Documentation Centre and Archives on Feminism, Equal Opportunities and Women's Studies
Documentation Centre and Archives Bridging the Gap between Women and Gender Studies in the Academia and Women's Organisations an Formation and Training for Women in the Field.
Reconceptualising the Notion of Equal Opportunities and Rethinking the Policy Aims and Instruments - a Joint Effort of Women's (Gender) Studies in the Academia (Research and Training), Policy Makers and Women's Organisations.
In the new Athena project the aims are to consolidate the profits of Athena I and to make the network grow further and expand itself into an important network for Women's Studies in and beyond the borders of the universities.
The most important aim of working group 3B is to work actively on bridging the gap between the three actors that we can recognise in furthering the women's emancipation or equal opportunities:
With this project we hope to lay transversal connections among different partner institutions and bridge the gap between all of these actors and we will certainly build on the outcomes and results of Athena I.
We will endeavour to strengthen the ties between education, research and the social field, to make inventories of policy-tools, to develop new tools and to contribute to the intellectual and professional education of future (female) professionals in order to prepare them with a solid background and with instruments that will improve their job opportunities.
But where did we get the idea?
It has been a while since the second feminist wave was at its top level - about 20-25 years ago - and
many things have been accomplished by the joint efforts of all kinds of actors.
Yet, at this moment (2004) we can only state a certain trend of the wave being either in a downward spiral or being down completely in spite of the fact that many institutional mechanisms have been set up in different countries throughout the world. The trend is not at the same level in all countries, but Europe in general can pass the test of being comparable within itself as compared to the level of emancipation of women in other continents.
In many countries it is hard to engage young women in the goals that are set for equal opportunity policies. They take the accomplishments of the past for granted, have little idea of the history and the subtle mechanisms that keep women "not-emancipated" and think that the goals are reached and no more actions should be undertaken.
However when we look upon the accomplishments more closely we will find that many goals are mostly reached superficially and not profoundly. Whenever the alertness of women for their rights disappears, old rules come up again. Many stereotypes and old fashioned ideas are still vivid within the minds of many citizens. We may have laws to fight discriminations but in most cases the cultural changes have not taken place, or are not consolidated.
Working on Equal Opportunities has become a profession, on different levels and in many domains. Most of the actors have,each within their field, become professionalised but the links between the different fields have loosened. The feminists (of the women's movement) the researchers and the policy makers do not always work together. Several professionals within the institutions that are set up for Equal Opportunities may perhaps not even be feminists. Without some basic agreements upon a few feministic targets it is impossible to work effectively on Equal Opportunities in our societies.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary to bridge the gap between the 3 kinds of professions and to start working together profoundly, by making state of where we stand and redefine the goals that can be set to respirit the dynamics of the emancipation movement. And certainly in the advancement of a more united Europe the links should be made over the borders not only of the professions but also of the different countries or regions.
With this project we would like to make a contribution to this end. In three years we would like to start discussions with the three actors in order to evaluate the existing aims, methods and tools of equal opportunities policies.