Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EQUALS-EU (Europe’s Regional Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-07-01 bis 2023-12-31
Progress towards gender equality in Europe is moving slowly, and key dimensions have worsened. The EU’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 calls for a Europe where women and men, girls and boys, are equal, where diversity is a recognized asset to the economy and society, and where women have equal opportunities to participate and thrive in society. The EU has committed to improving the structural inequality between men and women, and empowering and promoting the social, economic, and political inclusion of women and girls. However, a conclusive strategy for eliminating gender inequality and reshaping institutionalized stereotypes and discriminatory practices has yet to emerge.
EQUALS-EU aims to promote gender equity in social innovation by:
1) Building capacity through multilateral partnerships that strengthen existing and formalize new networks for in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
2) Creating smart, sustainable, and inclusive social innovation ecosystems in local communities and cities in Europe and in non-European countries in the Global North and South.
In pursuit of these objectives, EQUALS-EU is structured around an ambitious work programme based on targeted measures to achieve gender equality combined with strengthened gender mainstreaming efforts. It comprises six work packages:
WP1: Appraise Gender Equity Social Innovation Ecosystems,
WP2: Create New Solutions for Gender Equity and Digital Inclusion,
WP3: Transform Gender Inequity into Sustainable Social Impact,
WP4: Exchange Knowledge and Transfer Technology for Gender Equity,
WP5: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation, and
WP6: Management and Coordination.
The full scope of EQUALS-EU network activities covers 29 EU Members States and Associated Countries and nine non-European countries in both the Global North and Global South.
EQUALS-EU aims to promote gender equity in social innovation by:
1) Building capacity through multilateral partnerships that strengthen existing and formalize new networks for in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
2) Creating smart, sustainable, and inclusive social innovation ecosystems in local communities and cities in Europe and in non-European countries in the Global North and South.
In pursuit of these objectives, EQUALS-EU is structured around an ambitious work programme based on targeted measures to achieve gender equality combined with strengthened gender mainstreaming efforts. It comprises six work packages:
WP1: Appraise Gender Equity Social Innovation Ecosystems,
WP2: Create New Solutions for Gender Equity and Digital Inclusion,
WP3: Transform Gender Inequity into Sustainable Social Impact,
WP4: Exchange Knowledge and Transfer Technology for Gender Equity,
WP5: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation, and
WP6: Management and Coordination.
The full scope of EQUALS-EU network activities covers 29 EU Members States and Associated Countries and nine non-European countries in both the Global North and Global South.
The EQUALS-EU project comprised 4 Main activities, as described below. Most of the work during the reporting period has related to activity 3 & 4, with delayed work for activities 1 &2 also completed.
1. Map gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems in over 20 countries
This activity developed a new methodology to better understand structural challenges in the society for engaging women and girls in innovation and technology careers. By M26 a policy brief was published on promoting a gender-inclusive innovation ecosystem with case studies outlining the key actors and advancements in over 20 countries in Europe and worldwide (D1.4). The policy brief was core to subsequent dissemination activities.
2. Host innovation camps and hackathons in over 25 countries
EQUALS-EU held events in selected countries at which teams developed new gender equity solutions for women and girls’ digital inclusion focused on the local cultural context. An expert jury selected a team from each event, to join the incubator program. In total, partners engaged over 300 participants at 19 events. The results of these events were synthesized in a roadmap for promoting gender-inclusive innovation (D2.2) which in turn informed the development of two Gender Equity Tools for Digital Inclusion, a key outcome of the project, and core to subsequent dissemination activities: a total of 15 national dissemination events (T.5.5. Special Session), organized by 16 partners with over 500 participants.
3. Run a six-month incubator program focused on gender-inclusive entrepreneurship
The incubator program provided business development training for the teams selected from the innovation camps and hackathons. The program provided expert mentors that gave individual support for the start-ups. The incubator program also formed the basis of a spin-off professional network for women and girls in innovation and entrepreneurship (D3.2). The network launched a LinkedIn group in M34 with a detailed six-month schedule of kick-off activities.
4 Host a summer school for future leaders in gender-inclusive innovation
EQUALS-EU culminated in a summer school (June 2023) where the most promising ideas from the hackatons/innovation camps were further developed. The program focused on digital rights, transformational leadership and STEM skills. The concluding “pitch-off” event provided invaluable feedback from potential investors. All course content is available for reuse from the EQUALS-EU website.
In addition, a lexicon of gender equality terminologies was developed. This initiative resulted from translating the survey tool (activity 1 above) into national languages to capture contextual definitions of gender terms. The aim was to explore how these definitions could contribute to the approach in working with gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems. The gender lexicon was developed into an online tool and is available on the EQUALS-EU website. It was widely disseminated with the other project results, both during development and following completion.
Project results were disseminated through 5 high-level/large-scale events in 2023:WSIS Forum, AD Weeks, UN SDG Action Weekend, Latvian International Economic Forum, AD Summit. 1 event was attended as participant: Women & Girls in STEM Forum. Partners organized/attended a an additional 80 related events with around 8 700 participants.
1. Map gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems in over 20 countries
This activity developed a new methodology to better understand structural challenges in the society for engaging women and girls in innovation and technology careers. By M26 a policy brief was published on promoting a gender-inclusive innovation ecosystem with case studies outlining the key actors and advancements in over 20 countries in Europe and worldwide (D1.4). The policy brief was core to subsequent dissemination activities.
2. Host innovation camps and hackathons in over 25 countries
EQUALS-EU held events in selected countries at which teams developed new gender equity solutions for women and girls’ digital inclusion focused on the local cultural context. An expert jury selected a team from each event, to join the incubator program. In total, partners engaged over 300 participants at 19 events. The results of these events were synthesized in a roadmap for promoting gender-inclusive innovation (D2.2) which in turn informed the development of two Gender Equity Tools for Digital Inclusion, a key outcome of the project, and core to subsequent dissemination activities: a total of 15 national dissemination events (T.5.5. Special Session), organized by 16 partners with over 500 participants.
3. Run a six-month incubator program focused on gender-inclusive entrepreneurship
The incubator program provided business development training for the teams selected from the innovation camps and hackathons. The program provided expert mentors that gave individual support for the start-ups. The incubator program also formed the basis of a spin-off professional network for women and girls in innovation and entrepreneurship (D3.2). The network launched a LinkedIn group in M34 with a detailed six-month schedule of kick-off activities.
4 Host a summer school for future leaders in gender-inclusive innovation
EQUALS-EU culminated in a summer school (June 2023) where the most promising ideas from the hackatons/innovation camps were further developed. The program focused on digital rights, transformational leadership and STEM skills. The concluding “pitch-off” event provided invaluable feedback from potential investors. All course content is available for reuse from the EQUALS-EU website.
In addition, a lexicon of gender equality terminologies was developed. This initiative resulted from translating the survey tool (activity 1 above) into national languages to capture contextual definitions of gender terms. The aim was to explore how these definitions could contribute to the approach in working with gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems. The gender lexicon was developed into an online tool and is available on the EQUALS-EU website. It was widely disseminated with the other project results, both during development and following completion.
Project results were disseminated through 5 high-level/large-scale events in 2023:WSIS Forum, AD Weeks, UN SDG Action Weekend, Latvian International Economic Forum, AD Summit. 1 event was attended as participant: Women & Girls in STEM Forum. Partners organized/attended a an additional 80 related events with around 8 700 participants.
Through a comprehensive program of interrelated tasks EQUALS-EU has achieved its expected results and impacts:
•Gain insight into collaborative, inter-sectional, feminist working approaches.
•Develop the capacity to understand and utilise vocabulary and novel methods to critically unpack, understand, and intervene in systems and processes producing digital exclusion.
•Develop practical tools and capacities to promote inclusion and eliminate exclusion in the digital world.
•Build and expand their network through exposure to key actors in the fields of digital inclusion and gender equity.
•Learn about the importance of including the territorial perspective for creating new insights in the analysis of gender inequality.
•Learn how gender effects urban space, the use of time and social innovation in rural environments, examining how women are contributing to create business with social impact.
•Understand the origins and implications of women’s under-representation in leadership roles, the regulatory and policy barriers faced by women in ICT’s and the contribution of women’s leadership to the competitiveness of industries/organizations.
•Deepen their knowledge on the key roots of gender leadership gap with a focus on specific issues including wide-spread attitudes towards female tech professionals, professional training as a key point of contact in determining skills development, glass ceiling, the polarity of women’s and men’s roles in tech industry, segregation into gendered groups and networks.
•Learn as a takeaway the benefits of gender integrated leadership for the success of their industries/organizations and the tools to create their personal leadership style.
The documentation of social media outreach during the second reporting period quantifies the consistent effort in communication and dissemination of the consortium partners (led by WP5), to raise awareness of the issues central to the EQUALS-EU project and to disseminate project outcomes. From the collection of data during last 18 months of the project, a total of 578, 003 hits have been registered with a joint effort of partners and their social media activities, and the EQUALS-EU channels.
•Gain insight into collaborative, inter-sectional, feminist working approaches.
•Develop the capacity to understand and utilise vocabulary and novel methods to critically unpack, understand, and intervene in systems and processes producing digital exclusion.
•Develop practical tools and capacities to promote inclusion and eliminate exclusion in the digital world.
•Build and expand their network through exposure to key actors in the fields of digital inclusion and gender equity.
•Learn about the importance of including the territorial perspective for creating new insights in the analysis of gender inequality.
•Learn how gender effects urban space, the use of time and social innovation in rural environments, examining how women are contributing to create business with social impact.
•Understand the origins and implications of women’s under-representation in leadership roles, the regulatory and policy barriers faced by women in ICT’s and the contribution of women’s leadership to the competitiveness of industries/organizations.
•Deepen their knowledge on the key roots of gender leadership gap with a focus on specific issues including wide-spread attitudes towards female tech professionals, professional training as a key point of contact in determining skills development, glass ceiling, the polarity of women’s and men’s roles in tech industry, segregation into gendered groups and networks.
•Learn as a takeaway the benefits of gender integrated leadership for the success of their industries/organizations and the tools to create their personal leadership style.
The documentation of social media outreach during the second reporting period quantifies the consistent effort in communication and dissemination of the consortium partners (led by WP5), to raise awareness of the issues central to the EQUALS-EU project and to disseminate project outcomes. From the collection of data during last 18 months of the project, a total of 578, 003 hits have been registered with a joint effort of partners and their social media activities, and the EQUALS-EU channels.