Learning about the causes and effects of gender (im)balance in Central Europe

"This 2-year regional project efficiently contributed to public debate and learning on origins and consequences of gender inequalities in the V4 region (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). During the implemantation period we have produced open (freely available) educational resources (OER) in diverse European languages covering 12 topics. The project also successfully contributed to strengthening institutional capacities and human resources of participating organizations from V4.The project reacted to virtual non-existence of ""reader-friendly"" learning resources available on the theme of gender equality in the V4 – the project outcomes managed to bridge this gap. The articles published in Visegradrevue, which are the main results of the project, focused not solely on the fact that and to what extent women are underrepresented in positions of power but went deeper to the origins and implications of this situation. These aspects are rarely discussed in Central Europe – the topic of gender imbalance appears in the media only occasionally (when there are elections and/or when an NGO or international organization publishes a report with new data). This occasional public debate is mostly concentrated on women representation in elected bodies, while little is known about their presence in executive positions in other walks of life. Deeper analyses of the status quo are typically confined to gender studies departments of academic institutions. This project enabled parcicipating organizations to bring the debate also to non-governmental volunteer organizations active in the area of gender equality in all 4 countries and to spread the outcomes via (social) media to general public and relevant stakeholders. Thanks to the above mentioned ""reader-friendly"" style, bringing exclusive data and new perspective on the topics we managed to gain mainstream media attention.The four participating organizations, with a long track-record of educational, publishing and outreach/communication activities – Forum 50% (CZ), Democracy in Central Europe (SK), Hungarian Women's Lobby (HU) and the Congress of Women (PL) – collected and analyzed data on origins and implications of gender imbalance in 12 selected public and executive positions. Based on these data, the partners prepared analytical yet reader-friendly articles and disseminated them to broad audience incl. journalists, youth and youth educators. The articles (learning materials in a form of Open Education Resource) remain online and freely accessible also after the implementation period."