Steering Group Meeting The Transnational CHOICES Project Consortium Trento October 2005

PARTNERS Dept. of Sociology and Social Research – University of Trento FIDIA srl FORES srl Gender Scuola di Preparazione Sociale

CONTEXT Work market in the Province of Trento has seen in the last years an increasing participation of women. Nevertheless, relevant dynamics of gender segregation, both horizontal and vertical, remain: - for each given level of education, women are significantly underrepresented at higher level of hierarchy and their chances to make career progressions are still significant lower then those of men; - the existing work-family conciliation practices are addressed mainly to women, contributing to reinforce gender asymmetry; - women have higher percentages of ‘atypical’ contracts, more precarious and with limited possibilities of careers progression.

To tackle the problem of gender vertical segregation in some of the most important sectors of local work market (as the provincial administration, the provincial health service, the cooperatives’ association) through different strategies of action: - valorisation of women presence (redefinition of assessment models in organizations) - redefinition of conciliation practices (change of role expectatives both in the family and in the workplace) - women’s empowerment (valorisation of women’s resources and competencies, extension of their professional networks) - sensitization (promotional actions to contrast stereotypes, fostering new cultural models) OBJECTIVE

FOCUS OF ACTION Action will be focused in particular on three aspects: - models of career structuring for men and women - models of conciliation between work and family - spreading of “atypical work”

METHOD The project will be developed in a perspective of “action-research”, meaning the beneficiaries involvement in all the phases of the process.

MACRO ACTIVITIES - Research - Experimentation - Dissemination

RESEARCH - analysis of literature on gender career structuring and a mapping of the more recent ‘good practices’ of de-segregation and conciliation; - (quantitative and qualitative) analysis of career paths of man and women to evaluate structural dynamics and path differentiation; - analysis of workers with atypical contracts, with a special attention to the perspectives of career progression for women; - a study of existing conciliation practices; - analysis of the costs of non equity. Methods: secondary analysis, document analysis, questionnaires, narrative interviews, focus groups.

EXPERIMENTATION a) actions to facilitate women’s career development - focus groups to circulate the findings of research and individuate lines of intervention; - group and individual training for auto-evaluation and empowerment; - creation of workgroups to work on organizational models that reproduce gender inequities; - planning of actions for re-structuring career paths.

EXPERIMENTATION b) negotiating tables (involving workers, unions, managers) to plan actions for reducing risks of segregation caused by flexible contracts. c) individuation and implementation of good practices of conciliation, re- equilibrating responsibilities for men and women: - valorisation of existing good practices; - selection of good practices’ indicators; - creation of workgroups to plan innovative forms of conciliation

DISSEMINATION - selection of guidelines to support personnel managing and training in a gender perspective; - promotional campaigns in order to favour conciliation practices intended for men and to inform about non equity cost; - define methodological guidelines for training aimed at favouring a better awareness of gender issues in organizations; - creation of a certification for gender organizational politics.