REC-2020: Call for proposals on closing gender gaps over the life-course

Digitalisation can offer opportunities and challenges to address gender stereotypes.

Objective

The call for proposals aims to raise awareness of gender equality issues from an early age, to fight differential treatment of girls and boys and of women and men according to gender assumptions in order to ultimately overcome gender stereotypes with regard to roles of women and men at home, at work and in society.

Scope

One of the fundamental issues to tackle in order to reach gender equality is the persistence of gender stereotypes. From a very young age onwards, children are exposed to gender roles that shape their self-perception and influence their academic and professional choices as well as expectations of their roles as women and men throughout their life. Furthermore, gender stereotypes keep on influencing choices with regard to employment and combination of work and private life.

This call for proposals shall focus on actions in order to raise awareness and tackle gender stereotypes in education, in particular in early childhood education and care and in schools, and in educational and occupational choices in a digitalised world. Therefore, priorities shall be on:

• Tackling gender stereotypes in education and early childhood care, focusing on measures such as those aiming at changing attitudes, behaviours and practices that hamper progress towards equality and restrict the potential of girls and boys.
• One of the crucial elements is the awareness of professionals of the early childhood care and education sectors of their own unconscious bias affecting their interactions with boys and girls, and their active involvement in ensuring a gender-transformative environment for girls and boys and their families. Capacity-building and training activities are therefore encouraged.
• Tackling gender stereotypes in educational and career choices in a digitalised world, focusing on the opportunities and challenges of ongoing digitalisation on tackling gender stereotypes. Particularly, on how digitalisation can benefit all students and workers/employees, to positively impact gender equality and to help break gender stereotypes. Furthermore, proposals shall address how the risks of reproducing gender stereotypes through digitalisation (e.g. algorithms, artificial intelligence) can be mitigated.

By combatting harmful negative gender stereotypes and discriminatory practices in education and early childhood care, and in addressing the potential and pitfalls of digitalisation on educational and professional choices, proposals are to impact positively on girls and boys perception of gender roles.

Deadline

01 April 2020 at 17:00 Brussels time

More information

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