In order for us to take the best out of it, here you can find a list of the tools and tips that were shared on Friday by our amazing speakers Joanna (European Women's Lobby), Augusta and Eleonora (The Brussels Binder).

Tools:

• EIGE's Gender Equality index

• EWL's Purple Purple Pact

• More EWL's analysis and recommendations about COVID and women's rights

• The BB's repository

• Joanna's 2016 article "Breaking the glass pyramid: transforming leadership and increasing women in leadership in a civil society".

• The German Marshall Fund's 2020 study "Absent Influencers? Women in European Think Tanks"

• ActionAid's Ten Principles of Feminist Leadership

Top tips

• Ensure that your panels are gender balanced, both in terms of speaker and of audience.

  • Not sure where to find women* speakers? Check the Brussels Binder database or ask your colleagues and people in your networks!

  • If you still struggle to find women speakers, ask yourself why: is your event women friendly? Did you engage women in the planning of the event itself? Is the timing good? Change your speakers criteria to make sure that you include women, especially in more male-dominated spaces and topics.

• When you participate as a speaker on a panel, be sure that the panel is gender balanced. Ask for it, and be ready to decline the invitation if it is not - this way you put pressure on the need to attract more attention in ensuring gender balance.

• Always check your audience and registrants to track gender disaggregated data for participants. Always aim for at least 50% women participation. 

• When speaking about gender, men are usually the minority. If not enough men are registered, target them specifically. You could also consider changing the title of your event, so it is not directly labeled as a “women’s issue”. 

• Take into account timing when organising events: some hours are less female friendly than others. It's important to include different time zones for the global south, as well as interpretation to include more languages and ensure more diversity.

• Encourage young women to participate at events, conferences and workshops: it is important to give significant tasks to women, especially younger ones, to encourage and support them to succeed.

• Examine and address the hidden structures of power within your organisation and movements. Reflect on formal and informal power within your organisations, including collective power.

• Reflect on diversity and inclusion within your own organisation.

• Change perspective, if the existing one does not work. 

  • Eg: instead having the classic panel structure with the distance audience asking questions, start with a networking session with panelists mixed to the audience in small groups, to make participants less intimidated by the event.

• Redefine expertise : what voices do we want? Are we inclusive and respectful of diversity?

*Please, note that we use the term “women” to refer to anyone who identifies themselves as such, which includes trans women, intersex women, gender fluid and non binary people, and the whole spectrum in its diversity.

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