Gender Equality in Local Economic Development: Making Sense of the Challenges
The inclusion of women in the labour force and economy is of central importance to the sustainable development of cities. The URBACT project WEED (Women Enterprise and Employment in local Development) is all about promoting a gender balanced economic system in order to fully take advantage of the positive input of women in local economies. The final report shares best practices and explores evidence-based choices to the benefit of other municipalities embarking on an equality strategy.
Promoting gender equality in local Economic Development
Still, the position regarding gender balance varies widely, in
terms of pay, promotion and access to ICT skills. Project WEED
contributed to changing this by encouraging women as entrepreneurs,
employees and in the knowledge economy. Institutions and strategies
to address gender equality are key to effective local action, and
WEED focused on better linking these to Local Economic
Development.
Gender segregation as a continued problem for local economic
development
The 8 cities included in the project each have specific
challenges:
- Under-representation of women in business;
- A lack of gender awareness
- Under-utilization of technology by women;
- More pronounced unemployment for women;
- A shortage in local care needs;
- A lack of support for unemployed mothers wanting to work.
Policy options to include girls and women: long and short term actions
Even though each city will face its own specific challenges
relating to gender equality, still share similar challenges such as
a pay gap, poorer ICT skills and a more modest career path. The
following represent policy lessons the project felt could assist
other cities in drawing up their local plans to address these
gaps:
- Creative changes in curricula and out of school activities that encourage girls and boys to engage in science, technology and ICT increases confidence amongst girls and boys to choose less gendered studies and careers
- Providing easy, practical and flexible access to policy guidance for both start up and growth phases of businesses increases women’s confidence in their entrepreneurial capacity
- The availability of reliable gender disaggregated statistics is key to enhancing evidence-based decision-making and policy development
The full report in the Reference Material Folder contains further details on local strategies.
Publication date
July 2011
02 May 2012
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Reference material
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Report | Final Report URBACT WEED
02 May 2012, pdf, 1MB