The sessions, organised in collaboration with our member DIESIS, delved into how national and regional federations of cooperatives work in the field of gender equality, and explored practical tools to enhance gender equality in the federations and the cooperatives affiliated to them. 

Gender equality is a key aspect of inclusion and diversity within the cooperative movement. Cooperatives, by their very nature, strive to empower all members equitably, making gender equality both a goal and a measure of their success. However, embracing these values requires deliberate effort and ongoing commitment. 

Over three online sessions, CECOP’s members from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Malta and the United Kingdom, shared their experiences, challenges and opportunities regarding their efforts towards gender equality.  

Many of our members, National Federations of cooperatives, have developed their own Gender Equality Committees to give voice to the women cooperators in their respective organisations and affiliated cooperatives within the movement but also vis à vis governments. Examples include the National Gender Equality Commission of Legacoop in Italy. In France, the General Delegate of CGSCOP is the president of the Gender Equality Commission within the Higher Council for the Social and Solidarity Economy. These committees promote equal opportunities and gender policies in cooperative enterprises, as well as the visibility and empowerment of women managers. They do so by promoting policies supporting gender equality at different political levels, partnering with other entities, organising projects, developing tools and events promoting gender equality. 

Cooperatives’ Federations also develop tools to help the cooperatives reaching good gender equality standards within their enterprises. These includes guides, publications, projects, studies, trainings, etc. For instance, COCETA (Spain) has developed a guide to facilitate the design of equality plans of worker cooperative, a publication, Cuadernos de mujer y cooperativismo, centred in collecting data and case studies of good practices in women inclusion, and even a podcast. In Italy, the Women Cooperators Commission of Confcooperative has developed trainings on topics of women’s empowerment and leadership, such as negotiation skills, time-management skills, communication skills; conducted studies and research on gender and medicine; and organised awareness-raising events, such as on the annual “Speak up” campaign or on the gender equality certification. This certification, introduced by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, aims at reducing gender gaps by defining key performance indicators related to the gender equality policies of organisations.  

GEMOS is an Italian worker cooperative providing catering service and employing more than 1700 workers , 87% of which are women, which recently obtained a gender equality certification. The certification contributed to make them more conscious of their strengths and weaknesses, internally and externally, understanding the needs of the women worker members and of the clients. The process helped GEMOS become more consistent with their values and work better towards improving gender equality with the help of a tool to plan, update, monitor and achieve specific goals. Furthermore, the certification allowed the cooperative to accrue a competitive advantage when participating in public procurement procedures and to benefit from tax relief measures associated with it.  

During the last session of the MLS, participants delved into the topic of intersectionality and intersectional approaches to gender equality with the aim of understanding how various forms of inequalities and disadvantages, such as gender, race, age, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, accumulate and therefore, how everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination. In particular, the presentations focused on the issue of disability and gender violence, and migration and gender inclusion.  

In Portugal, FENACERCI , the national federation of social cooperatives, has worked extensively on the issue of violence of women with disabilities. Women with disabilities are victim of different degrees of violence which mostly goes neglected and unpunished. Portugal is one of the signatories of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Guided by this Convention, FENACERCI has developed specific guidelines and tools for prevention of violence against people and women with disabilities.  

Women with disabilities suffer double discrimination as often they are not able to recognize the violence, to verbally express it and victim centers services are not always equipped to deal with victim of abuse with disabilities. To this end the ongoing Dis-Connected project has developed recommendations for victim service providers, justice professionals, and disability organisation, strengthening the capacity of victim support services to respond to victims with disabilities. 

Sheffield, England is a variegated ecosystem for cooperatives and offers some very good examples of intersectionality of gender, migration, race, sexuality and cooperation. For example, the Sheffield Childcare, Play, Childminding and Family Support Cooperatives provide early years provision, family support provision, early intervention, disability supports, home based child mining and family support interventions for child protection for families who are struggling across the entire city. These cooperatives are managed by migrants and refugees who are working in cooperation with those who had hosted them in the community in the beginning. They were the promoter of the Sure Start Children’s Centre Programme by being the first children’s centre in the whole of Europe. A programme that supports children under the age of 5 and their families.  

Despite the challenges often derived mainly from lacking an adequate financial resources and adequate visibility, worker and social cooperatives are at the forefront of gender equality. One of the strengths of cooperatives in terms of addressing inclusion and diversity is their community-based, grassroots nature, which allows them to find unique solutions to local challenges but also having a supportive ecosystem of national federations of cooperatives which collectively promote and advocate for them. 

CECOP thanks all the participants for their collaboration and contribution and looks forward to continuing working on the topic. 

 

 

This event is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.