In Slovenia the tradition of independent women’s organisations dates back to the early 1980s. In spite of that, gender equality as a concept and goal has never acquired the ‘right to reside’ in the country. Not only ‘feminism’ but also ‘women’s movement’ are words that are used as insulting expressions, women who expose themselves in public life are often called names or sent for a ‘gynaecological examination’. We recently even witnessed instances of hate speech being expressed by important social points (such as the National Assembly, ministers, the media) that directly attacked gender equality, derided efforts to ensure equal opportunities and advocated traditional, stereotypical gender roles. It is possible that this kind of public language jeopardises the level of equality already attained or is at least slowing down endeavours in that direction. This threat seems to be much more serious because women are still underrepresented in all decision-making positions in Slovenia; as an illustration: only 13.3% of MPs (2004 elections), 21.7% of local community councillors (2006 elections) and 3.3% of mayors (2006 elections) are women; in 2005 of the country’s 100 most influential managers there were just 5 women.
In our opinion, one of the key reasons for this situation is that the different organisations and bodies that are working for equal opportunities, especially women’s NGOs, are not sufficiently informed and connected to each other. That is why many activities and programmes do not create synergy that could lead to a broad acknowledgement of the importance of gender equality. Critical points here are: the information flow between NGOs dealing with different issues (for example, violence – political participation); the information flow from national mechanisms to NGOs (for example, informing about the preparation of national documents); the information flow from abroad (different types of information from EU bodies or concerning the situation of women in developing countries); and the information flow from NGOs to European and other NGO networks.
To improve the situation it is on one hand necessary to improve the quality of information circulation and the connections between those organisations, bodies and individuals who are already working for gender equality and, on the other hand, to raise the awareness of those who can be assumed they would be potentially active in the field provided they had the appropriate support.
THE WEB PAGE
as one of the two main parts of the project involves the following sub-pages:
- "Reporting" ("Poročamo"): daily information on gender equality, - "Announcing" ("Napovedujemo"): daily information on gender equality, - "Reproductive Rights" ("Reproduktivne pravice"): the campaign against the fertility-raising strategy put forward by the former Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs in November 2006 and for a comprehensive national strategy for the balanced development of the population, - "Regulation of Pornography" ("Regulacija pornografije"): following the project of an NGO’s "Civil Society’s Strategic Plan for Regulating Pornography in Slovenia", - "Box" ("Skrinjica"): statements, opinions and suggestions provided by women’s groups or activists, - "Appending" ("Dodajamo"): commentaries on daily news, - "Recollecting” ("Spominjamo"): contains "Milestones of the women’s movement" which is a growing list of dates of the establishing of women’s groups, important events and publications in the women’s movement in Slovenia since the early 1980s, - "Connecting" ("Povezujemo"): an expanding list of contact information from women’s NGOs and some important institutions or bodies (national mechanisms) in Slovenia; the list is also planned to be complemented with contact information for international NGOs and institutions, - "Supported by" ("Podpirate nas"): a list of sponsors and donors, - "Contact" ("Najdete nas"), - "English" version with important information about the situation facing women in Slovenia (published weekly).
F-Mail – a weekly electronic newsletter
as another part of the project is composed of all news published on the web page. We can divide our subscribers into the following groups: women’s NGOs and other NGOs which also carry out some gender-equality projects (for example, a Legal Information Centre of NGOs), institutions and bodies that influence women’s position (including co-ordinators for equal opportunities in the Ministries and local communities), and the media.
AIMS
The project’s purpose is to raise awareness about the different rights connected to gender equality, about the importance of equality and activities to eliminate gender stereotypes and for improving women’s social and political position. In this name the project increases the availability of important information on gender issues and strengthens information sharing between NGOs and other relevant bodies.
The main goals are:
- to raise awareness of rights in the gender-equality sphere: by informing about important inter/national documents concerning gender equality (documents that have been passed, documents undergoing procedures);
- to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality: by providing data that shed light on inequalities (statistical data, cases of gender discrimination), data on the advanced situation of women as a result of gender-equality policy mechanisms and positive actions in Slovenia and abroad;
- to raise awareness about activities for eliminating gender stereotypes and for improving women’s social and political position: by giving information on the activities of as many actors as possible from Slovenia and from abroad (NGOs, inter/national mechanisms, national deputies and community councillors, co-ordinators for equal opportunities within the ministries and communities, other individuals and organisations/institutions);
- to support women who are engaged in gender-equality activities in different organisations and institutions or individually, and to support the position of women in general;
- to support the networking of actors;
- to enhance modern forms of communication as regular ways of becoming informed (electronic newsletter and web page);
- to develop new needs: to stimulate the need for experiences and knowledge exchange through regular informing.
