From membership to
leadership: advancing
women in trade unions
Working groups
ETUC workshop, Berlin
28 October 2010
Aims of the
working groups

Define strategy to advance gender balance:


Within ETUC
Within EIF and national confederations

Discuss and finalise draft recommendations

Put forward concrete proposals to be used in the
context of the Congress Preparatory Committee

Final recommendations will have to be
discussed and endorsed by the ETUC womens’
Committee (Dec. 2010)
Background of the
recommendations

ETUC Equality Action Plans, 1999 and 2003; Mid
Term Review, 2007; Charter on Gender
Mainstreaming
 What we achieved what we did not

ETUC survey findings
 8th of March
 Women in trade unions: bridging the gaps (2006)

Discussions and recommendations from
Luxembourg Conference

“From membership to leadership” report findings
How recommendations are
structured

Target groups




Timing



ETUC
EIF
National confederations
Mid-term strategy: “What action to improve gender
balance before the Congress”
Long-term strategy “What action to improve gender
balance after the Congress”
Follow up and assessment
How the work of working groups will
be carried out

2 parallel working groups (1 EN, 1 multilingual)

2 hours of discussion



(12:00 – 13:00) “Mid-term strategy: “What action to improve
gender balance before the Congress”
(14:30 – 15:30) “Mid-term strategy: “What action to improve
gender balance after the Congress”
One rapporteur
Before the ETUC Congress…
I. Recommendations for the ETUC
1.
Make the argument for gender balance as a core union priority
by engaging women and men in the debate and seek agreement
from affiliates to ensure a gender balanced representation by
adopting concrete measures in this regard
2.
Gender disaggregate the composition of the ETUC decisionmaking bodies (Congress, Executive, Steering, Secretariat,
working groups) and evaluate whether or not there is an
adequate gender balance therein
3.
Highlight gender equality issues in the Congress Preparatory
Committee. Ensure that the Congress documents and debates
are gender mainstreamed
Before the ETUC Congress…
I. Recommendations for the ETUC
4.
Adopt a policy instrument for the 2011-2015 period setting out
requirements, actions and targets for gender balance for the European
and national level trade union decision-making structures. This
instrument could include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
5.
A new ETUC Action Plan with a time frame, monitoring and assessment system
for the next Congress period, providing an integrated and multi-faceted approach
to achieving gender balance;
Guidelines that build on the content of the ETUC’s Charter on Gender
Mainstreaming, with practical tools to implement gender mainstreaming;
Appropriate measures to reward good performance, such as a trade union
“gender equality” award;
Appropriate sanctions to penalise poor performance.
Carry out a gender mainstreaming audit in order to identify areas
where a gender perspective needs to be further developed in all ETUC
policies and structures.
Before the ETUC Congress…
II. Recommendations for EIF and NC
1.
Make the argument for gender balance as a core union priority and
seek to ensure a balanced gender representation by adopting concrete
measures in this regard
2.
Support ETUC actions to improve gender balance and to overcome
barriers to achieve this
3.
Monitor and gender mainstream the work of the Congress Preparatory
Committee, by working together with the national/EIF representative
taking part in its work
4.
Ensure a gender balanced delegation at the ETUC Congress
Beyond the ETUC Congress…
I. Recommendations for the ETUC
1.
Regularly monitor the gender statistics as well as the composition of the ETUC
decision-making bodies (Congress, Executive, Steering, Secretariat, working
groups) and take appropriate action when necessary;
2.
Adopt adequate measures to ensure balanced participation of female trade unionists
in ETUC meetings, working groups, etc. both as speakers and participants;
3.
Set up a mechanism to gender mainstream ETUC policies. Carry out a gender
mainstreaming training to staff and secretariat;
4.
Develop, through the ETUI (European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education
and Health and Safety):
a)
b)
A programme of leadership training for women trade union members, and a set of
training modules that can be used by European Industry Federations, national
confederations and individual unions undertaking women’s leadership training;
A study, to be issued at least every two years, on the ‘state of the art’ of barriers and
measures adopted by unions to improve gender equality in the trade union movement
and at work place level
Beyond the ETUC Congress…
I. Recommendations for the ETUC
5.
Carry out an internal equality audit to identify the barriers that
exist for gender progression within the organisation;
6.
Work closely with those members that still do not collect
gender disaggregate data of their membership and/or decision
making bodies and examine together with them the solutions to
overcome it. Draft a template for gender disaggregates data
collection that can be used by national and EU affiliates.
7.
Develop a mechanism, through the ETUC Executive Committee
and in cooperation with the women’s committee, for monitoring
and reporting on the implementation of the above
recommendations (e.g. by putting gender equality as a
standing/regular item on the governing bodies agenda).
8.
Provide adequate staff levels and resources to follow-up the
gender equality policies within the organisation.
Beyond the ETUC Congress…
II. Recommendations for EIF and NC
1.
2.
3.
4.
Develop an internal action plan on gender balance and ensure that this is
monitored regularly and endorsed by affiliates;
Examine the gender balance composition of organisation’s existing
governing bodies and evolution over the last years. On this basis discuss
how the organisation can introduce changes in the statutes, adopt targets
and actions for balanced gender representation;
Ensure that systems of collecting disaggregated data on gender
representation at all levels of the union are in place, and that this is
reviewed on an annual basis to contribute effectively with the ETUC 8th of
March Survey;
Work through the organisation’s training departments and/or national
training organisations to put in place measures for the training and
mentoring of women in order to prepare women for leadership and
decision-making roles;
Beyond the ETUC Congress…
II. Recommendations for EIF and NC
5.
Produce guidelines on gender mainstreaming with practical tools for their
implementation, in areas such as: collective bargaining; organising; social
dialogue, etc.;
6.
Ensure that trade union organisation promotes gender diversity through
its own internal human resources;
7.
Carry out a gender mainstreaming audit in order to identify areas where a
gender perspective needs to be further developed in union policies and
structures;
8.
Address the image and culture of union, looking at its visual outputs;
9.
Introduce a mechanism for monitoring and reporting on the
recommendations listed above.
10.
Inform regularly the ETUC of the measures adopted and the improvements
achieved.
Good work!