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Memorandum of understanding UWE and IAUW
The Boards of University Women of University Women of Europe (UWE) and the Israel Association of University Women (IAUW) hereby announce that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Presidents of the two organisations, Anne Negre (UWE) and Yemina Peretz – Gabay (IAUW).
The purpose of this agreement is to establish a framework within which IAUW can enhance friendly relations and cooperation within UWE framework including it’s members of European Associations. IAUW is a member of GWI and promotes lifelong education for women and girls, international cooperation, friendship, peace and respect for human rights for all, irrespective of their age, race, nationality, religion, political opinion, gender and sexual orientation or other status, advocates for the advancement of the status of women and girls and encourages and enables women and girls to apply their knowledge and skills in leadership and decision-making in all forms of public and private life.
UWE will welcome a representative of IAUW to attend and to participate in CER meetings held during its Annual General Meeting. This will promote the mission of organisation in relation to education and professional opportunity for women.
The Boards of UWE will welcome NFA and IAUW initiatives, projects and visits that will cement this cooperation and develop it further to achieve its full potential.
Special thanks to our Vice President Aisha Alshawaf and all the members of the Constitutional Committee for their remarkable work on issuing this document.
Call for candidates – Treasurer for UWE Board
The UWE Board is pleased to invite applications from candidates for the UWE Board. As our Treasurer elected in June 2016 has three years mandate, the UWE Board will have a vacancy for the post of Treasurer.
Procedure
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Applications for the positions of Treasurer, should consist of a CV, photograph and a letter indicating the candidate’s willingness to accept the post should she be elected. The NFA which nominates the candidate should send an accompanying letter pointing out how the candidate fulfills the requirements and criteria of a the post.
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Candidates will also be required to make a five-minute presentation at the Annual General Meeting- Geneva 28 of July 2019 in which they introduce themselves, outline their experience and qualifications for the position and indicate how they would propose to contribute to promoting the overall aims of UWE if elected.
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Applications should be made to boarduwe@gmail.com by 16 th of July 2019 at the latest.
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Each board member will be asked to fulfill the requirements as described in the Profile of the UWE board member and the duties of a board member. In addition the Treasurer has specific profiles and duties.
PROFILE UWE Board member
Ideally a candidate for the UWE Board should have experience of working within her own National Federation/Association (NFA) or in a similar organization. She should be committed to furthering the aims and objectives of UWE, familiar with the European situation regarding gender equality and interested in lobbying for equal opportunities for both women and men in all aspects of society. She should enjoy travelling1 and be keen to work as a member of a European team. In order to avoid conflict of interests it would be preferable if she did not have an official function within her own NFA.
REQUIREMENTS ALL BOARD MEMBERS
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Excellent Fluency in English (both written and oral) and preferably also in French;
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Competence in I.T.: e.g. Skype; WordPress, Facebook, Excel etc.
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Competence in collective governance and administration of organizations
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Knowledge of the EU, Council of Europe and European Women’s Lobby
PROFILE OF THE TREASURER (IN ADDITION TO PROFILE UWE BOARD MEMBER)
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high level of competence in teamwork and networking;
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knowledge of the workings of EU subsidies and project funding possibilities
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experience in budgeting and bookkeeping
The specific duties:
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Collecting the dues
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Budgeting
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Payment of the budgeted invoices/reimbursements
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Managing Travel Fund
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Collecting the membership-dues
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Encouraging donations
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Applying for subsidies, tax opportunities etc.
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Two monthly report on finance to the President
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Compiling a Financial Report for the General Assembly
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Contributing to the UWE strategic and work plan
UWE gives a small remuneration which partly covers travel costs. In practice a member of UWE spends approximately 1500 Euro per year additionally.
Reflection on EWL GA Brussels 7-9 June
Two of our board members attended the General Assembly for the European Women’s Lobby in Brussels 7-8 June: Annelies Pierrot – Bults, executive member of the assembly, Treasurer and Aisha Alshawaf as an Observer.
Call for candidates Jans Gremée Award
The UWE Board and the JGA Committee call for candidates for the Jans Gremée Award 2018. Nominations should be entered before the 16 th of July 2019 including a motivation maximum 400 words, a colour picture of the candidate and CV.
Criteria for nomination for the JGA
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The award can only be awarded to a female citizen of Europe.
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The contribution for the nomination for the award must enhance European Matters and should be innovative.
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It is not obligatory that the award-winner is a member of UWE/GWI. This is to make UWE outward-looking and innovative oriented.
Jans Gremmée founder of UWE in 1981
At the occasion of the 16th IFUW Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, a small group of participants took the initiative for the European associations/federations to start studying the consequences of the European developments for their organizations.
Several meetings were held and in 1975, Jans Gremmée inquired at the IFUW now GWI headquarters if and how headquarters could help to further nomination of capable European women in positions of influence and decision-making in the new Europe. GWI answered that it would undertake activities on a global level only. This meant that for any actions to the further interests of women in Europe, European associations/federations had to bundle their forces at a regional, European level.
In 1977 a few European participants at the 19th IFUW Conference Stirling, Scotland, took up the initiative to realize the Consultative Status for a new NGO to be founded for the University Women in Europe. A proposal thereto was launched by German DAB’s Gisela Kessel (†) and the Dutch VVAO’s Jans Gremmée in 1978. Several meetings were held and during a meeting in Luxembourg 28-29. November 1981 UWE started its official life. At that time, fourteen European NFAs (countries) participated. The Seat was to be in Switzerland. In 1982 the first Executive was chosen, with Jans Gremmée as its president.
Nowadays UWE is a network of Associations of University Women from sixteen European countries working in partnership with the Council of Europe and the European Women’s Lobby to address issues impacting the lives of academic women throughout the European community. Its aim is to work towards an achievement of the goals of the Council of Europe and also to cooperate with all other European governmental and non-governmental organizations dealing with European matters and in particular questions affecting the lives of academic women.
The Jans Gremmeé award was proposed by the Dutch NFA to encourage and compliment women for their work for a peaceful Europe and a better position for women and girls.
Candidates can be proposed by any NFA.
Please let us know ultimately 16 th of July 2019 at boarduwe@gmail.com.
Briefly about UWE Meet & Greet – Dundee
What a time to be in Dundee, congratulation Graduate Women of Scotland for hosting such a wonderful event and many thanks to all the speakers and our participants for being a part of it.
On day one, we were welcomed on a sunny weather at the University of Dundee by Dr Ajit Trivedi Director Department of Equality and Diversity, showing us no wonder why we are here, gender stuff profile being mostly women.
Then Dr Fiona Sutherland introduced UWE Board participants : VP Aisha Alshawaf with a message from President Anne Negre not being present, VP Pina Foti, Secretary General Roxana Elena Petrescu with a short presentation of UWE and our work, Treasurer Annelies Pierrot Builts joined us immediately after the tea break.
After Catherine Bell former President of GWI sharing her identity and her story and Dr Eileen Focke-Bakker reminding us about the most expected event of the year “GWI Triennal Conference – Geneva”, we were getting excited to see inspirational women telling their stories about how their career/life has not taken the route they initially planned.
Erica Hensens, Director of Quality & Academic Standards at the University of Dundee telling her story from leadership of a male dominated Students Union to directorship of one of the top MBA programmes in the world.
Dr Sarah Haq, Saudi Arabia origin moved to Pakistan, studying Dental Public Health, currently a Masters Student at the University of Dundee , involved in many philanthropic and fundraising activities: offering free dental treatments and helping families to have access to clean water facilities and dental health in Pakistan, calling education “a long journey to become herself”.
Angie Foreman with an impressive empowerment work with women, she has created award winning social enterprises, community empowerment models and Corporate Social Responsibility programmes for the Coca Cola 5 by 20 projects, to the benefit of hundreds of women, her vision is “pulling together “all women that want to start a business regardless of their social/cultural background or economic situation.
Dee Gates with an incredible story, changing from man to woman, today legally classified woman, somehow reminding us of the book by David Ebershoff – “The Danish Girl”.
Why My Identity, My Story? Rachel Marsh – GWS explained there will be an ebook that will commemorate the delegates who attend the 2019 UWE Meet & Greet by highlighting their lives and achievements, everyone has a unique story that has helped to shape our identity, there is still time to email it to marshrachel@yahoo.com by 10 June 2019.
Later on, all the delegates where officially welcomed by Dundee City Council in the City Chambers of Dundee and first evening ended with a welcome meal in Dundee Rep. Restaurant.
On our second day, we had thoughts from three different women:
Pushing the boundaries of forensic science and daring to think with Professor Niamh Nic Daeid, Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee, the only woman to receive the Pete Ganci Award for Fire Investigation and the Distinguished Forensic Scientist award from the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes.
What women don’t say publicly about careers in academic science, but should with Dr Ishbel Duncan, Director of Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance, University of St. Andrews, currently on the Gender Pay Equality committee and a veteran of Athena Swan bids, introduced MSc programmes and supervised many MSc and PhD dissertations students, she is vocal against stress caused by work overload, dealing with student stress and anxiety, her Labrador is a recognized therapist for use in the University.
Women in Games, Applied Games by Professor Ruth Falconer, Leader of Games Technology and Mathematics Division, School of Design and Informatics, University of Dundee, interested in the broader use of games technology including games engines, graphics hardware and related infrastructure to develop intuitive and playable models of complex systems, current areas of application Water – Energy – Food – nexus, Microbial Ecology, Health, Social Care. Recently appointed as an executive board member for Women in Games to ensure there is equal opportunity and treatment for those entering the games industry, she’s working to increase gender diversity on the games programming and technology courses at Abertay University.
Then the most expected moment of the day – storytelling “Pechakuchas”, 20 slides presentations for 20 seconds of commentary each (6 minutes total) and they did it admirably to the audience’s delight: Ora Sharon, Aisha Alshawaf, Fiona Sutherland, Rachel Marsh and Susie Schofield.
We went to hear another story about Dundee’s jute at Verdant Works – Scotland’s Jute Museum for lunch and an interesting tour, learning more about women on trades, it was Dundee’s womenfolk on whom the city”s prosperity was built.
Our evening Ceilidh successfully competed Eurovision song contest with sing-along-a-graduate women, everybody singing or dancing or simply having fun.
And finally, after two superbe days spent together in Dundee, some of us went on tour to visit Glamis Castle -the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother-to recharge batteries and find inspiration for our life stories.
Campaign for #genderequalEU – Women are majority in the EU. Why not in the European parliament?
In May 2019, the new composition of the European Parliament will be voted by European citizens. The decision of the elections will also have an impact on the face of the new European Commission and will have an influence on European politics, taking on the present and shaping the future of women and girls in Europe.
We hope that you can join us in the campaign for #genderequalEU, data show that women are still very much second-class citizens in the European Union (EU) – 2018 Report on equality between women and men in EU
On the streets of equality
The 6th edition of the national competition ” On the streets of equality” is aimed at promoting local historical research in schools of all levels and restoring visibility to women who have distinguished themselves for their literary, artistic and scientific activity, for humanitarian and social commitment or other merits. A prize-giving ceremony was organized on 30 April in Rome.
Toponomastica Femminile (Female toponymy) was born on Facebook in January 2012 with the idea of setting up research, publishing data and putting pressure on every single territory so that streets, squares, gardens and urban places in a broad sense, are dedicated to women to compensate for the obvious sexism that characterizes the current status.
The main objective of the group, which now has over 9,000 participants and forms an association, is to spread gender culture, to give visibility to women who have contributed, in all fields, to improving society.
From the national census conducted by the group, it appears that the average number of roads named after women ranges from 3 to 5% (mainly Madonnas and saints), while that of the roads dedicated to men is around 40%. From the observation of this gap many initiatives have started: the campaign for women’s memory called “8 March 3 women 3 streets”, with the invitation to mayors and mayors to name three roads for as many women, one of local importance, one of relevance national, a foreigner; the projects “Largo alle Costituenti” and “Partigiane in città” which reported biographies of courageous and tenacious women; the campaigns “A road for Miriam”, “The long road of Rita”, “A Margherita on our streets” and “A scene for Franca”, after the disappearance of authoritative figures of Italian culture, science and politics.
Numerous educational projects promoted and coordinated by the group are aimed at young students offering them valuable models to inspire in the delicate phase of building their identity.
The association organizes photographic and documentary, thematic, versatile and itinerant exhibitions throughout Italy: “Women and work”, for the first time exposed in Rome at the Centrale Montemartini, touched almost all the Italian regions, enriching itself with each step. Images converge on the theme of female work between past and present, documents, vintage photos, current photos. The panels want to solicit a reflection on the feminine commitment, constantly present, although in different forms, and in continuous evolution.
The exhibition “The Mothers of the Republic” recalls, 70 years after the entry into force of the Constitution, the contribution of the twenty women present in the Constituent Assembly. “Women of pen and thought” combines the toponymic exposure of streets dedicated to writers and poets to “Letture d’autrice”, literary salons held in public spaces (libraries, museums, bookshops) and open to the direct participation of students and citizens.
The last “Camera d’autrice” initiative is aimed at hotel managers and directors who share the themes of equal opportunities and intend to enhance the feminine genius: their task is to name one of the rooms to a writer, or an artist , preferably connected to the territory. The guests will find inside the room books, photos and references to the figure and work of the chosen author.
This site collects research and actions of the association already discussed on the fb Toponymy female page.
For any information, curiosity, suggestions, to associate and collaborate, please contact them : toponomasticafemminile@gmail.com
Thanks FILDIS Italy for sharing this interesting information with us.
