Our 13 transnational Project's Partners

The event was conceived as a Dissemination Workshop in which participants was actively involved in discussions and debate

The main aim  was to publicise the event to political parties, NGOs dealing with gender equality issues, universities etc.

The introduction of the Workshop topics made by LUDEN's Director Haroon Saad, followed by the well-respected UK researcher Dr. Rosie Campbell from University of London. She has research interests in voting behaviour, political participation, representation, political careers and gender and politics. She teaches Modern British politics and research methods. Her book ‘Gender and the Vote in Britain’ was published in 2006 and she has recently published in the British Journal of Political Science, British Politics, Political Quarterly and she has articles forthcoming in Political Studies and the BJPIR. Dr Rosie Campbell and Prof. Joni Lovenduski have written a report on Gender and Political Participation for the UK Electoral Commission. Her Presentation is intitled: "Women and political activism: how can we help women to climb the greasy pole?" and offered us  an overview, abow all, on participation in politics by sex, role models, barriers, political educations schemes and what can be further done.

Anna Charlotta Ulfsdotter Schenholm, politician and Member of Liberal Women, Sweden. Her speech focused on political campaigns undertaken by different political parties across Sweden in order to increase the presence of women not only in politics but even in job, business, finance and society. Her speech focused on importance of role models of the strong Women Organisations inside the Party, of networks and of Women training programs. She also offered us an overview of her Party proposal on this issue, particularly in terms of parental leave (namely 13 months with full payment, equally shared between mather and father) and childcare guarantee (with maximumu 3 years waiting)

Sweden has one of the highest rates of involvement of Women in every sphere of society within the EU Members States.

Gender equality is one of the cornerstones of modern Swedish society. The aim of Sweden’s gender equality policies is to ensure that women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all areas of life.

The overarching principle is that everyone, regardless of gender, has the right to work and support themselves, to balance career and family life, and to live without the fear of abuse or violence.

Gender equality implies not only equal distribution between men and women in all domains of society. It is also about the qualitative aspects, ensuring that the knowledge and experience of both men and women are used to promote progress in all aspects of society.

Ulla Preeden. Member of Pro Patria and Res Pubblica Party (2007), Women's organisation (2012), Governor of Esthonian Pova County (2011). She spread with us the strategy of ProPatria in order to increase the presence of Women in terms of Development action (young women drawn into politics) and Campaign (as development of the image of woman as a politician). They managed also trainings, empowerments, inter-party debates between female politicians, spotlight on the female candidates standing for the European Parliament, public lecture and media coverage of actions

In 1998, she graduated from High School Räpina, followed by a bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies at the University of Tartu in geology. Before returning to Põlvamaa her jobs were mainly related research, in addition to geology-related activities she was involved with projects aimed at mapping the doctoral studies in the history and value of these studies related to generic skills. From 2011 she is Põlva county Governor. Concretely she has contributed to organise and manege the 1th transnational workshop on the project on September 2013 in Tallin and the More Women in Politics 2014 candidate support program in Estonia

Jana Smiggels Kavková believes that more women in politics and decision-making are needed. In her opinion, having more women in such positions would enhance the environment in her native Czech Republic, particularly in the fight against corruption.

She said: ‘From my eight years of experience advocating for parity between women and men in politics, I can see very clearly that the biggest barrier is political parties, at least in the Czech Republic. Instead of supporting women, they are holding them back. At the same time, parties are complaining that they are not able to find enough women who would be willing to run in the elections.’

Since 2009, Smiggels Kavkova has worked as director of the Czech ‘Forum 50%’, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation promoting equal representation of women and men in decision-making and politics. Previously, she worked as project coordinator in the same organisation, and previously studied political science at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

One of Forum 50 %’s biggest projects is a campaign called ‘Coalition for a balanced representation of women and men in politics’, which was supported by many popular Czech personalities. Forum 50 % also organises campaigns to support women in elections and hosts other activities such as networking for women or public debates with women politicians.

In 2010, Forum 50 % ran a successful campaign to support women in the elections, resulting in election of 14 women MPs.

In addition, 'Forum 50%' acts as a progressive, non-partisan think tank, and cooperates with the academic sector, media, civil society, state authorities and political parties. At our Dissemination Event she spoke about the concrete activities of Forum 50% as the pre-election campaigns supporting women, supporting the women across the party, working with political parties and advocay.

Mrs. Kavkova spoke also about the massive, famous "Chicken Campaign" launched by press conference before the Czech parliamentary elections (2010), and accompained by videos like this one (on website, facebook, youtube), web banners, t-shirts, stickers and women from NGO networks involved. The results: massive support for women candidates, 14 women MPs elected by preferential votes, representation of women increased from 18% to 22%, 44 women MPs in total. This Campaign was followed by the "Chicken Campaign Part II" launched before the Czech local elections (2010) involving a "Chicken tour" around the country, audio-spots in local radio, stickers, leaflets, web banners, video in the state TV, spots on youtube and facebook. Results: number of elected women increased from 24,9% to 26,3% and  in statutory cities the number increased from 19,5% to 22,8%