Context

Despite some successes in gender equality work, there is still a large gap in living conditions and opportunities for women and men in Vorarlberg.

Addressing issues of gender equality and changing roles opens opportunities for rural areas, because they not only affect families, but also associations, businesses and communities whose decision-making bodies are mostly dominated by men.

The ‘Rollen im Wandel’ partnership involved three specialist organisations on gender and family issues and the Local Action Group (LAG) Regio-V (Vorarlberg Regional Development), acting as an interface to the regions. This offered a good starting point for social learning on topics of gender equality and role change in line with the LAG's LEADER strategy.

There is a political will in Vorarlberg to promote gender equality. An action plan has been in place since 2008 which includes the goal of distributing the roles of men and women equally to promote the opportunity for fair life models.

The idea for the ‘Rollen im Wandel’ project was based on the Vorarlberg Action Plan for Gender Equality. The plan lists measures on how gender equality can be achieved. Many of these are not implemented due to a lack of available funds. Thanks to the basic funding from the LEADER programme, supplemented by the state of Vorarlberg and the project’s sponsors, it was possible to implement concrete activities for greater gender equality.

For the first time, the project gave the specialist organisations the opportunity to join forces and develop activities together.

Objectives

The project aimed to bring the issue of gender equality to the fore, especially in rural areas. The main task was to make new role models visible so as to remove old stereotypes, by showing that roles do not have to be traditionally distributed as is customary in the majority of cases, and that there are many other ways in which living together in partnerships and in community life can succeed.

To bolster the project, new initiatives needed to be introduced into the municipalities, tailored to each area’s requirements or preferences.

Activities

Interested municipalities and stakeholders, such as businesses, associations, and social and educational institutions, were introduced to the topic via several kick-off workshops: What social roles are perceived in the region and what do these have to do with gender roles? What needs to change so that everyone in society feels they are treated fairly? Who in your municipality would like to take action to bring about change?

Offers were then drawn up by the specialist organisations that responded individually to the situations and needs in the respective municipalities and regions in the Regio-V area, and made available by email and Internet.

Next came the development of new activities by the specialist organisations and support for actors in the regions in implementing new activities. This included 16 episodes of the ‘Taking gender roles forwards’ podcast with testimonials from families; five museum and village tours on women's history in the Montafon Valley; three book presentations with selected novels on role change; a theatre evening combining improvisation and a specialist lecture; a storytelling café to discuss role and family models; a meet-up for women new to Vorarlberg; and support for volunteers in setting up a girls' meeting place.

Simultaneously, the specialist organisations made existing formats such as lectures and workshops available to the municipalities and other stakeholders, opening up opportunities for discussion and reflection on gender equality, role models and diversity. These included nine activities for fathers with children, with discussions and fun activities; five workshops for municipalities, businesses and the public; two lectures for learning and reflecting on gender roles, and two exhibitions on classism and role perceptions.

The project website provided information about news, the offers of the specialist organisations, the initiatives within the framework of the project, events on the topic of gender equality, and role models. The project was also made visible via the partners' websites, newsletters and social media.

Idea cards for liveable communities were created for actors in municipalities, addressing a variety of perspectives on five areas relating to gender equality and providing tips for implementation, and distributed in the project regions. Seven short videos were also made, with accompanying booklets for teachers, on good examples of local policies in Vorarlberg.

A final publication was drawn up, summarising the experiences and findings.

All offers in the project were free of charge for participants, with costs covered by the project budget or the cooperation partners involved in the individual formats.

Gender equality

Gender equality was a central goal and project theme, especially in rural areas. The project was developed primarily by women (three out of four), and the majority of the project team consisted of women (eight of nine). Women were more actively involved than men as lecturers and workshop leaders, and more women took part in the project activities.

Overall, the project strengthened the visibility of women in leadership roles, improved awareness, and fostered more knowledge and motivation among the target groups for gender equality.

Main Results

In quantitative terms, 3 300 hours were spent by specialist organisations in the innovation space to implement new formats and support initiatives alongside day-to-day business. Around 650 people took part in the project activities, more than half of them women, with the ‘Perfect list’ theatre evening attracting 90 participants. The podcast, meanwhile, generated around 2 400 downloads, averaging 150 per episode.

In terms of the less tangible but overall more important effects, the main achievement was increased awareness of gender equality in the general population, across the municipalities and among companies. This was seen through strengthened voluntary commitment in the regions, increased knowledge about gender equality and role division among the target groups, and greater motivation within the target groups to work towards greater gender equality.

The project was also responsible for improved cooperation between the specialist organisations, and greater awareness for those organisations and their activities in the regions, whilst also helping them to generate new contacts amongst themselves and with other stakeholders in the regions. Overall, there is now greater knowledge among the professional organisations involved of the situations and needs in the regions, as well as a broader awareness of the project topics within the individual specialist organisations.

Finally, the project topics have been anchored in the Regio-V LEADER strategy 2023-27, which was developed during the project period.

Key lessons

That established specialist organisations would come together to jointly develop and implement activities as part of the project was new for Vorarlberg. Although how this would work was not evident at the start, it contributed to improved networking and increased awareness within the specialist organisations.

Cooperation between specialist organisations working in a region for greater gender equality is possible, and the activities implemented in the project are all transferable. The main issue was to improve cooperation between the three specialist organisations from the beginning, increase coordination with the state of Vorarlberg, and improve the access of the specialist organisations to the stakeholders in the project regions. Once this was achieved, the project went from strength to strength.