Gender equality on the agenda in Brussels

The launch event took place in the European Parliament, and Sanna Sarromaa based her presentation on a recent evaluation of gender equality in Oppland. She focused on the fact that gender has a decisive effect on education choices among Oppland's youth. Sarromaa saw this in the light of theories on gender socialisation and gender specific social structures. Furthermore she put the topic in an inclusion/exclusion perspective and posed the following question:

”In the context of the European Year of combating poverty and social exclusion, I want to ask isn’t this all about exclusion? Young boys and girls choose what they think – and what the rest of the society thinks – is appropriate for them. They don’t have all the possibilities; they have only those possibilities that their gender allows them. And in the context of the European Year of combating poverty, isn’t this all about poverty? Poverty of the mind and poverty of choice? Girls and boys are deprived of the freedom of choice by gendered social structures”.

The Oslo Region European Office, co-owned by Oppland County Authority, participates in the SIRG network together with region offices from Great Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Hungary. The network will organise a series of seminars connected to the topic of the European Year 2010: the combat against poverty and social exclusion.