Events: empowering women through education | WPN World People News

A meeting this week will focus on the role education plays in achieving equality.

Education plays a crucial role in helping women and girls achieve equality. Little wonder then that it was chosen as the theme of this year's International Women's Day. In the run-up to this annual day on 8 March, the Parliament is organising several events to highlight access to education in developing countries and the gap between women's high level of education in the EU and the professional opportunities available to them afterwards.

Education meeting

The women's rights and education committees will hold a meeting with members of national parliaments about empowering women and girls through education on Thursday 5 March from 09.00 to 12.30 CET. The debate will be opened by EP Vice-President Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, Greece) and presided by Iratxe García-Pérez (S&D, Spain), chair of the women's rights committee, and Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy), chair of the education committee.

Věra Jourová, the commissioner responsible for gender equality, will deliver the key note speech, while there will also be a video message from 2005 Sakharov Prize laureate Hauwa Ibrahim.

The meeting will focus on the importance of eliminating gender disparity in education and training, equal access to continuous and quality education, and the empowerment of women and girls through education in the EU

Seminar for journalists

The seminar focusses on empowering women and girls through education, education versus job opportunities in the EU and the next steps for a strategy to achieve equality between women and men in the EU.

Conference

A conference about the political participation of women in the Western Balkans and Turkey takes place on 4 March from 14.45 to 18.45 CET. The aim is to discuss the situation of women who are underrepresented in political positions in these countries interested in joining the EU.

Source: European Parliament