The Peer Voices – Shaking Structures for Equality project aims to promote gender equality by deconstructing and combating the stereotypes and prejudices latent in our society. To this end, the participation of young people is essential.
Peer Voices is synonymous with young people being active agents for positive social change in relation to gender equality, women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming.
According to the Equal Measures 2030 Index on the SDG on gender equality (2019), the European Union leads the world on this topic – 14 of the top 20 countries are EU member states. However, none have yet achieved full gender equality, so the need to continue implementing strategies and opportunities so that these inequalities do not thrive is very important.
The Gender Equality Index 2021, published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), places Portugal in the middle of the table, in 15th place in Europe out of 27 Member States, revealing that Portugal still has a way to go. For example, equal work still doesn’t give rise to equal pay between the sexes, as would be expected in 2022. This equality won’t be achieved for another 134 years! That is, in 2157. In Portugal, according to Pordata, the pay gap between men and women increased from 10.9 per cent (2019) to 11.4 per cent in 2020. This corresponds to a loss of 51 days of paid work for women.
But gender inequality, which affects women disproportionately, is multidimensional, revealing itself most clearly in professional and family work, and also in the effects of the environmental and social crisis we are facing today.
More than ever it is important to know, raise awareness and mobilise the community to achieve a goal that we want to see realised: a society where gender equality is guaranteed and where people are not discriminated against on the basis of their gender, thus ensuring equality in terms of rights and opportunities for all.
The Peer Voices project lasts 24 months and is funded by the European Union’s CERV programme. It is implemented in Portugal by PAR – Respostas Sociais and IMVF, and in Romania by Ofensiva Tinerilor Asociatia.