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Salon de livres de femmes
On 23 th November, French Association of University Women – AFFDU organized the 12th edition of Women’s book fair in Paris. Unique in France, this special event is dedicated to women authors of essays, it is meant to highlight the diversity of women’s talents by gathering authors from all disciplines: historians, journalists, scientists, philosophers, sociologists.
This edition was a tribute to Nicole Bécarud who organized the first edition of Women’s book fair, reflecting on the possibilities to offer the french people a way to recognize their scientific work excluding novels and poetry, since, in the minds of the public, women seemed to be mostly confined in this category of literary creation.
Doctor in chemistry (she attended the School of Chemistry of Paris) it seems to her quite natural to promote the scientific literature of philosophers, children, women, geographers, linguists, clinicians, chemists, physicists and all others researchers because of her job – (Head of Scientific and Technical Service of National Association of Industries Food) she earned her accession to Rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor in March 1985, then in 2001, in the name of Women’s Rights Secretariat (as President of AFFDU) and Ministries responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises and vocational training and obtained the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor.
Since its creation, AFFDU promotes gender equality being engaged in many domains: equality, education, women empowerment.
In 1994, she launched the project, and all essay writers who have published in 94 and then in 95, came to expose their works and dedicate them. As member of the “Club de la Mer” whose seat was a barge moored at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on the Seine, she opened this first book fair in a houseboat. The success was immediate: the pool of authors of the AFFDU was vast, and above all, the idea of dedicating a book fair to women essays writers had a huge impact.
The barge proved to be too limited in places and Nicole had to look for a new place to host the event.
Thanks to its efforts, the City Hall of Sixth district of Paris was strongly interested in this very original event and offered his Hall of Festivals. Nicole Bécarud had therefore fully succeeded the mission she received from her association: make known the opportunities for French women to show their scientific qualities.
QUIZ on sexism – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Gender Equality Division of the Council of Europe has just produced a QUIZ which highlights some misconceptions people may have about everyday sexism.
The QUIZ is part of a series of activities of Sexism: See it. Name it. Stop it., a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the Recommendation on preventing and combating sexism. In order to make sexist behaviour visible and to prevent it, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a this recommendation in March 2019, which contains the first ever internationally agreed definition of sexism. It spells out how it manifests, the harm it causes, and what can be done to combat it.
Sexism is everywhere: in classrooms and in offices, on football pitches and magazine covers. But it is sometimes hard to pinpoint what it does, exactly, and we often tend to minimise sexist acts as harmless or not so important. However, all the incidents of sexism that accumulate over days and years create a climate that makes violence and discrimination – mostly against women – possible.
So take the QUIZ and then have a look at the information video and the action page, to found out how the Council of Europe is taking a stand against sexism in our everyday lives.
Sexism: if you see it, you should name it and try to stop it!
Recommendation on equality between women and men adopted by the Conference of INGOs
The recommendation on equality between women and men has been adopted by the Conference of INGOs on 30 October 2019.
This recommendation was proposed by Anne Nègre , President of University Women of Europe and Vice-President in charge of Equality with the participation of: Association of Women of Southern Europe (AFEM), University Women of Europe (UWE), and support by: European Centre of the International Council of Women (ECICW), European Network church on the Move (EN/RE), European Union of Women (EUW), Intereuropean Commission on Church and School (ICCS), International Alliance of Women (IAW), Soroptimist International Europe (SIE), Zonta International (ZI), European Buddhist Union (EBU), ANDANTE Europa, European Action of the Disabled, (AEH), Conference of European Churches (CEC).
Here you can read the entire text of the recommendation on equality between women and men. The Conference of INGOs calls on Members States to respect and defend this essential Human Rights assets.
english version or french version
Another concern is the drift of artificial intelligence, with its gender bias, that is uncontrolled, reproducing by increasing inequalities between women and men, the sexist abuses probably linked to the lack of women in science.
Artificial Intelligence is transforming the decision-making processes, it has become part of our daily life, changing our rights. Research had shown that currently AI is not gender neutral, so today gender equality is not done in algorithms. Also, only about 15% of programmers are female and this makes for a salary difference between women and men. AI reproduces the exclusion of vulnerable people, not only women.
Call for Delegates to the 64th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) in New York, 9 to 20 March 2020
The 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 20 March 2020. The CSW64 promises to be a historic event as women from around the world will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).
The main focus of CSW64 will be on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The review will include an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Graduated Women Internation – GWI is launching a call to the attention of GWI Leaders, NFA Presidents and CIRs, and NFA Members who are interested in participating to propose their candidacy – deadlline Thursday, 31 October 2019.
Accreditation for CSW64 is strictly limited. Individual delegates will be chosen by the GWI Board of Officers based on the following criteria:
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Each candidate is required to have the full endorsement of their NFA President or CIR for consideration be given. The CSW64 Candidate Endorsement Form signed by the President or CIR must accompany the Delegate application.
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Either current or recent professional or volunteer work experience related to aspects of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action OR strong experience with the United Nations advocacy/lobbying process is a plus.
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Strong knowledge of GWI mission and vision and willingness to network on behalf of GWI.
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Preparedness to attend daily sessions and prepare short reports for GWI advocacy purposes.
Readiness to participate in GWI briefings during CSW64.
Please note: Applicants can only be considered if their 2019 NFA dues have been paid in full.
Some delegate spaces will be reserved for members of NFAs presenting CSW64 side or parallel events and/or for GWI visiting panel experts. Priority will be given to members who are willing to attend for at least five days and who indicate the highest level of motivation to participate on behalf of GWI.
Members who are interested in participating as part of GWI’s delegation must submit an official delegate CSW64 Application Form and CSW64 Candidate Endorsement Form. Both forms must be emailed to the GWI Office to info@graduatewomen.org no later than 31 October 2019 at midnight Central European Time (CET). This deadline will be strictly enforced as some selected candidates will need adequate time to complete the United States of America visa application process.
****Please include in the subject line of your email: GWI CWS64 Delegate Application****
Regretfully, GWI cannot fund delegate travel, accommodation, subsistence or other costs.
New EU Commissioners Open Letter
The Board of University Women of Europe already signed an open letter to demand that the EU commission revises the title for commissioner Mariya Gabriel to “Education, Research, Innovation and Youth” and we kindly invite our members to support this petition, too.
The candidates for the new EU commissioners were presented last week (Web link to press release). In the new commission the areas of education and research are not explicitly represented anymore and instead are subsumed under the “innovation and youth” title. This emphasizes economic exploit ability (i.e. “innovation”) over its foundation, which is education and research, and it reduces “education” to “youth” while being essential to all ages.
President von der Leyen, in her mission letter to commissioner Mariya Gabriel (Web link to Mandate Letter), has emphasized that “education, research and innovation will be key to our competitiveness”.
We, as members of the scientific community of Europe, wish to address this situation early on and emphasize both to the general public, as well as to relevant politicians on the national and European Union level, that without dedication to education and research there will neither exist a sound basis for innovation in Europe, nor can we fulfill the promise of a high standard of living for the citizens of Europe in a fierce global competition.
With this open letter we demand that the EU commission revises the title for commissioner Gabriel to “Education, Research, Innovation and Youth” reflecting Europe’s dedication to all of these crucial areas. We also call upon the European Parliament to request this change in name before confirming the nominees for commissioner.
Please support this letter by signing up as a supporter via https://indico.uis.no/event/5/registrations/
The original letter here
EWA Network Scriptwriters’ Residency call for applications
European Women’s Audiovisual – EWA’s scriptwriters residency programme is a great initiative dedicated to supporting the next generation of screenwriting talents among EWA members. It helps them to enter the industry with the best script possible by working on the strategic positioning of their project . Its purpose is to give two selected women scriptwriters or directors the opportunity to be mentored by a script consultant, to work with her before the Berlinale and to attend the EFM at the Berlinale to make connections.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
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Women scriptwriters or directors with an European nationality having a written or directed at least one feature film (fiction or documentary) distributed (theatrically/tv/wide festival trajectory) in one European country.
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EWA members, if you are not a member you can join now.
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who has a first draft of a script in English for a full length feature film-fiction only.
THE OFFER
Accommodation in Berlin starting from 1 February 2020 – and ending 29 February 2020, including three working sessions with a well-known script consultant (2 in Berlin + 1 Skype session after the Berlinale) and the accreditation for the Berlinale.
The EWA scriptwriting residency and the script consultancy must be mentioned in the credits of the later film.
The application should be submitted until 15 th of October !
More information on the EWA’s website here
IrFUW Annual Conference 2019
UWE friends are invited to attend the Irish Federation of University Women – IrFUW Annual Conference, hosted by Trinity College Dublin on the 18th and 19th October 2019, it will be an exciting weekend of discussion on the theme of “Hearing Women’s Voices”.
On Friday afternoon delegates can register in the Alumni Office in East Chapel in Trinity College Dublin from 3pm. There will be several events laid on in the afternoon including a guided tour of the new Printing House Building by the Architect of the project Valerie Mulvin who also designed the award winning Trinity Long Room Hub through her company McCulloughMulvin Architects. Trish Murphy will be talking about her work with students in Trinity in Consent Workshops which TWG are delighted to support.
The IrFUW evening dinner is in the Trinity City Hotel in Pearse Street starting with a reception at 7pm. The guest speaker is Sharon Bowers, New York Literary Agent who will talk about #hearingwomensvoices in modern literature.
Ticket Dinner Friday Evening 7.pm 18th October in Trinity City Hotel – Cost €55
On Saturday there will be presentations and panel discussions on Women’s Voices In Europe, Women’s Voices in Business and Women’s Voices in the Arts. Guest Speakers’s list on Saturday includes Frances Fitzgerald MEP, Dr. Anne Nègre – UWE President, Brid Horan – Balance for Better Business, Dr. Tanusree Jain and Prof. Deirdre Ahern of Trinity College Business School and Trinity School of Law.
Also presenting and discussing a video ‘Whose Feet’ on Lucia Joyce is Frances Mezzetti – Performance Artist and Joyce Garvey – Artist and Author of a book on Lucia Joyce.
Single Registration Ticket for both days – Cost €40
Venue: Long Room Hub TCD
Come along and hear thought provoking leading women, network with friends new and old and have your own voice heard.
Programme and booking details can be found on the IrFUW website , it can be booked advisable directly on website via bank transfer or credit card.
Please feel free to list this online to share with your members.
