WomEnPuls- Seeking solutions for women in the public sector
Although women play an important role both in the public and the private sector, their opportunities differ from those of men. They face difficulties in reaching their career peak while also fulfilling their personal goals. The solutions to this challenge differ in the private and public sector. While in the private sector there are usually many ways to handle flexible working hours and fit different needs, the public sector tends is lagging behind. The project WomEnPuls would like to accelerate the long awaited gender equality in the public sector, sheds light on the real needs of women, and offers some viable options to meet their expectations.
According to a study* conducted in the region, most of the employees surveyed belongs to the generation X (38-54). A high percentage of respondents sees room for improvement when it comes to work-life balance, wages and advancements. Many of them have encountered unequal treatment at their workplaces, and have negative experiences as for competition between colleagues. In Hungary, most striking findings include lack of personnel and extreme workload- just to mention a few. Partners in WomEnPuls are aware of these bottlenecks and challenges, and their solutions will serve as a great example!
What is their approach?
The partnership brought together the region’s most important municipalities, government offices, a counselling centre for women, girls and families, and a training centre for an optimal project implementation.
These competent players elaborated a joint fact-finding study on gender equality, which served as a basis for Joint Methodological Guidelines, which helped to ensure the development of a joint training toolkit.
A joint toolkit to empower women
A toolkit was developed based on a thorough study conducted on both sides of the border. This toolkit supports the organisation of trainings for employers and employees, workshops for women and men, and focuses on 4 topics: IT-skills, development of communication and language skills, improvement of personal skills for employees and employers alike.
Next steps
A cross border network will be established, which will ensure that the important work done during project implementation will not get lost. The network will gather the necessary institutions around a single table for discussion to ensure the long term durability of project outcomes. This network will develop an action plan and a strategy, and will elaborate policy recommendations to ensure key-lessons drawn from workshops can help improving policymaking.
Follow WomEnPuls’s great work on the project microsite or Facebook page:
*Transnational Study available on their microsite in the menu item “project results”