Draft Communication Plan

Gender Equality Index 2017

Overview

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) will release the third edition of the Gender Equality Index on 11 October 2017.

Gender Equality Index is a comprehensive measure to facilitate the monitoring of progress in gender equality across EU over time. It measures gender gaps in areas relevant to the EU policy framework and takes into account the context and different levels of achievement of Member States. The Index measures the following areas: work, money, knowledge, time, power, health, violence against women and intersecting inequalities, showing the different outcomes of EU and national policies on women and men.

The Gender Equality Index has been highly recognised for a notable contribution to policy debates and increased awareness about gender equality at the EU and national levels.

The communication on the Gender Equality Index 2017 started in April, and will focus on raising interest in the release until October. Once the results are published, they will be presented in stakeholder events and promoted through EIGE’s communication channels. Targeted communications is planned for the new focus areas, in cooperation with EIGE’s partners. An indicative timeline is presented in Annex 1.

Key messages

Key messages will be developed after mid-May, once the first draft of the report is available and the main findings identified. The communication will focus on 3-5 key messages, based on interesting findings, changes in trends and in the new focus areas of the Index.

The new areas of Index are foreseen to have an important role in communications. The 2017edition includes a strengthened satellite domain of intersecting inequalities, which reveals some of the vast inequalities within a few selected groups of women and men. It also provides new data for social power and health behaviour, not measured in previous Index editions due to lack of suitable indicators.

Target audiences

  • Decision-makers at EU level;
  • Decision-makers in Member States;
  • Stakeholders from the new Index focus areas and not previously engaged in gender equality (eg. health, media);
  • General audiences, including media and sports.

Index Conference 2017

To gain visibility for the updated Index among decision-makers, a full-day conference is plannedfor 11 October 2017, in the Council premises in Brussels.A press conference will be organised during the lunch break.

The conference will provide a forum for about 300 decision-makers and practitioners to discuss the findings of the Gender Equality Index 2017, recent trends and to seek solutions to gender inequalities in the current political and economic context. The event is organised in cooperation with the Estonian Presidency of the European Union.

Draft agenda

9:00-9:30 / Opening
Commissioner Vera Jourova and Director Virginija Langbakk
9:30-11:00 / Session 1: Gender Equality Index 2017
This session will reveal the results of the Gender Equality Index 2017. We will see how far the EU and its Member States have progressed towards achieving gender equality since 2005 and in which areas the situation of women and men notably improved or deteriorated. The session will focus on new indicators and data. The results will be discussed in the context of recent challenges in the EU, ranging from economic and financial crisis and migration flows to the rise of populist and anti-EU sentiments.
11:00-11:30 / Coffee break
11:30-13:00 / Session 2: Panel discussion: Intersecting inequalities
The Gender Equality Index monitors the trend of a complex reality of gender equality for specific groups of people, facilitating the planning and implementation of more targeted and efficient policy measures. Intersectional analysis explores how personal characteristics of women and men intersect and create unique realities for them. This session will unmask some of the explicit differences within groups of women and men accounting for a few of the most common characteristics of disadvantage: age, disability, migrant background, education and family composition.
13:00-14:30 / LUNCH – Press Conference
14:30-15:30 / Session 3: Panel discussion: Health
The Gender Equality Index aims to strengthen the understanding of gender as important social determinant of health with a view to make health policies and strategies more responsive to women’s and men’s needs across the life-course. Women live longer but in poorer health than men, especially because of differences in behaviour of women and men and their different interactions with health structures and institutions. This session presents new data on health/risk behaviours of women and men, which also act as health determinants: smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, healthy diets (daily consumption of fruit and vegetables) and regular physical activity.
15:30-16:30 / Session 4: Panel discussion: Research, media and sports
The Gender Equality Index for the first time presents gender gaps in decision-making in research, media and sports aiming to strengthen public debate and policy initiatives on gender equality in social domains. Persistent gender imbalances in decision –making in cultural institutions require more visibility and action because of their symbolic and educational importance and powerful role in shaping social norms, public opinion and perceptions about gender equality.
16:30-16:45 / Closing remarks

Communicating the domain of violence

The data on violence will be communicated separately in November, to support the closing of the Year of focused actions to combat violence against women. This communication is planned in cooperation with the Commission and the European Parliament.

Communications products

Following communication productsare foreseen:

  • Publications (Main report, Methodology report, Report on Violence against women, Report on Intersecting inequalities);
  • Revised and updated web interface;
  • Press release;
  • Videos;
  • Infographics.

Annex 1. Draft communications timeline

Timeframe / Activity
April /
  • “Save the date” to EIGE’s key stakeholders and other relevant stakeholders

May /
  • Social media posts published
  • New areas presented to the Journalist Thematic Network

June /
  • Country visit to Greece

July-August /
  • Official conference invitation including the agenda and the registration link

September /
  • Teaser/video clip published to promote the conference
  • Reminder Email sent
  • Communication through EIGE’s communication channels (Social media, Newsletter)
  • Country visit to Slovenia

11 October /
  • Conference in Justus Lipsius, Brussels
  • Press conference
  • Social media posts
  • Video (+/- 3 minutes) on the main results published
  • Reports published

October/
November /
  • Video of the conference (+/- 3 minutes) published
  • Dissemination of the reports
  • Communication through EIGE’s communication channels (Social media, Newsletter)
  • Targeted communication on the new focus areas
  • Country visits to Romania, Netherlands

November/
December /
  • Country visit to Denmark
  • Supporting Member States in promoting the results
  • Supporting stakeholders in promoting the results
  • Targeted communication on the new focus areas

2018 /
  • Country visits to 5 MS (not scheduled yet)

*Country visits aim to facilitate a discussion about the state of play of gender equality in the Member State concerned. The findings of the Index are the main reference for these targeted discussions and awareness-raising.

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