Equity doesn’t equal to positive discrimination. Let’s conquer the exerted prejudice against women

Article by Visit Košice

The role of the women’s empowerment connected to the crucial role of the tourism area will, together, make up for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the Sustainable Development Goal 5—“to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. It is exceptionally pivotal to combine the two desired aspirations in the current era, more than two years since the Covid-19 pandemic emerged and has affected work positions and everyday lives of each gender, age, skin color. And way more than we could have imagined in 2020.

The goals of the Off-the-beaten-path project

As the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs states, it would take another 40 years for women to be represented equally to men in national political leadership at the current pace and only 39 % women were accounted for total employment in 2019. The Off-the-beaten-track, an Erasmus+ project, aims to empower and improve the employability of adult women that are at risk of losing or have lost their jobs and incomes as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic by exploring the link between tourism, sustainable development and creativity as it is demonstrated in the UNWTO Action Plan from 2010 (Global Report on Women in Tourism – Second Edition). This year’s launched OFBT project will come up with the ways how to show that women are not only to be pushed back—they also play an indispensable part for the economical growth of many industries.

Let’s put an end to the gender discrimination

Together with the project partners from across the globe, we will work on nurturing networking and supporting women from various areas, providing them with professional workshops which will, in the end, promote the CCSs via creative means so as to put an end to the discrimination of the less fortunate gender across the human history. The project will build on the UNWTO’s Centre Stage project for Women’s empowerment during the COVID19 recovery which focuses on strategic areas of Employment, Entrepreneurship, Education and Training and Leadership, policy and decision-making; Community and civil society; and Measurement for better policies.

Moreover, it will also enhance the vision of other CCSs apart from the SDG5, and those namely: SDG3 (“to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”), SDG4 (“to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”) and SDG8 (“to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”).

Don’t brake us down

The Off-the-beaten-track shall manifest the importance of elevating the women’s self-esteem in their career and personal lives, as well as the breakage of the gender stereotypes being the ultimate and communal topic between the female change-makers working in any field.

Lenka Hlinková, a successful Slovak author of the acknowledged book Female Algorithm and a Founder and Managing Director of Algoritmus, a software development & recruitment agency, said in a Youtube interview while looking back at her career: “If I could go back in time, I would have tried to loosen my own obstacles regarding the insufficient self-confidence that were just slowing me down. And I know it is not only my case—for many women, the lack of self-esteem seems to work as a brake to their success. We don’t believe in ourselves, we are afraid to take risks.”

Gender equity vs. positive discrimination

Lenka also points out to the level of equity for women—the so called work-related justice to support the diverse environment and conditions. She describes such notion as an actual help to support women from vulnerable groups based on some long-term traditions or exerted prejudices. Lenka, therefore, distinguished between the terms “equity” and “positive discrimination”, out of which the latter, on the other hand, favors a person by treating them differently or in a positive way.

Work-related diversity and the participation of women were also the core topic during the Diver(SiTy) Seminar: Women in Business of the Business Leaders Forum and IBM. Director of the Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities Department at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Family of the Slovak Republic, Oľga Pietruchová, spoke about the increase in the employment of women in relation to the increase of the global GDP. Even though the gender equality has an immense prospects for the economy, Slovak entrepreneurs make up only a quarter of their total number in the country. On top of that, “Slovak women’s salaries are 18% lower than men’s”. It seems that to create a diverse environment, all of its included subjects must have the same and equal rights, reflected once again in the SDGs—and now, we are closer than ever to make these goals come true.

Together with the change-makers and the strong vision of the Off-the-beaten-track project, we strive to create the world where gender difference is the talk of the past. Participate in the survey and tell us your experience so as to bring the woman in the tourism, culture and creative sphere to the front!

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