the proof of weakness, nor that cold logic is always a show of strength, intellectual or otherwise. Remember there are fine lines, for example cruelty is not strength.
In harassment and femicide stories, we analyse what happened, offering a three-fold, deep analysis. We do not stigmatise the victim.
We find allies against sexism—colleagues, representatives of institutions, organizations—and we form a community with them.
We give a priority to anti-sexist education of children, eg. games and toys are not forbidden or required play for children of a specific gender.
We use inclusive language.
We look for women experts who can contribute to our reporting.

Further Reading: Synopsis of Guidelines in English

Tips for Tackling Sexism in Public Discourse:

A woman politician or candidate for public office, or any woman exposed to public discourse, may consider the following guidelines when they become the subject of sexist or stereotyping behavior:

Assess the situation calmly and practice a confrontational and dissuasive reaction.
Speak openly and state when you are being interrupted, including when someone “protects” you, thus implying that you are unable to manage the conversation yourself.
Use arguments when you are accused of using your feelings.
Correctly state your status when someone refers to you with a diminutive.
Immediately flag any comment made because of your gender.
If you receive a comment because of gender, disapprove of your interlocutor and ask for an explanation.
Be vocal if you feel that what you are saying is not heard.
Answer calmly if the comments are about your gender.
Be prepared and ready to react.
Speak through your own experiences.
Reverse stereotypes, and if possible, generalize.
Bring the issue of gender to the fore.

The guides were elaborated in the framework of the project “Capacity building for women candidates and media stakeholders in public debates in Greece” (“GENDER_PUBLIC DEBATE”) implemented by the Centre for European Constitutional Law (coordinator), in collaboration with the National and Kapodistrian University Athens Department of Communication & Media Studies, and the General Secretariat for Family Policy and Gender Equality, with co-funding from the “Rights, Equality and Citizenship” Program (REC) of the European Union, 2014-2020.

Links to additional content:

Synopsis of Guidelines in English
Guidelines for Media Professionals and Journalists (Greek with Executive Summary in English)
Guidelines for Women Politicians and Candidates (Greek with Executive Summary in English)

25 April 20195 June 2019

Integrating the Gender Dimension in Research

At the second progress meeting for the R&I PEERS project, held in Athens on 4 April 2019, consortium members organised a workshop on “how to integrate the gender dimension into research content.” The aim of this training was to provide consortium partners with knowledge on how to integrate the gender perspective in research in a way that does not deal with the topic of “gender” as a specific research objective.

The workshop was built around the Toolkit for Integrating Gender-Sensitive Approach into Research and Teaching developed as part of the GARCIA project, and was convened by Dr. Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc, one of the Toolkit authors hailing from R&I PEERS project partner ZRC SAZU.

The aim of the Toolkit itself is to help researchers and teaching staff understand the relevance of gender to scientific inquiry by addressing questions to their past and future research/teaching trajectories. Using the Toolkit, then, the focus of the workshop was to:

Raise awareness about the value of integrating the gender dimension in research;
Examine how the gender perspective could lead open new opportunities research inquiry; and
Promote more socially responsible and sensitive scientific inquiry.

Starting from the premise that there are no ready-made solutions, the workshop participants were asked to describe a project that does not have gender component so the group could practice gender-sensitive approach from scratch. In this way, the workshop was structured as a thought exercise in which the convenor facilitated discussions on how a gender-sensitive approach could be applied on concrete project questions, methodologies, and results.

Workshop participants were evenly divided between those familiar with gender studies concepts and those from disciplines where exposure to such concepts is rare. This encouraged lively debate where, through exchange of knowledge between the groups, a notable achievement was an increase in understanding around the concepts of ‘gender’ and ‘intersectionality’.

10 April 20195 June 2019

Wrap-up: R-I PEERS First Multisectoral Conference

The First Multisectoral Conference of the R&I PEERS project took place in Athens on 3 April 2019, and was attended by approximately sixty participants, including Ms Maria Theleriti, Member of Greek Parliament, who also represented Mr Nikos Voutsis, President of the Greek Parliament. The Conference was opened by Ms Marina Chrysoveloni, Greek Deputy Minister of the Interior in charge of Gender Equality and representative of Mr Alexis Charitsis, Greek Minister of the Interior, followed by introductory remarks from Ms Maria Rosaria Pelizzari of UNISA, R&I PEERS Project Coordinator.

Two project partner organizations, the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (Greece), and Agence Nationale de la Promotion de la Recherche scientifique (Tunisia), then presented their Gender Equality Plans, followed by a speech from CIC nanoGune (Spain) on the subject of “gender equality in research and innovation in Spain,” and the situation at CIC nanoGune specifically.

A representative of Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche (Italy) then discussed the importance of using correct indicators for Gender Equality Plans and the methodology employed for identifying these indicators. Ms Marta Artilles Viera, EC representative, then made a remote presentation outlining ERA guidelines and Project Objectives for the R&I PEERS project.

The conference also showcased two ongoing “sister” Gender Equality projects in Research and Innovation, also funded by Horizon 2020, that promote Gender Equality Plan implementation. Greek representatives of these projects, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the National Documentation Center (Greece), presented the project objectives and results achieved so far within the two discussed projects, noted below:

TARGET Project: SUPPORTING Gender Equality Innovating Institutions in the Mediterranean; and
The GenderAction Project: Gender equality in the ERA Community

Ensuing debate highlighted the need for networking among partners at national level and incentives to strengthen the diffusion of gender in research, including toward operation of research organizations.

Representatives of Galilee Research Institute (Israel) and Digital Leadership Institute (Belgium) subsequently spoke about the importance of an online platform for maximizing the impact of the project. And finally, a representative of the Neuroscience and Technology Institute (Cyprus) presented the Structured Democratic Dialogue methodology and explained its importance for participatory decision-making.