The Gender Group has conducted the research in April and May 2006 among CDN member and partner organisations within the scope of the publication development. This research was aiming to give a better inside in the facts about our members and overview of the gender related issues and the ways of approaching them. For this research we used this questioner (word version). These data has been used for the publication of the Gender brochure 2006 "Gender Equality". IF YOU or your organisation would like to join in the research, PLEASE fill in this questioneer and send it to: ivana@cdnee.org

The summary of the results are presented here:

Young Greens,Germany has 6900 members, and 38% of these are women. Their involvement in the decision making bodies is theoretically 50%, but sometimes the quota is not fulfilled. In order to support gender equality and involve more women in decision making processes GJ (Grüne Jugend) uses positive discrimination and putting quotas for women (in every decision making body). Also they have a gender commission working to find out what could be done better within the organisation, and a working group concerned with the topic “gender equality” and they try to establish an FYEG gender campaign to recruit more women.

In Germany there is an equal accessibility to education for both men and women. In general woman is theoretically free to choose her own role, but for the majority of the society it is still seen as normal that women take care of the children and stay at home, there are few women in higher positions, there is a big income gap between women and men and bad conditions for guarding the children. Gender Equality movements had a big impact in the German society in the 1970-ies but now the majority of the women thinks that gender equality is fulfilled, feminists and feminist organisations are often seen as anachronistic.

Germany has developed legislature for the protection of the rights of women and fighting gender based discrimination. The gender mainstreaming concept was adopted in 1999 and has to be realised in all parts of the governmental bodies, in research and education. Slowly, the gender budgeting concept is starting in the German government. The government still has to implement the anti-discrimination directive of the EU, where gender is a part of. There exist various further programmes.). In future GJ would like to work on mentoring, coaching and in general empowering women.

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Ecosphere,Belarus has 18 members and 13 are women, 2 of them are involved in the decision making processes. In general in Belarus there is no developed legislature to support gender equality in Belarus.

Men have a dominant position. About 70% of all unemployed are women. Women work basically in such spheres as health care, education and administrative positions that require high educational level, but offer very low salaries. Women have higher level of education (45.7%) then men (30.2%). But in spite of this, women are engaged in low-paid and low-quality jobs and they do not have the equal access to education due to the age limits hence women are deprived of the right for the life long education..

There are only 29% women in the Parliament and women themselves are not interested in politics. In the results of the research:

In Belarus traditional patriarchal views are very strong. It is considered that women must take care of family, bring up children, but not make a carrier. Due to the fact that women get married very young (18-23) they usually become very dependant on their husbands. Also violence against women is common in Belarus families.

In International Public Association “Ecosphere”, men and women have equal rights. In the Council of organization we have equal amount of men and women: two men and two women. But the basic active part of the organization is consisting of women. This phenomenon is charactering not only for our organization. Women are most active participants of various public organizations.

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Greens for Zagreb,Croatia has 120 members and 50 women, out of which 40% are involved in decision making bodies, even though statutory is 50%. In order to support gender equality within their organisation “Zeleni za Zagreb” (Greens for Zagreb) use positive discrimination. In Croatia education is equally accessible to both men and women and women have the freedom of choice in personal and professional spheres of life. As well Croatia has developed legislature to protect the rights of women (Public office for protection of women, obliged to give reports to Croatian Parliament about women rights. CEO of the office has to be a woman and has rights to call for a start of police and law investigation on different problems).

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Young Greens,Romania has 30 members, 20 women, out of which 5 are involved in the decision making processes. In Romania women have freedom of choice in personal and professional sphere and equal access to education, but although Romanian women enjoy high literacy rates, constitute 56 percent of all employees in professional and technical careers, and have a supportive, women-friendly gender policy in place, they continue to experience discriminatory treatment in recruitment and wages.

Labor market participation by women: currently, 45.2 percent of the total workforce and 56 percent of all employees in the professional and technical careers are women. Of these women 26 percent are in managerial positions.

Wage differentials: the labor code of the country recommends equal pay for equal work.

However, gender discrimination exists, especially in the case of less-educated women. Women facing economic discrimination also suffer from lack of infrastructure and despite laws promoting equality, more women than men are unemployed in the country. Women hold few influential positions in the private sector and on average earn lower wages.

Government policy on gender: the constitution and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) guarantee the protection of women's equal rights in the country. In 1996 the government created a section under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection with the purpose of promoting women's interests and family policies. The department coordinates programs for women, suggests new laws, monitors the legislation for sexual prejudices, and supports women's training for skill-building, especially in villages.

NGO’s: most NGO’s in Romania are founded by women and the number of female representation is greater than the male one. The NGO’s founded by women and leaded by them are well gender balance, while the ones created by men tend to have more male members and women have difficulties achieving a high position in them. Nowadays there is a tendency in all Romanian NGO’s to achieve a gender balance.

Although Romanian women enjoy high literacy rates, constitute 56 percent of all employees in professional and technical careers, and have a supportive, women-friendly gender policy in place, they continue to experience discriminatory treatment in recruitment and wages.

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Young Greens,Turkey has 17 members, and 7 women and all of them are involved in decision making bodies. In order to support gender quality Young Greens of Turkey use positive discrimination and quotas for every decision making body and they also have a gender commission working to find out what could be done better within the organisation, they have a working group concerned with the topic “gender equality” and are trying to establish an FYEG gender campaign to recruit more women.

Even though women in Turkey have equal access to education, the role of woman is still perceived as a traditional one, and the adopted legislature for the protection of their rights and equality is not applied. Young Greens Turkey would work on anti discriminatory campaign within their country.

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Green Youth,Ukraine has 5000 members, out of which 70% are women. In order to support gender equality Green Youth of Ukraine are using quotas. Men and women have equal accessibility to education, and adopted legislature that has not been put into practice. Even though it seems that women have the freedom of choice, in reality their role is a traditional one. The projects this organization would like to work on are: conferences with resolutions which could be used in law making processes on the national level, and exchanges with representatives from countries where gender policies are well developed.

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Green Youth,Serbia has 120 members and 60% are women. In decision making bodies currently 80% are women. Still the process of making women active within the organization is still rather long. Green Youth is using quotas for women in organization. Concerning education it is equally accessible to both men and women.

Even though the rates of women that have high and higher education is on the rise, there is a small number of them in the decision making bodies or as heads of different organizations, companies, institutions. There is a high level of unemployment and lower wages for women. In Serbian political life there is a very small number of women, due to a negative view that the society (in general) has on women politicians. The role of women is still rather traditional, but in recent years turning towards more favorable one. Even though various laws and campaigns have been created in order to support women and gender equality, still they have not been very productive in practice.

Green Youth, Serbia would like to mainly focus on empowering women and to work on gender based discriminatory practices in urban and rural parts of Serbia.

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