“Discrimination0”, the project organised by AEGEE-Lviv, AEGEE-Dresden and AEGEE-Moskva has already come to its end. The project consisted of two parts which took place in Ukraine and Germany in the format of youth exchange. The main goal of the event – promoting tolerance and unity for building a society free of any kind of discrimination and stereotypes.

The first part took place in Lviv on October 2nd-7th. During the week, every day was very different from the others and very intensive. The first day of the project was devoted to finding the definition of discrimination and discussing some controversial points about it. Then we talked about the discrimination of disabled people and got acquainted with the international sign language. We also had a day devoted to gender discrimination and meeting with representatives of the League of Women’s Rights Protection “Harmony of the Equal”. They shared with us some important information about gender discrimination in Ukraine and the ways it can be revealed. We also learned some legal aspects of this problem. As Lviv is considered to be one of the oldest and the most beautiful cities of Europe, our organisers also included an excursion part to the programme. So, we had a city tour with an amazing guide who let us in on the city secrets and a trip around three old castles situated in the Lviv region. It is also worth mentioning the informal part of the project – communication, games to know each other, evening walks and parties!

The second part of the “Discrimination0” project took part in Dresden from the 17th to the 22nd of November. Due to our amazing organisers, the second part was mostly focused on the themes that weren’t discussed before. So, we had a reflection workshop with a long conversation on privileges in society and empathy towards other people. We tried to understand the phenomenon of PEGIDA, to find out the real ways to react against discrimination, to develop a civil courage and understand the main problems of the muslim community. A gender issue was also present in our discussions, but not in a way we were used to; an exhibition, “The boringly normal man”, dedicated to masculinity made us think about this social construct. What does it mean – being a man in the XXI century? Which problems are men usually faced with? Now almost everybody agrees we must fight against gender inequality, but without understanding the nature of femininity and masculinity it would not be possible.

“Discrimination0” has come to its end. To sum up, the Dresden part differs from the Lviv one on its topics and on the questions we were trying to solve. But that’s the most important thing! Two countries having a different background and different experiences uniting against the mutual problem, trying to learn from each other and to understand each other. Reacting against discrimination is very important, but the first and the main thing our action can start with is a feeling of empathy towards somebody and understanding of the situation. We strongly believe that “Discrimination0” had an impact on the participants and they will feel now informed and empowered enough to make a difference in their society and stand for values as diversity, trust and understanding. We want to thank the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ), the Federal Foreign Office and the Robert Bosch Stiftung for making this project possible!

Written by AEGEE-Lviv

On October 11, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) welcomed around 300 decision-makers and representatives of civil society, among which AEGEE, represented by the Policy Officer of the Equal Rights Working Group.

EIGE is an autonomous body of the European Union established to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality. During the morning’s panel discussions, the panellists presented the findings of the new Gender Equality Index 2017 and discussed possible solutions to gender inequalities during an event at the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

The Focus Area of Equal Rights has for aim to acknowledge and tackle discrimination based on gender identity, expression and sexual orientation, and promote equity from an intersectional perspective. To achieve this objective, it is absolutely necessary to have access to data revealing the situation of groups of people at the intersection of several grounds for discrimination. For the first time this year, the Gender Equality Index 2017 offers the possibility to compare gender equality between countries with an intersectional perspective.

The Gender Equality Index is a tool created four years ago to evaluate the progress of the EU and the member states and indicate how far (or close) we are from achieving gender equality. The Index measures gender gaps in six core domains – knowledge, time, power health, work and money – and provides comprehensive data in two other satellite domains, violence against women and intersectional inequalities.

The main conclusion of this year Gender Equality Index is the disappointingly slow progress towards Gender equality in Europe between 2005 and 2015, with important disparities between countries.

While gender equality in the domain of power (decision-making position across the political, economic and social sphere) is progressing slowly but steadily, gender inequalities in time use, referring to the allocation of time spent on care, domestic work and social activities are persisting and growing. Young women between ages 15-24 are for instance less likely to take part in leisure activities outside their home (39% of young women workers takes part in sporting, cultural or leisure activities outside of their home, at least daily or several times a week, against 56% of young men workers). They are also way more likely to care for children, elderly or people with disabilities everyday (15,4% of young women between 15-24 against 3,1% of young men).

The event also represented the opportunity to present the new key feature of this year’s Index, that is data on intersectional inequalities. The index provides data showing how gender intersects with age, education, family composition and parenthood, country of birth and disability. Due to the difficulty to gather data on certain types of discrimination, the Index however fails to cover intersections between, for instance, gender and sexual orientation or gender and religion.

These disaggregated data reveal some worrisome inequalities affecting people at the intersection of different identities. During the conference, Pirkko Mahlamäki (Executive committee member of the European disability forum) emphasised for instance the situation of women with disabilities, that are at risk of falling behind in the area of education and labour market, but also three to five times more likely to be victims of domestic abuses.

As underlined by MEP Ernest Urtasun, EU decision-makers have the duty to rely on those data to ensure that EU anti-discrimination policies do not leave groups of people without adequate protection.

To ensure that decision-makers implement evidence-based, inclusive legislations, the gathering of data needs to be strengthened considerably in most member states to obtain a clear picture of inequalities and intersecting discriminations. The Equal Rights Working Group is particularly pleased to see this emphasis on intersectionality and support EIGE’s call to stakeholders to improve the gathering of relevant data to ensure a complete and clear image of how different types of discrimination and inequalities intersect.

Get to know the situation of gender equality in your country, and let’s continue to strive for a more Equal Europe for all!

Written by Juliette Beaulaton, Policy Officer of Equal Right Working Group

The Gender Equality Interest Group was born quite recently, but we have already seen some of their proposals to take action. Their Facebook group is very active, and they strive for the world where equality of treatment is applied no matter your gender, skin colour or religion. We spoke to María Ballesteros Melero, one of the moderators of the Interest Group, to gather more information. 

The AEGEEan: Please introduce yourself.

María Ballesteros Melero: I am María Ballesteros Melero, one of the moderators of the Gender Equality Interest Group (together with Anna Ziętkiewicz, Léa Charlet and Ioanna Gympaki).

What drove you to create this IG?

There was already a Facebook Group, Gender Equality in AEGEE, in which a lot of interesting discussions were happening. So some of us came together and decided that we could make it an official interest group of AEGEE-Europe (as it already fulfilled the requirements) and take the discussion further with actions, education and advocacy.

What would you answer to someone objecting “We have far more urgent problems to tackle”?

There is nothing more urgent than assuring human rights, from which equal rights for everyone is included, and therefore gender equality.

You were very active in promoting the Women’s March against president Trump. Why and how do you believe his presidency affects EU and AEGEE policies and missions?

First of all, US policies create trends and influence worldwide and European policies as it is the first world power (at least until now).

Second, we are also witnessing in Europe that the same shift in an increasing discrimination towards traditionally oppressed groups, the rise of the extreme right and populist movements, whose ideology attacks the before-mentioned groups.

Third, the marches started in the US but quickly expanded to the whole world, claiming not only against Trump but FOR equal rights worldwide. This is a problem affecting every single person in the world, in Europe and in AEGEE, so we strongly believed we, as a student association striving for a democratic and integrated Europe, must take that stand for everyone’s rights.

What is intersectionality in gender equality and why is it important?

As stated in the Strategic Plan: Intersectionality examines different aspects of human identities – such as gender, race and sexual orientation – in interaction with each other, rather than treating these aspects in isolation. Having an intersectional perspective means acknowledging that people cannot be reduced to single categories.
We all have more than one identity and can suffer from different kinds of discrimination and/or enjoy different kinds of privilege. So not to acknowledge these overlapping identities reduces people to simple categories, which does not correspond to reality and thus cannot tackle the real problems of oppression that are very present in our societies.

The members of GEIG are all very active, how do you plan to take this effort and enthusiasm to the outer world? 

We have already made some statements and calls for action against several happenings across the world which violate the principles of gender equality. Besides, one of the proposed objectives for the new Action Agenda includes AEGEE locals organising and participating in events in cooperation with relevant partners and stakeholders on the topic of equal rights aiming at establishing AEGEE as a relevant actor on the topic as well as the partnership with other relevant organisations.

Written by Federica Soro, AEGEE-Cagliari

In collaboration with the Gender Equality Interest Group, The AEGEEan decided to create a form where members could share with us their stories about the (lack) of gender equality they experienced in their lives. We gave the opportunity to people to share their stories in an anonymous form, and you will find the reason in the last contribution. The form can be found here and it is still open for everyone to share their stories.

Celia Riveres, AEGEE-Zaragoza

I want to share a somehow common situation in Europe that you might have encountered as well. I have seen many pubs where guys have to pay whereas girls have their entrance fee waived, making me as a girl like a product, given that if you do not pay for a product, the product is you.

Celia Riveres, AEGEE-Zaragoza

My story is that I was treated for what I am. A human being.

Anonymous

Walking with a friend to class, on a Tuesday morning, a man shouted at us: “Hey, why don’t you come here to play! Sit on my lap and warm my di*k”.

Anonymous

María Ballesteros Melero, AEGEE-Madrid

“Are you sure you are a woman? You are too good at your job to be one” – My boss.

María Ballesteros Melero, AEGEE-Madrid

This is not my story, but something that happened to a colleague of mine. Before landing the position where we worked together, she had to do many interviews. At some point, one of the interviewers asked her “well, well, well… 30-something, just married… How do I know that in a couple of months you will not show up here with a pregnant belly?”. Apparently, this had been happening in most interviews. She was so angry and fed up that she answered “I am sterile”. That shut him right up! I laughed when she told me the story, but afterwards I was really discouraged that, even if it is illegal, interviewers keep on making these questions, but only to women.

Anonymous

I said “No” but he was stronger than my voice. I lied there waiting for it to go by fast, for the night to be over. But it has not. It has been over two years and that night is not over yet. It was in an AEGEE event.

Anonymous

Léa, AEGEE-Paris

During Spring Agora Patra, we were three candidates for president, two women, one men. I cannot count how many time the word “cat fight” was mentioned, always referring to the two women. I also remember clearly someone telling me that  “a tall men in a suit will always represent better AEGEE than a small woman”.

Léa, AEGEE-Paris

I was in a bar once with some friends, when a guy approached me. I was barely 18, I had not clubbed much, and I thought you couldn’t just be mean to every single guy you encountered – some might be nice people, you’ll never know if you don’t give them a chance to speak. So, I started talking to him. He was pretty drunk, we spoke briefly about what he studied, I made a joke and he laughed. Then he said “You’re funny. Here, hold my drink. I’m gonna show you my dick”. Obviously I left the club running and when I met my friends again outside, one of them said “What happened? I suddenly turned around and there was a guy in his underwear!”.

Anonymous

The worst stories experienced by our members are not going to appear in this article because of the victim blaming and the hate people denouncing sexism suffer, as well as because of the fact it is still considered a private thing, so we keep them in private, do not denounce and try to forget them.

María Ballesteros Melero, AEGEE-Madrid

Interest groups provide a great opportunity for AEGEE members to discuss common interests in a structured way and in a perfect environment where new initiatives and projects can be developed. Maria de la Torre tells us something about the Gender Equality Interest Group, for which she is coordinator.

Gender equality has been on AEGEE’s agenda since August 2014, when Léa Charlet was appointed as Policy Officer to develop the topic in AEGEE. As a result of her work, an active community was built around discussions on this topic. Seeing that there is a great interest in Gender Equality in the Network, and after a meeting during EPM Leiden, some AEGEEans decided that the natural next step was to officially establish an interest group, approved by the CD on the 11th of May 2016. The members of the Gender Equality Interest Group believe that every person should have the right to make choices about who they want to be, no matter what their gender identity is. Furthermore, they believe it is important to recognise and discuss how gender stereotypes affect us all in our daily lives, sometimes in obvious and sometimes in subtle ways, that we may not even be aware of. At the moment, the priority of the interest group is to assess the AEGEE awareness on gender issues, so that its members can build on the current situation in the best possible way.

At the time of researching for this article, the interest group has thirty-eight members in their mailing list and 469 ‘likes’ on its Facebook group, and the amount of members and ‘likes’ keeps growing every day. The interest group has four moderators: Marije Arentze, María Ballesteros, Léa Charlet and Maria de la Torre. But a lot of people are extremely active and are helping keeping the debate active, especially since the Interest Group was officially established.

The members of the interest group believe that gender equality is a matter of common interest in AEGEE and that it is a big part of our civic education in general. After almost two years of activities, they can still see a lot of sexism in AEGEE, and they want to play their part, raise awareness and make a small change. It is not about mitigating differences, they do not aim at eliminating the diversity of gender expression. Instead, the members would like a future when people will not need to be put into boxes; when everybody will have the same rights and opportunities regardless of their gender, because this level of equality still varies from country to country. There are still very few women in positions of power and the amount of women who are employed part-time is three times higher than that of men. Women still have to deal with harassment on the street and sexism at their workplace on a daily basis, let alone rape and abuse.

The members of the interest group witness everyday how women’s bodies are used as a marketing strategy in ads that depict women as objects without agency. The interest group’s Facebook group is very active and it is increasingly filled with discussions about gender equality and with shared information and experiences concerning gender equality almost every day. The members of the interest group have recently started a Book Club, where they also included a list of academic literature as well as a movie about gender equality. Furthermore, they would like to encourage debates and critical thinking by establishing a collaboration with the Civic Education Working Group. Recently, they conducted a survey in AEGEE on the perception of gender equality. Soon they will have the analysis of the results and publish them. For the next term, they plan to do a deeper, more policy-oriented survey, for which they will also launch a newsletter summing up the highlights of their discussions, news related to the topic and the pertinent activities. Finally, they are working on workshop outlines and plan to have a handout for locals after the Summer that, together with a PR campaign, will help to increase the number of events with gender equality education and discussion in AEGEE.

If you are interested in the topic and want to work with us you can send me an email (maria.de.la.torre@aegee.org) or join our Facebook group.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

AEGEE-Kastoria organised on the 25th of November 2014, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a lecture with the support of the Counseling Center for Women and Victims of Violence of Kastoria.  The main organiser, Panagiotis Emmanouilidis, President of AEGEE-Kastoria, reveals information about this and other humanitarian events organised by its local and about the future “full of surprises” of AEGEE-Kastoria.

Kalimera, Panagiotis! Congratulations on the event.  It’s fulfilling to see that young people are socially involved in important humanitarian events such as the elimination of violence against women.  What is your personal feeling on this matter?

Kalimera! Thank you for the good words. From my perspective, it is very important to be part of this event. The proposal came directly from the Counseling Center for Women and Victims of Violence of Kastoria. Honestly I couldn’t reject it. After a long brainstorming, the idea came from the Center, and we had speeches about casual sexism, stereotypes in movies and commercials, labor law (protection of women’s rights in the workplace) and a historical review.

Are there many cases of violence against women in Kastoria, or say in Greece?

If you make a research about this topic you will find a lot, but it will not be the absolute truth. I am telling you this because there are a lot of cases that will never emerge.

What was your target audience? Did you manage to reach it?

Our target audience were the citizens of Kastoria in general, but students in particular… We looked for a quality audience, rather than quantity. To answer your question: yes, we reached our goal.

Do you believe the lecture had an important impact on the participants?

Totally. Participants were very motivated. When the presentations finished, we had a workshop about our feelings and we made a video based on the importance of the day! The event went very well and I’m very motivated and happy about this.

Have you thought of implementing your event at the European level?

I will say only that I have already discussed it this with Counseling Center for Women and Victims of Violence of Kastoria. When we will share it, you will know it.

Have you done other humanitarian events in your local?

Yes, one of them was the “AEGEE-KastoriaA lights a candle for the people standing up for democracy in Turkey”, the second was the “Free hugs for world peace”. With the Counseling Center for Women and Victims of Violence of Kastoria we had already collaborated with the event “Bicycle ride, against violence against women”. The future will be full of surprises.

What is the history of AEGEE-Kastoria?

AEGEE-Kastoria is only 3 years old. Nikolas Varveris is the founder of AEGEE-Kastoria. He was a member of AEGEE-Thessaloniki and, when he came for studies to Kastoria, the miracle happened!

We have organised a big variety of events such as three European level evens (one of them was unofficial), social meetings, thematic parties, humanitarian events and two exchanges (one with AEGEE-Thessaloniki and AEGEE-Tenerife and one with AEGEE-Zaragoza and AEGEE-Ioanina). And, as I said before, more is coming.

What are AEGEE-Kastoria’s future plans at the local and European level?

I don’t like to speak about our future plans, but we are thinking about organising a lot of things this year. Our main goal is to become more famous in our local community, so more people will get involved in AEGEE. We are a very new antenna, but we are trying a lot.

How is the AEGEE spirit in Kastoria?

The AEGEE spirit in Kastoria is very strong. As I said before, we are a new antenna, but we have shown to the whole Network how much we are into AEGEE and how truly motivated we are. My feelings about AEGEE are very strong!

Written by Gabriela Cioată, AEGEE – București

During Autumn Agora Cagliari, Policy Officers were established as a body of our Network. President Paul Smits and Secretary General  Antonija Parat on behalf of the Comité Directeur presented a proposal to formally establish them in order to set some rules. The proposal was accepted with an overwhelming 94.49% of votes in favour.

The position of Policy Officers was launched in 2012 by the Comité Directeur 2012-2014 to  to express the  views and concerns of the Network and bring them up to the policy level. The Network has now four new Policy Officers who will work for one year on the Focus Areas of the Strategic Plan 2014-2017 (Youth Mobility, Youth Employment, Europtimism and Civic Education). But this is not all. The Comité Directeur (CD) 2014-2015 decided to also address two other topics this year, namely Education and Gender Equality. Six positions were created, but the CD strongly encouraged applicants to develop their ideas on a topic that was not mentioned, but could be important for the Network. A lot of applications suggested the topic of LGBT so the CD decided to appoint a Policy Officer to work on that topic too.

Pablo Hernández Rodríguez, Policy Officer on Youth Participation

For the second year in a row Pablo Hernández Rodríguez willwork as a Policy Officer: “Last year I was Policy Officer on Youth Participation, something that helped me to develop skills to work better on Youth Employability now”, he says. Member of AEGEE-Alicante since 2010, he became active in AEGEE right after Agora Alicante 2011 “having strong references like Miguel”. Being a Policy Officer (PO) for the second year is a spur for Pablo: “I decided to continue as PO mainly because now I’m better prepared to work on this position being in the place where I can contribute the most”. As uncertain as it is nowadays, Employment is a big issue for youngsters and according to Pablo “AEGEE understood its responsibility and put this issue on the stage so, now, what we need to do is to give solutions and support initiatives that make us think positive in this field”. He continues: “I think that young people have to have proper internships and future perspectives in their labour live, something that I want to put a lot of effort into. It’s also very important to look for a solution for the lack of local job opportunities so young people don’t have to go to capital and big cities or abroad but also find job places in their home towns.”

Teo Šarić, Policy Officer on LGBT

Teo Šarić is the Policy Officer on LGBT. Member of AEGEE-Zadar, he got motivated to apply for the position of Policy Officer when he “was a member of the Y vote Bus tour in UK, a campaign to engage First Time Voters in the Elections of the European Parliament in May 2014. We were speaking a lot [about LGBT ed.] with people on the streets about this topic”. LGBT is the suggested topic and for Teo “very important to AEGEE because a lot of young people are feeling insecure and do their “coming out” when they are students. So it’s nice to see that there are people who are interested to help, advice and support you and who are working on the topic in your own association”. Teo has a lot of experience with the topic of LGBT issues, being one of the organisers of the Pride Parade in Split (his hometown) and in Zagreb. “The first gay pride in Split in 2011, where anti-gay protesters were throwing rocks, tin cans, tomatoes, tear gas and glass bottles at the LGBT activists, motivated me to be an activist. It was very sad and emotional to me to watch, sit and do nothing. I had to take actions”. For his work as Policy Officer Teo has a clear idea: “I want to make sure that no one is taken down by the actions, language and attitude of others. It is particularly important that everyone demonstrates mutual respect and avoids any attitude that would be hurtful or dismissive. It is important that we are aware of our own attitudes and actions, and that we are willing to challenge our own prejudices in a constructive and respectful manner”.

Alfredo Sellitti, Policy Officer on Youth Mobility

In the aftermath of the deletion of Visa Freedom Working Group, visa issues and youth mobility have never been so important. The Policy Officer on Youth Mobility is Alfredo Sellitti, member of AEGEE-Salerno since 2006. “Youth Mobility is a wide concept. If we want to bring it to our interest, I would say that youth mobility is a great (if not the first) engine to build up a real European civic sense, in the broadest possible meaning”, Alfredo says. “This tool is probably the most powerful to increase cross-border competencies that will influence, besides the natural effect on personal development, a civic development and boost the economy by bringing new experiences and know-how in the system”. When asked why he applied for such a position, he stated that he “has always been interested in the policy making field, and when I was in CD I realised how little support we had from the Network, as the organisation had plenty of great ideas but not a good structure to canalise them. Therefore, when I saw the open call, I thought it was a great opportunity to keep  working on something I like and help AEGEE to improve its structure to better lobby for our interests”

Turgut Tosun, Policy Officer on Civic Education

Former president of AEGEE-Ankara, and member of the local since 2007, Turgut Tosun is the Policy Officer on Civic Education. “After spending years in AEGEE and gaining lots of experience, I decided to transfer what I learnt from my journey to other motivated AEGEE members”, he says. “It was my turn to help youth workers and activists with a subject that I trust myself. Then, I found myself writing my application for being a Policy Officer”. Even if we are living in democratic countries, there are many other theories that Europe is going through an anti-democratic process. “I believe that AEGEE will use civic education for strengthening and supporting members to be active citizens so that we can help Europe be more democratic and have young people who are aware of it”. Says Turgut, “In AEGEE, I think that we can integrate civic education in our local or regional training courses in order to raise the awareness of active citizenship and democracy among our members”.

Sofia Lobakina, Policy Officer on Education

One of the two girls elected, is Sofia Lobakina from AEGEE-Voronezh, who is Policy Officer on Education. Very active on the Local Level, this is her first experience on the European level, but she has “the motivation to contribute, a relevant experience to base my contribution on and an eagerness to learn more and develop the topic of Education in AEGEE”. Even if Sofia feels a huge responsibility in presenting the vision of the Network on the topic of Education, she finds that “AEGEE, one of the largest students’ organisation in Europe, is missing a clear basic position on the topic of Education, though we have some successful projects, like Higher Education Days (HED) and Europe in Exchange (EiE)”. She continues: “What is more important, is to advocate non-formal education and informal learning and their future recognition and quality assurance”. In fact, according to her vision, Education “is like a time bomb, the input you make now will be visible only in years. So the boldest experiments should be time-proved. However some things stay clear, high quality and equality are the basic points of it, and education is an always-going process and not just a place, list of courses or diploma”.

Miha Ilc, Policy Officer on Europtimism

Student of European Studies in Ljubljana, but now living in Estonia for his Erasmus, Miha Ilc (AEGEE-Ljubljana) is the Policy Officer on Europtimism. Tightly connected with his field of study, Europtimism is a “wide field, so it is going to be a really challenging task for me, but I’ll do my best. I usually compare it with a mosaic. There are different pieces that compose the whole picture (politics, economy, welfare, taxes etc.). Currently this “whole” in Europe doesn’t have a nice look and we need to fix it in the interests of all of us. Europtimism is at this point on the lowest level since the establishment of the European Union and the beginning of European integration, which is definitely not good for the future of Europe”. The scepticism on an united Europe is high, but for Miha “just criticising and observing it passively won’t change anything. Therefore we need active debates and discourses about the future of European Union.We have the capabilities and knowledge to improve the general opinion of the EU, to promote Europtimism and shape our future in a positive way. The only thing that we need is will and a long-term strategy”.

Léa Charlet, Policy Officer on Gender Equality

Léa Charlet (AEGEE-Paris) is the Policy Officer on Gender Equality. Member of AEGEE-Paris since September 2011 she was the Project Manager of the Y Vote 2014. Always a strong supporter of the thematic work within the Association, she now works for the Association of the friends of Franck Biancheri, an organisation which aim to promote the idea of our founder. “Gender equality is a topic I am extremely interested in for some year now, and since Agora Zaragoza I am trying to find people interested in the subject to start a project after the end of Y Vote. A lot of people were interested, so when the open call arrived I was ready to go for it and become policy officer”. says Léa. Her idea about gender equality is to reach a perfect equality where “everything is in the nature, let’s just not put people into boxes and accept the combinations around us. When we are dividing the world into Men/women we are taking a lot of people out of the equation”. Regarding her work she see that the mail concern is the awareness. “I think both me and Teo (Policy officer on LGBT, ed)  have this challenge to overcome as policy officer, that before being able to give AEGEE an official position, we need to make people aware of the subject, give the tool for people to think and then finally, ask for an opinion”. She concludes.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia.

Do you believe in coincidences? Well, at least we believe it is very coincidental that we are writing this article about the Y Vote 2014 Convention on Gender Equality precisely on the 8th of March – International Women’s Day, the day chosen by the United Nations to vindicate Women’s rights across the globe.

It has been a few weeks since the fourth thematic conference of the Y Vote Project took place in the stunning city of Paris where, thanks to the Y Vote project team and the awesome organisation undertaken by AEGEE-Paris, almost 40 young Europeans got the chance to learn, discuss and share their visions on gender equality issues in Europe, especially in the context of the European Parliamentary elections that are taking place in May.

Privileged enough to have the opening ceremony held in the Maison de l’Europe as well as most of the lectures and seminars held in the European Parliament Representation in Paris, the participants rapidly and easily engaged in the topic that seemed to be an issue of the past century, but is still a considerable matter in the present societies. They realised that many thoughts, opinions and meanings were hidden under the words “gender equality”, ranging from what every participant understood by “feminism” to male discrimination or women stereotypes, and they even learnt new things about LGBT rights. It was observed that the most interesting and passionate discussion took place when assessing an impact the environment we live in (media, school, civil society etc.) has on forming gender awareness.

Under the lead of the Y Vote team (Léa Charlet – Project Manager, Lucille Rieux – member of the Comité Directeur, and Lavinia Manea – representative of the content team), the participants learnt about the role of the EP and the importance of the upcoming elections, and discovered what is the situation of gender equality in different EU countries. With no surprise, they realised how diverse and different the EU countries are in this respect. They also figured out how limited the EP is in terms of its competences regarding this matter, but looking for necessary and feasible solutions, the participants came up with a bunch of creative recommendations.

After a hard working day of drafting and writing recommendations, the participants spent the last day in the Serbian Embassy in Paris, where the Ambassador provided them with all the necessary elements for having an unforgettable farewell and closing ceremony: Serbian exquisite food, official speeches, assessment exercises and great views of the Eiffel Tower.

Days of the Convention finished and participants were reflecting on their experience: “It has been a week since the Y Vote Paris ended but I still feel its impact”, “I know now that we can do more than we think”. Although being non-neutral actors, we are certain that this Convention had a great effect on all the participants: learning about the EP elections and discussing such a controversial topic as gender equality. This made all of us more aware of what we can do as citizens to achieve better and more equal societies.

Are you still wondering what your first step to become an active citizen should be? Well, it is easy: don’t forget to vote in the EP elections!

Written by Raquel Alcega Giner (AEGEE-Barcelona) and Carlota Lifante (AEGEE-Alicante)