A SEMINAR aimed at promoting gender equality and encouraging a more active role for women in the workplace was yesterday deemed “a great success” by its organisers.
The Director-General of the Cyprus Hoteliers Association, who are one of the coordinating partners, explained that there were over 300 delegates present.
“They came from all sectors of the economy and from various bodies representing women at all levels,” said Zacharias Ioannides.
Titled, ‘New Routes for the Employment of Women in Cyprus,’ the project is the brainchild of the Larnaca District Development Agency, together with its ten partners of the Development Association ‘New Routes for Women’, which has formed a Development Co-operation and submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Labour’s Unit of European Social Funds.
The project is held under the auspices of the community initiative EQUAL and is equally co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Republic of Cyprus
Speaking at the seminar at the Hawaii Grand Hotel & Resort in Limassol, were Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous and Labour Minister Antonis Vassiliou.
Ioannides said the main objective was to “enhance awareness of what programmes are in progress at the government executive level and also at legislative level”.
Subjects discussed at the seminar yesterday included: family and employment, encouraging businesses to attract unemployed women, service structures for women in the voluntary sector, equal employment opportunities between genders and an open discussion on all topics.
Employed and unemployed women, as well as those with special needs are said to benefit from the project. Ioannides said they can take advantage of the various programmes to be more actively involved in the labour market and they can be facilitated in doing so by several volunteer programmes.
The project calls for trans-national cooperation to achieve the transmission of ideas and practices from other countries of the EU, as well as the possibility of expansion of the project at a European level.
Training, along with educational campaigns will also be on hand.
The overall aim is to raise awareness on several issues including:
Combining family and professional life.
– The decline of professional segregation based on gender.
– The promotion of mechanisms for the integration of the principle of equality in the professional field.
– Encouraging businesses to hire female employees.
– The promotion of women in high-ranking business positions.
– The promotion of measures and good practices dealing with equal opportunities in business.
– The formation of a framework for social dialogue.
– The overthrow of stereotypes, perceptions and attitudes in the labour market, in relation to equality between the two genders.
– The promotion of self-employed women.
