- International meeting and press conference in Prague
On 25th and 26th of April 2017 the meeting of the project’s partners took place in Prague, Czech. The partners from Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia shared their findings on gender horizontal segregation in their countries and formulated a joint document adressed to the decision-makers in each country. The national entry analysis on women’s situation and the final joint document were presented at the press conference on 26th of April.
Read the final document Fact and Recommendations on Gender Equality in Vocational Education
- National round table
On 7th of April the round table of the stakeholders took place in Warsaw. The representatives of academia, the trade unions (the Polish Teacher’s Union – ZNP and All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions – OPZZ), the career advisors and NGOs discussed the problem of low number of girls in vocational schools, their traditional choices of school courses (services, sales and administration) and their negative consequences on financial situation of working women with vocational education.
The stakeholders noticed several factors which prevent girls from chosing technical vocational education and sustain the gender segregated labor market with all its negative consequences for women. Among others there were:
- the shortage of profesional career advisers in elementary and vocational schools,
- the lack of examples of nontraditional career choices of women, e.g. in public spaces, media etc. ,
- the educational system which does not support the women’s empowernment and is not coherent with labor market’s needs,
- the low moblity of students and workers,
- the very limited choices of vocational schools and courses in some part of Poland,
- the lack of women’s images in textbooks used for technical courses in vocational schools,
- the state’s promoting materials for schools supporting traditional career choices of women and men.
The stakeholders agreed that the more women in male dominated professions and vice-versa the higher chances for women’s wages growth , reducing the pay gap and increasing the prestige of women dominated professions. Furthermore, in order to improve the women’s situation on labor market in Poland a twin-track approach should be taken – the girls/women should be encouraged to choose men dominated professions but at the same time in the professions dominated by women the effective steps to raise their wages and reduce the pay gap should be taken by the decision-makers.
The stakeholders decided on the further steps that should be taken in near future:
- Calling upon the descion-makers to introduce the female gramatical forms of names of professions (in Polish language the vast majority of professions have the male ending) in order to encourage women to choose nontraditional for women professions. The language shapes the awareness.
- Reviewing the textbooks for vocational education and introducing the images of women performing technical jobs.
- Calling upon the members of the Dialogue Council (representatives of trade unions) to raise the problem of lack of women in technical professions at their regular meetings with the government’s representatives.
- Calling upon the members of the Polish Language Council to join the initiative for famale gramatical forms of professions.
The issues raised at the Polish round table were presened during international meeting and press conference in Prague on 25th- 26th of April and included in the final policy paper called Facts and Recommendations on Gender Equality in Vocational Education.
