Gender policy in the EU

On February 24, 2016 EU Center in the Barents region of Russia held a meeting within the framework of the EU research club. The club exists since 2012 and operates within the project “EU Center in the Barents region of Russia”, which is funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Union. The meeting took place in a form of group discussion of the topic “Gender policy in the EU”. Institute of International Programs staff, students of the Institute of History, political and social sciences and different city organizations staff members took part in the meeting. Students majoring in the “International relations” program prepared reports on EU’s gender policy and on how Germany, Baltic countries, Denmark and Sweden are tacking challenges which appear when it comes to gender inequality. The topic was of a huge interest to all participants, who were discussing various controversial questions, such as determining one’s gender, using right terminology, positive sides of setting quotas in workplaces, giving men the same right to take parental leave on the same conditions as women, whether some gender inequality problems are real or made up, typical “men’s” and “women’s” jobs.  Differences between gender policy in Russia and EU were compared as well.

Content of the meeting was exciting, and the participants had a chance to discover some new information on the EU, as well as share their opinions on different aspects of gender policy.