As the host city Frankfurt welcomed all APN partners for the third Transnational Network Meeting this year, 29 – 30 of March. A network meeting excellent moderated by Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse which gave important space for sharing experiences as well as internal discussions for the final IAP Review.
Barcelona, with their main focus on female entrepreneurship, presented i.a. how they work with a “15-minute city” and that their Small Scale Action interest “the big fishes”. There is now an increasing political interest in their work. However, they have found that it is important to do the implementation internally and build trust at a city policy level.
In La Rochelle they want to increase the number of girls and women in the scientific and technical fields (pre-and post-baccalaureate). And they pointed out that it perhaps can be done by giving a creative background to work with smart innovations that lead to equality. In addition, recruitment difficulties in important economic sectors like building and properties are a reality and a challenge that the city is facing.
Among the Small Scale Actions, La Rochelle gathered 50 young teenagers to participate in creative workshops. The purpose was to make them reflect and think about what their choices can be and lead to as professionals, after studying. One learning from this example is that the target group perhaps were too young, being13-14 years old in this group.
From Panevėžys we could hear about social improvement for children and women, with equal accessibility to public spaces and zero tolerance for stereotypes in their policies. Their Small Scale Actions include for example public space surveys and participatory processes for finding new ways of creating access to public spaces for all groups. Actions to move toward implementation are for example the Multifunctional service centre “The city of harmony”, a place where families are raising children with special needs that now will receive a professional. In Panevėžys, the war in Ukraine also will impact the implementation. As many men have gone to Ukraine to fight, there will be a lack of professions that are needed, like for example lorry drivers. The city will also have to welcome refugees and have had to change their priorities.
In Trikala the event “Break of the Silence” is continuing with a bus campaign. It is a follow up from last years’ the “Silent Walk for Women, Against Violence”, offering exhibitions and performances on the streets of the city. There is a challenge in introducing the gendered perspective into policy, urban planning and the infrastructure in the city. But with new actions, the partners from Trikala will make the city aware of how gender power perspectives must be made visible to make the city more open, and safer for the women. Ascertain a huge project for any city.
The Small Scale Actions continues, like the Breastfeeding and Babycare Area-Station in public space in Trikkala. The space represents an ambition for creating equal access to the public space for all people with childrenIn addition, Trikkala is moving towards the implementation of a strategy for urban development connected to gender equality. Actions include a new network of bicycle paths. A challenge is changing people’s mentality and breaking the gender bias, as well as a lack of budget for further and wider gender initiatives and actions. Now Trikkala takes advantage of European funding. Our lead expert Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse suggests that Trikkala maybe can do a gender budget and analyze how the money are spent. The aim is to get a balance in the city budget to raise equality.
Lead partner Umeå continues to focus on the Smart city. Umeå wants to make sure that no innovation process forget about the critical gender analysis. In their Small Scale Action Umeå drive a thesis that there is a knowledge gap about the need to identify power structures in urban innovation and smart city processes. The outcome is an animated short video that will be distributed to close the gap. Another step Umeå wants to take in the implementation of their IAP is to apply for funding and implement an innovation pilot with a focus on new neighbourhoods.
Frankfurt focused in their presentation on how to eliminate stereotypes with a “Klisheefreie Zone” named FFM (Chliché). They do it with some major campaign components like a position paper that gives background, research problems and solutions, goals etc and PR activities as virtual events. The campaign goals are to raise awareness and tackle gender stereotypes.
In the presentation Frankfurt highlighted harassment in public spaces, which is something they in their work with NGO’s know has become stronger during the pandemic, for example in public transport and on the streets. This is addressed on the international Girls’ Day on October 11 in Frankfurt. Also, they work on city planning with a feministic perspective.
Frankfurt is one of the first municipalities in Germany to coordinate the implementation of the Istanbul convention. It involves stock-taking, controlling, creating structures and much more. Working with city planning from a feministic perspective is a lot about asking which perspectives are considered, what are the actual needs and impact and what political decisions and commitments are needed to make a change.
“We are not scared anymore. We are angry.”, states eleven women in a film produced by Frankfurt, where they talk about their activism, experiences and everyday lives. Link: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=We+are+not+scared+anymore%2C+we+are+angry
A JUMPP visit
In an on-site visit to JUMPP the network got to learn more about the Mixed Leadership Academy and got appreciated time for questions and discussion.
JUMPP started 1984, in a period called the third Women’s movement, as a non-profit association, and now they celebrate their 35 year anniversary with a perspective on potential from female sociologists. JUMPP have by now supported 15 000 women on self-employment. They state that female entrepreneurship exists in a different economy than the male economy, where social aspects are taken into consideration to a much higher extent.
Now JUMPP is spreading their work around the world. The target groups are primarily unemployed women, women after maternity leave, female founders and entrepreneurs, freelancers, women with a migrant background and students. JUMPP is a non-profit organisation. The main goals are to support women to strengthen their own potential and use that to create their own businesses.
This is done by for example consultation, workshops, networking events and peer support teams. Some concrete examples of their target areas are to get more women involved in AI and to give support in the process of applying for funding. All done with the holistic approach.
Elisabeth Lind