Around 2 000 people followed the livestream, including 900 secondary school and university students.
On Friday the 26 March some 2 000 people tuned in to "Europa sostantivo
femminile - Social responsibility from a gender perspective", an event
broadcasted live from Bologna's City Council Hall which was set up as a TV
studio with links to Rome and Brussels. An introduction by the mayor of
Bologna,
, kicked off the event which
included speeches from the European Commissioner for Equality
.
The event was organised by the Metropolitan City of Bologna in cooperation
with the Capo D Network and was supported by the European Committee of the
Regions and the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Among the audience
were some 900 students from secondary schools, training institutions and
universities.
The packed programme provided an opportunity for dialogue between
institutions, businesses, schools and associations, a discussion on
practicable positive action for fostering equal opportunities between women
and men, and an exchange of good practices. Journalist Maria Latella hosted the proceedings, which saw a number
of speeches and numerous questions posed to the guests by the public, which
focused on the measures in place to overcome the crisis and on the
objectives set by the different levels of government present at the
conference for overcoming the gender pay and employment gap.
The speech by Linda Laura Sabbadini, Director of ISTAT and
chair of Women 20, sparked a debate on the Recovery Fund, generating
proposals for the G20 empowering women agenda. A session entitled
"Etymology, changing words" focused on the importance of words, and saw
contributions from professors Vera Gheno and Giovanna Cosenza and a debate mainly involving teachers
and students.
Experts from the academic and institutional world provided an overview of
the actions and measures that are being adopted at European and national
levels to address the developments and changes currently affecting the
world of work which the COVID-19 crisis has made even more fragile and
vulnerable – especially for women (in the workplace).
Virginio Merola (IT/PES)
, mayor of Bologna and member of the Committee of the Regions, said: "
The Recovery Fund, in dealing with Europe's socio-economic recovery,
must target gender inequality as one of its 'key issues'. As cities and
local communities, we need to make our voice heard more effectively to
avoid finding ourselves in a situation again in which young people and
working women pay the price, as they are in this crisis. We therefore
need to build together a European space for citizenship rights and the
right to work for all, which gives due consideration to the role of
women, who more than others are paying the price of the pandemic
".
"A step change is needed," pointed out Italian Minister for Equal
Opportunities and Family Elena Bonetti, "
to enable the female experience to play its full social and economic
role, not only in terms of justice and combating inequalities, but also
because it is advantageous
.
The Next Generation plan must enable women to unleash their energies,
as this is the only way that our country can make the necessary step
change
."
"
I am happy to take part in this event organised by the Metropolitan
City of Bologna together with the Committee of the Regions
," said Helena Dalli, European Commissioner for Equality.
"
We need to reaffirm and promote the gender dimension in social
responsibility in the workplace starting from the application of the
principle of equality and pay transparency in both the public and
private sectors. The pursuit of equality requires a collective
commitment and this approach is important both at EU level and in each
of the national and regional contexts
".
The President of the European Parliament David Sassoli
said that "
This crisis gives us a great opportunity to support people's dignity,
achieve justice for women, and build a European space that will be a
benchmark in a world where equality does not find citizenship
.
And as we have already seen in the response to the crisis, this Europe
has the values and resources to do this. The Italian recovery plan will
be crucial for Europe because there can be no European recovery without
an Italian recovery
".
Elly Schlein
, vice-president of the Emilia-Romagna region, said: "
The COVID-19 pandemic erupted as a health crisis, but immediately
became economic and social
.
On the employment front, we can see from Istat's figures that it is
women who, together with young people, are paying the highest price
because they already had the most precarious employment conditions.
Swift and effective action must therefore be taken to reduce the gender
employment and pay gaps, by deploying a wide range of measures to
support the training of women in all fields, tackling stereotypes, and
supporting female employment and entrepreneurship. This also means
strengthening work-life balance policies and facilitating a more equal
distribution of caring responsibilities in families, which
disproportionately fall on women's shoulders. This is why it is crucial
to adopt a cross-cutting gender perspective when preparing the plan for
investing the incoming Next Generation EU resources, and ensure that
they help to reduce gender inequalities. By investing significant
resources also in social infrastructure, as we are already doing in
Emilia-Romagna, we can turn unpaid care work into skilled and paid work
in the services sector
."
The data presented by Linda Laura Sabbadini on the
post-COVID economic and employment crisis painted a picture "
of a country where women have been and continue to be a bulwark against
the virus, because as workers they are on the front line in schools and
hospitals, and in the home, which even before COVID-19 accounted for
67% of the burden of care
.
To understand the seriousness of the situation, I would point out that
young Italian women have the lowest employment rate in Europe, lower
than in Greece. In particular, young women aged 25-29 are six points
below Greece: we are talking about women that are more educated than
men, but that our country is unable to employ. The point is that for as
long as women are under-utilised as compared to their potential, Italy
will not grow. There is a need for investment and clear, quantifiable
and measurable objectives. As early as 1957, the Treaty of Rome
considered gender equality a core value, fundamental right and European
pillar of social rights. Gender equality strategies are the real key to
the development of this country and what is needed, primarily, is not
self-proclamation, but to understand what has blocked this development,
what are the strategic assets
".
"
A sustainable welfare system is what is needed, that can be maintained
over time
", was the key message of Roberto Poli, UNESCO Chair in
Anticipatory Systems and professor at the University of Trento, who
considers it necessary to rethink welfare " not in order to reduce it but to adapt it to the 21st century.
The classic three-pillar model (stable households, single provider of
income, ex post interventions) is now outdated. The new welfare model
sees the fundamental role of working women and services to the family
adapted to "fluid families"
. It is also necessary to anticipate crises rather than run after them,
continued Mr Poli in his keynote speech on Anticipating change: strategic foresight and social responsibility
, and focus on the difficulties that
"are concentrated in the periods of transition: from education to work,
when the first child is born, when changing job or when unemployed,
when moving from work to retirement."
A full recording of the event will be available in the coming days in the
Equal Opportunities section of the Metropolitan City portal.
The first two debates can be viewed
here
and
here
.
The event is part of a series of "local dialogues" (#localdialogues) on
European issues organised and supported by the European Committee of the
Regions across the EU, which will constitute one of the Committee's
contributions to the
Conference on the Future of Europe.
Contact:
Matteo Miglietta – European Committee of the Regions
Tel. +32 (0)470 895 382
matteo.miglietta@cor.europa.eu
Davide Bergamini – Metropolitan City of Bologna
Tel. +39 051 6598340
stampa@cittametropolitana.bo.it