Gender, environment, environmentalism, balance, equality, equity and mainstreaming. These were the keywords which marked the second week of March for YEE.

25 participants from 22 countries came to the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, France, to explore gender equality in environmental projects. It all happened in the form of a study session organised by YEE and the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.

In the course of 7 days participants had the opportunity to work in groups and share their experience in environmental work and the gender situation from their countries. The programme was enriched with presentations of several invited experts, which shared their knowledge on gender equality in Europe, gender mainstreaming and the work of LGBTQI communities in environmentalism. Additionally, we all got more familiar with the work of YEE, Council of Europe, European Youth Foundation and the No Hate Speech movement.

So, do we think this session was a success? It definitely was.

The main outcome of the project is the greater understanding on gender gained by all those involved in the session. The latter will help us all to pay more attention to gender issues both in our personal and professional lives and thus improve ourselves and our work.

The project was also a good opportunity to create new connections between young people and their organisations. Several interesting project ideas, combining both gender and the environment, arose during the study session and participants expressed the interest and willingness to continue working on them even after the session.

Last but not least, the session gave ideas for future YEE activities. The knowledge will be used to create gender related policies and publications which will improve the work of the network. Moreover, a need to continue working on the understanding of non-binary genders arose during the session and will hopefully be addressed more in similar future projects.

Outcomes of this study session would not be possible without the support of the Council of Europe, especially our educational advisor Laszlo, the input of experts Anne Laure Humbert from Cranfield School of Management, Vesna Jusup from European Greens and Gerod Rody from Out for Sustainability and lastly the positive energy and big interest in the topic from participants. We would like to send a big “Thank you” to everybody who contributed to this study session!

Check the photos from the study session here.

The project was carried out with the support of: