The latest IRIS Newsletter 2/2007 deals with transitions to parenthood.

One of the working groups of the UP2YOUTH project is dealing with the situation and coping strategies of young parents.

UP2YOUTH is a European research network funded by the EU’s 6th framework programme. It gathers 17 research institutions from all over Europe . For more information, please visit the Internet portal www.up2youth.org

Gender Mainstreaming at the „Arbeits-Initiative Backnang“
Monitoring and evaluation of the establishment of a gender mainstreaming approach in a welfare organisation that promotes employment for people that have been unemployed for a long time

Description of the project:
The goal of the project was to evaluate gender issues in a regional initiative for employment and to restructure the approach, the concepts and the offers of the initiative in order to improve equal opportunities and conditions for women and men on the labour market. The compatibility of work and family was improved by developing new concepts and new ways of support for men and women. Target groups of the process were the employees of the employment initiative in Backnang as well as their clients.

Work packages

• Evaluation and monitoring of the project with the methods of qualitative social research:
• Stock-taking and analysis of the current situation (analysis of documents and records; survey through interviews and questionnaires)
• Coaching of management and staff
• Coaching and professional inputs during the process of goal definition and development of indicators for qualitative standards
• Integration and participation of staff into the project and training of their sensitiveness on issues of different gender cultures (bottom up approach)
• Training and development of gender competence of the employees, in workshops
• Development of a concept to secure sustainability and quality in terms of equal opportunities and gender democracy
• Development of instruments for self evaluation and quality securing

Results

In the course of the project the initiative developed a model on equal opportunities for women and men and established professional standards on gender issues.
Management and staff also developed a number of minimal standards and committed to them.

According to these standards the initiative established flexible working hours and a service for the employees that picks up their children to bring them to school and back again. Clients without a drivers licence started to get financial support in order to be able to afford a licence and to increase their mobility.

In the third year of the project we developed a concept on quality securing and established quality circles for the employees.

The scientific approach and the results of the project were documented in yearly reports. These reports can be obtained at:

Arbeits-Initiative Backnang
Schlachthofstr. 5-9
71522 Backnang

Information under:

www.aib-backnang.de

“Equal opportunities for young men and young women who are in transition from school to work as a political strategy and concept in the establishment of local networks for employment”

Duration of the project: January 2001 – September 2002

Summary

The project aimed at improving local networks for employment that provide transitions to work for young women and men in a way that they become aware for gender-specific needs and trajectories. The network approach was analysed and developed with regard to gender issues.
Existing networks were enabled to act more effectively by supporting the communication (e.g. by identifying and tackling communication barriers) between local actors as well as by supporting a gender oriented approach and network structure.
One important goal was to obtain a comparable knowledge about three European regions and their implementation of gender perspectives in local networks, as well as the identification of success criteria in networks in respect to gender issues and equal opportunities for young men and women. A main focus was also put on organisations in the third sector which work in the field of job creation and support of employability with very different partners on a local/regional level.

Our partner organisations in other European countries were:

• GENESIS, Emilia Romagna, Italy
• AREA, Valencia, Spain

Objectives of the project

The main objective of the project was to detect details about the chances and obstacles concerning the transfer of “equal-opportunity-standards” into the establishment process of local networks for employment which support (disadvantaged) young women and men in their transition to work.

Other (more specific) objectives were:

• The detection of the preconditions for an effective unification of all local female and male experts within a selected local context.
• The exploration of decision making instruments integrating gender perspectives in cooperation with the local actors.
• The development of a working structure and strategy which included a moderating and coordinating authority together with the local actors.
• The creation of awareness among the network members concerning gender issues.
• The development of learning strategies for the network-members considering gender perspectives.
• The detection of main areas of cooperation between relevant local actors and 3rd sector initiatives that have a specific role in the field of job creation and employability.

Work packages

• The definition of standards for networks that integrate gender issues in their work and that promote equal opportunities for young men and women from a scientific point of view.
• The development of a common questionnaire for all three regions for the investigation.
• The identification of key situations which make a successful support for young people and promote equal opportunities for young women and men.
• The identification of success criteria in best practice networks.
• The evaluation of the material for each region, a comparison of the results which took into consideration social policy structures of each region.

Process

The three partner organisations defined standards for the establishment of local networks for employment with respect to gender mainstreaming and got a first overview on the situation in networks in their region.

At a first transnational meeting we evaluated the first steps and developed a questionnaire that allowed a deeper investigation of success criteria and the hypothesis that we had found after a first short investigation.

Success criteria of best practice networks were identified by interviewing selected network experts, in group discussions in the networks and by questionnaires.

In a second transnational meeting we collected the results and discussed the success criteria and obstacles in each region by taking into consideration the specific regional structure and history situation and different social policies.

We finally developed common political guidelines for the establishment of gender issues and equal opportunity criteria in local networks for employment.

All three partners organised workshops for their partner networks in each region and presented and discussed the results with them.

The project ended with a presentation of our results in Bruxelles.

Documentation of results

The results were documented in separated reports for each region as well as in a comprehensive report as a kind of synopsis for all three regions.

For the german region we developed a handout with guidelines that gives local networks for employment orientation and support on how to develop an approach that is sensitive for gender issues and equal opportunities for young men and women ins transition to work. It was written for political experts and organisations (especially organisations in the third sector) that promote employment and education as well as for their partners.

Your contact at IRIS: Sabine Riescher

Comparative analysis on the changed role of the family against the background of longer and more complicated transitions of young women and men into work an economic independency.
The ‘Families and Transitions in Europe’ research project has been funded under the Improving the Human Potential key action of the European Commissions Fifth Framework Programme. It was developed and carried out in the framework of the European research network EGRIS and has been coordinated by the School of Policy Studies at the University of Ulster (Andy Biggart).

In the light of rapid socio-economic change, young people are becoming increasingly dependent on their families for a protracted period of time. The aim of the project was to examine the families role in facilitating or constraining active life management in the transition from education to the labour market, across different European models of State support for young people and their families.
FATE was a comparative research project, involving partners from nine European countries resp. regions (Bulgaria, Danmark, Germany East and West, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain). It has explored how families deal with changing dependencies within youth and young adulthood, which strategies they develop and to which extent the availability of family resources impact on decision making processes of young women and men. To answer these questions, a comprehensive approach is necessary, which takes into account structural, institutional, cultural and subjective aspects.

The first phase gave an overview over structural and institutional factors of transitions by secondary analysis. The second phase consisted of a questionnaire among young people at the end of their educational transitions, generating data on their living arrangements and on their attitudes concerning education, work, dependency and family relationships. The third and most important phase of the project has been on the one hand qualitative interviews with young women and men regarding family support and the influence this support has on their transition-related decisions. On the other hand, interviews with one or both parents of these young people have been carried out. The content analysis of these semi-structured interviews followed a common thread of codes in order to facilitate the international comparison.

The study provided insights into two issues which are both central for social integration, but which up to now hardly have been analysed as interrelated: Family and Transitions of young women and men into work. Country-related as well as comparative reports have been elaborated, on national structures, on patterns of dependency and support, and above all on the ways, both generations evaluate this situation. Results have been published in the respective countries and made available for different target groups, such as policy makers, practitioners, and the scientific community. Results have been presented on a European Seminar (the European Observatory on Family), and on various national conferences.

Contact at IRIS: Jutta Goltz, Barbara Stauber, Andreas Walther

Title of the project: Qualitative investigation of boys concerning health problems relevant to sex education, as well as sex education and medical advice

Duration:

July 1, 1996 – December 31, 1997

Project leader:

Dr. Reinhard Winter
Gunter Neubauer
IRIS FB Jungen und Männer
Lorettoplatz 6
72072 Tübingen

Target group:

Boys and male adolescents

Sample:

64 key persons and experts 181 boys and male adolescents (9 – 18 years old)

Method:

Explorative focus group interviews
Qualitative interviews based on guidelines

Objective:

Ideologies of masculinity put pressure on boys. They influence their sexuality and health to a large extent. These are the central results of an extensive literary investigation during which numerous studies and publications in the field of “sexuality, health and guidance of boys” were analysed. So far a sex-related approach to the sexuality and health of boys has not been taken into account or at least too little. So important paradigms for the sex education and guidance of boys are missing.

This qualitative investigation deals with healt problems relevant to sex education, with sex education and medical advice of boys from a point of view explicitly held by boys and men. The study is structured by the following four levels of investigation (basic dimensions): ideological and sociopsychological level (especially ideologies of masculinity and their consequences in behaviour); socio-cultural level (culture, media, everyday life); individual and self-relating level (self relation, deficiencies of competence, performance, normality); individual and physical level (relation to one’s body, physical socialisation, body projections).

This investigatory approach takes a double perspective. An “external perspective” obtained by a survey carried out on key persons and experts and an “internal perspective” obtained by the survey of boys and male adolescents. Differentiations specific to age and region are aimed at (younger and older adolescents; rural area/small town; conurbation/large city).

Publications

BZgA (1999): Kompetent, authentisch und normal? Aufklärungsrelevante Gesundheitsprobleme, Sexualaufklärung und Gesundheitsberatung von Jungen, in: Forschung und Praxis der Sexualaufklärung und Familienplanung, Band 14, Köln, Bestellnummer 13300014

Winter, R., Neubauer, G. (1999): Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst!, in: BzgA (Hg.): Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen. Teil 2 – Jugendliche, Forschung und Praxis der Sexualaufklärung und Familienplanung, Band 13.2, Köln, Bestellnummer 133 001 14

To be ordered from: 
BZgA, 51101 Köln,
by Fax +49221/8992-257, by E-Mail: order@bzga.de

1996-1999

Coordination of the pilot project “Regional cooperation network to create new job opportunities” for women in social services, for children, young people and deprived persons in a rural and structurally weak region, under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), article 10.

1997-1999

Coordinator of the project “Success criteria for the continuing education of women”; financed from the program “LEONARDO da VINCI” of the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Union.

Pilot project funded by the Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to implement gender aware work with boys.

Duration: 1998 – 2001