EU Gender Conference for the new member states in Berlin

On 19th-21st April 2007 the first conference on equality for and with ten new EU member states took place at the Humboldt University Berlin. Framed by the European Year of Equal Opportunities and the German Presidency of the European Union, the conference “For Diversity against Discrimination – The EU Equality-Acquis: Experiences, Problems and Opportunities”, placed the fundamental topic of equality between men and women on the political agenda.

The conference opening took place at the Lithuanian Embassy in Berlin where the ambassador emphasised especially Lithuania's responsibility, as the EU Gender Institute will be based in Vilnius.

The conference was organized by the GenderCompetenceCentre together with the equality department of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and co-financed by the EU Commission/TAIEX. To open the European dialogue for as many EU countries as possible, also experts from the old member states were invited to report about their experiences on the implementation of equality.

Conference aim was to contribute to the harmonization of the EU Equality Acquis, which is concretized in the EU Roadmap for equality between women and men.

Further targets were the exchange on equality issues and Gender Mainstreaming, and to benefit from the experiences of all EU member states, in order to optimise strategies and improve networking in the future.

The conference once again showed that equality is a cross-sectional topic and should not be ignored; in fact, it should be seen as a central quest in all political fields. The countries are responding to their cultural, social, economical and legal conditions with different equality strategies, whereas the problems during the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming where almost similar.

The presentations of the old member states (Germany, Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands and Spain) also revealed the backside of the seemingly achieved emancipation: still existing unequal payment (Pay Gap) and the traditional division of labour, also stated in the EU equality report 2007.

The new member states have to deal with similar inequality and discrimination, however, they have the chance, like Spain for example, to advance the implementation of equality by the use of the new EU legislation.

Thematically equality is understood in various ways: in Germany equality policies are primary seen in the context of family affairs; in Austria and Denmark equality is stronger linked with employment strategies for the labour market. Relevant in all countries is the question of identity changes especially in view of men, which still have not yet defined their part in the family. Their participation will be indispensable to question stereotypes. Other issues were work life balance and the situation of economical dependent women, particularly in rural areas, e.g. Hungary and Poland. Discrimination regulations regarding age and origin were also discussed. The new member states define the discrimination indicators wider, also stating social status and marital status like e.g. Bulgaria.


The strategy Gender Mainstreaming does show, in many cases, positive effects in all countries, as e.g. a better gender understanding on the part of employers and in the administration. Counselling by experts during the implementation process lead to changes within the institutions. However, Gender Mainstreaming is still not implemented on a large scale, as measures are usually to short-termed and there still exists resistance towards the strategy. Whereas the argument of the complexity of the strategy GM proves to be a political argument: departments such as transport are highly complex – however less questioned. Some of the new member states reported on difficulties to legitimise GM and a lack of interest on equality.

The new member states introduced numerous measures, programmes and projects to tackle all these problems constructively. The Twinning Projects seem to be a successful instrument, where EU countries work together towards the harmonization of the legislation of the Acquis and the „Institution Building“. Gender Mainstreaming can strengthen e.g. the administrative capacities, as reported by Slovakia. Furthermore trainings for people in decision making positions were mentioned as a key instrument for combating stereotyping and discrimination. The development of Gender Expertise seems to be crucial in all areas. The analysing instruments for the evaluation of gender policies, as e.g. monitoring and evaluation are evident for the long term realisation of equality.

Political changes should not affect equality work, so that some member states established independent mechanisms and institutions like the Gender Focal Points and the Women Institutes in Spain.

It is necessary to show clearly the benefits of equality for the target groups of equality politics and for the public. For the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming the argument is useful that through gender specific labour politics more people can be integrated into the labour market. Gender data are indispensable when analysing the different life situations and allocating the disparities.

For the communication of equality the media needs to be addressed. This is achieved by e.g. press conferences, whereas campaigns aim at a wider awareness of the civil society. In the new member states the NGO's play a major role regarding legislation, but also for the public presence of the topic. Also the civil rights, which have to be linked to responsibilities, could be a motivation for civic involvement for a society without discrimination.

Important for all countries is the transmission of “good news”, thus to obtain more acceptance in the civil society and to show that the free market economy and the state is not always equivalent to gender equality – as seen in the old countries, whereby the re-privatization of gender issues is marked as a problematic development in all EU countries.

At the end of the conference the GenderCompetenceCentre once again highlighted the huge possibilities of the conference regarding networking, future Inter-European exchange and the promising cooperation with the EU Gender Institute. We do have to acquire new actors to promote equality within the specific contexts of the respective countries and work together to make gender competence and gender knowledge an every days practice: this is also the aim of the strategy Gender Mainstreaming, which can focus on the challenge „for Diversity against Discrimination“.

Here you can find the presentations given at the conference:

• Petra Schott: „Die EU als Vorreiterin für Gleichstellung - Umsetzung, Probleme und Zukunftsperspektiven“ [German]
• Gudrun Scheithauer: “Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Gleichstellungspolitik in Deutschland. Gleichstellung als Erfolgsstrategie?“ [German]
• Claudia Sorger: “Gender Mainstreaming in Österreich – auf dem Weg zur Gleichstellung? Erfahrungen der Umsetzung von GM in Österreich“ [German]
• Agnete Andersen: „The Work on Gender Mainstreaming in the Ministry of Employment, Denmark“
• Dr. Mieke Verloo: „Assessing a former pioneer of gender equality: lessons from the Netherlands“
• Ph.D. Elizabeth Villagomez Morales: ”Gender mainstreaming in Spain“
• Vanda Juršėnienė: „Gender Equality in Lithuania - Focus on implementation: mechanisms, actions and partnership“
• Dr. Dalia Marcinkevičienė, Lithuania: „Gender Mainstreaming in social inclusion policies: Achievements and challenges“
• Ph.D. Petr Pavlik: „Equal opportunities for all? Gender Politics in the Czech Republic“
• Rosiza Georgieva and Lazar Lazarov: „Gender Equality policy for women and men in Bulgaria"
• Alexandra Nemes: „Romanian legislation and institutional framework on the gender field“
• Maria Kahlau: „Gender Mainstreaming in Polish practice“
• Viera Hanuláková: “Strengthening Slovak administrative capacities in Gender Mainstreaming - Results of the twinning project“
• Anita Kleinberga: „Gender disproportion and society integration in Latvia“
• Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, LL.M. : “Resümee und Schlussfolgerungen“ [German]