Rethinking Inclusion and Gender empowerment: A participatory action research

Project Information

ReIncluGen

Grant agreement ID: 101093987

DOI

10.3030/101093987

Project closed

EC signature date 14 December 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 990 481,25

EU contribution

€ 2 990 481,25

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ReIncluGen (Rethinking Inclusion and Gender empowerment: A participatory action research)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ReIncluGen project aims to reconceptualize the concept of gender empowerment by building on the innovative theoretical concept of 'situated intersectionality' considering the complexities and nuances of individuals’ experiences within their specific social, cultural, political and historical contexts. The research objectives are threefold. Firstly, using participatory and co-creative action research with CSOs in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain and their members will help us to examine these situated meanings with attention to migrant women and girls and their diversity and agency. Secondly, we will conduct an evaluation and impact assessment of empowering and inclusive trajectories applied in CSOs to co-design innovative tools to support their gender empowerment and inclusion. We aim to understand their rationale, linkage with prevailing policies, contextual preconditions of their success, and study their applicability across different organisations, countries and cultural contexts. Thirdly, we will examine the discourses and actions of media and digital cultures in strengthening gender empowerment and how they are used and implemented by CSOs.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The ReIncluGen project resulted in the development of critical definitions and notions on the concept of gender empowerment, by starting from the perspectives of migrantised women and girls in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain, as well as from civil society organisations working with these women and girls. This resulted in an overview to understand how policies see and approach gender empowerment and inclusion, an analysis of existing data to understand differences in gender inequalities across Europe, in-depth interviews and photovoicing of migrantised women and girls, resulting in a photobook and travelling exhibitions across the involved countries.


Secondly, the result of the evaluation and impact assessment of empowering and inclusive trajectories applied in CSOs led to the development and evaluation of good practices, resulting in a toolkit for good practices included in the digital platform Quwa. This platform fosters civil society organisations to support internal reporting, to share practices with peers, and to find CSOs across Europe. These findings led to the development of a Massive Online Open Course on Coursera and both local and European Policy briefs.

Thirdly, the media discours analysis led to an analysis of two printed media sources, and at least two relevant social media channels per country, for five selected ‘hot topics’, namely feminicide, islamophobia, paid domestic labor, citizenship and rights, abortion. These findings helped to develop the toolkit for media strategies, which can also be used for schools and in other educational contexts.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our policy analyses revealed that the several countries face similar challenges in terms of establishing mechanisms aimed at eliminating gender inequality but differ in terms of the authorities’ approach towards this issue. This translates into specific solutions that are adopted by different countries. Additionally, our secondary data analyses reveal a story of growing gender equality in Europe, yet one where there is still much progress to be made. Women are, even today, less likely to have paid jobs than men and conversely are more often involved in unpaid care work. Moreover, a significant portion of the European population is not in favour of gender equality, especially when looking at attitudes toward working mothers and the role of women in the family and society. The data show that although the female population is better educated than the male population, working women are still facing important disadvantages in terms of career advancement and remuneration.

Gender empowerment is difficult to grasp in terms of language and has different histories in different countries. We tried to tackle this epistemological challenge by taking the right measures in our methodological guidelines and questionnaires the data collection process. Also during our fieldwork it becomes clear that gender empowerment should be addressed with cultural sensitivity without imposing Western cultural biases on the interpretations of our participants namely women and girls with a migration or ethnic minority background. During the first phase of the interviews it often came up that cultural beliefs, values, and practices related to gender equality or gender empowerment are given meaning within the context of women's own cultures.

We have developed the Quwa platform to share inspiring practices, activities and network with other organisations in Europe, and to map out relevant activities for the own organisation. This platform/app has a lot of potential and we hope to elaborate further, together with the CSOs involved, in the platform.

Logo ReIncluGen