3rd Seminar in Postojna, Slovenia

Seminar “Women, employment and social policy” in Postojna, Slovenia (February 25tth to February 28^th 2016) represents the third WONET activity. It opened on Thursday, after 30 participants arrived to Postojna from Italy (Trieste, Dolina), Croatia (Hvar, Zagreb, Krapina), Serbia (Belgrade) and Slovenia – 12 participants from different towns, among whom two long term Slovenian residents, one Russian and one Spanish. This certainly contributed to the international WONET exchange. Local project partner LAS Društvo za razvoj hosted the seminar in Hostel Proteus and moderation was provided by City Municipality Savski venac from Belgrade, SVETLOST organization from Sabac and CESI organization from Zagreb.

Seminar opened in a hall decorated with photographs chosen and sent by participants’ on the topic Women, employment and social policy – positive and negative examples. As part of introduction, participants shared their motivation and background. Teambuilding exercises created good atmosphere and confidence in this large group. Project coordinator Bojan Milosavljevic gave an overview of Europe for citizens program, WONET project and specific seminar topics. From the start it was obvious that this group gathered women of different ages (20 to 70 plus) and also different by affiliation, coming from civil sector, local authorities and as individual feminists or activists.

Sessions that followed brought a lot of information shared by everyone present. CESI presented wide range of social, economic and legal issues related to women and employment. Then participants worked dynamically in three groups and analyzed pros, cons and middle ground of “working from home” concept and what it means for women. Their presentations revealed different aspects and gave a fruitful debate. Interactive learning continued on the topic of stereotypes about women: how stereotypes influence women’s position in work market. Again, interaction brought a complex overview of the issue.

After these sessions, participants gave presentations which they prepared for this seminar: research and analyses of their local and state policies on women and employment and on social policies. All the participants contributed to the research and 12 of them took part in presentation.

The final session on the first day was given in the evening. Participants prepared, brought and served their national and local foods and drinks – on WONET project this is called intercultural evening. Everything tasted delicious and there has been some receipt exchange – it is becoming a WONET tradition that chats about food specialties are mixed with talks about places participants come from.

In the morning on the second day, participants divided into three groups and went for short trips to Ilirska Bistrica and Nova Gorica. In Ilirska Bistrica, the group visited a retirement home. Two groups In Nova Gorica visited one place each: a social company and a Public service for employment. These field visits were organized with a task of gathering information and photo materials for photo reportages. Hosts in all three organizations prepared quite informative presentations for visitors/seminar participants, who later asked questions and made detailed rounds of facilities. Participants used the rest of the time in Ilirska Bistrica and Nova Gorica for walks in towns and for capturing photos. Professional tour guides facilitated these walks.

Afternoon sessions in Proteus hostel back in Postojna required a lot of concentration and team work: each of the three groups had a limited amount of time to create a photo reportage from their field visit, by selecting up to 10 photographs and putting together a written/oral report in duration of 1 minute 45 seconds (up to one page). In result, each group presented a quality photo reportage from these visits, with articulation of gender aspects. These photo reportages from field visits are presented here on WONET web site, on Activities page. Same kind of group work was used to select photos for photo walk forms. Then photo walks were presented with Slovenian background music and they are also posted on this web site’s Activities page. In this session, unexpectedly, a very interesting discussion was triggered by a photo of a nude sculpture of a woman-national hero Milojka Štrukelj, in school yard in Nova Gorica. Participants shared multiple views, insights and reflections on the topic of nudity and women.

The following session was presented by CESI and also included interaction and discussions. Topic women and employment led to workshops on unpaid work and later to open debates on the issue. Participants again presented a wide range of views, experiences and reflections.

After more teambuilding exercise, there was a seminar party. Hosts organized a band that opened the party with four songs from four countries involved in WONET. Then a local girls’ choir sang for participants and created a witty atmosphere – one of the seminar participants Eva Šebec from Postojna sings in this choir. Soon after, whole seminar was dancing to the band. Participants were also exchanging materials and information on their affiliations.

First two days showed that this seminar group generates multiple view points and quality discussions on all issues. Participants were challenging one another, keeping an open mind for different experiences, ideas and opinions. Their interest in confronted views was growing along with discovery of different contexts, most often among participants coming from same country.

The third day also started with teambuilding exercise. Throughout the seminar, these exercises enabled participants to have better control over time they use for each task, while creating confidence among themselves.

The following session on economic crises was rather engaging. Participants formed two groups and worked on gender aspects of economic crises. One group argued that crises is especially hard on women, the other group argued that both men and women are equally sensitive to economic crises. Then the debate was organized in form of a live TV studio transmission of a role-play debate: two confronted representatives, one from each group, were given new identities as representatives of different organization, while one of the moderators was given a role of a journalist. This session was very energetic and also included questions from “the audience”, whose role was performed by all participants.

In the break time, Slovenian hosts organized a quick round in Postojna with a tour guide for interested participants. Postojna is famous for its cave aquatic salamander, the olm or proteus, often called the “human fish” by locals, so many participants enjoyed the opportunity to witness it.

Afternoon sessions were dedicated to establishing national teams and follow up seminar tasks – creation of photo reportages on the topic women, employment and social policies. Four national teams had five rounds of specific assignments: the aim was to articulate problems to be addressed with their photo reportages, decide on target groups and develop synopsis and a structured plan. Participants engaged in hard and attentive work. Results came in form of clear ideas and relevant issues they presented. Coordinators from Savski venac and Svetlost opened the issue of participants’ motivation and time required for follow up work. Throughout all sessions, coordinators introduced possible work dynamics for different contexts that participants come from.

Emotions and empathy with which participants worked together on this seminar intensified their learning. This also led to a deep elaboration of problems concerning women, employment and social policy and additionally revealed broader political aspects.

The evening was concluded with opening of the photo exhibition by Snjezana Pozar, participant from Croatia. Her artistic work and efforts of local Slovenian partners, as well as of Proteus hostel hosts, enabled this seminar to offer an extra cultural event in the hostel lobby, to everyone’s pleasure.

The morning of the fourth day was dedicated to drafting efficient plans and strategies for the follow up. Also, teambuilding sessions contributed to atmosphere of confidence and attention. National teams then worked in groups and presented overview of their topics, problems to be addressed, methods of group coordination and deadlines for photo reportage.

They also discussed possibilities for the final exhibition of photo reportages, specifically suggestions on public spaces to be used for it in different countries and towns. All the final follow up works will be published on this web site, on Photo reportages page, some time prior to the final exhibition in June 2016.

The closing session consisted of written and oral evaluation. The most shared comments were that participants were well motivated to learn from each other, to sharpen their gender perspectives and sense of solidarity and also that seminar coordination was brilliant.