"Women and Enterprise": Interview of a member of Santiago di Compostela Local Support Group

WEED "Women, Enterprise and Employment in Local Development" project consists of a partnership of 9 European cities who work together in order to capitalise knowledge and practices on :

• women and entrepreneurship
• women in research and knowledge economy
• gender inequalities in the workplace and the labour market

All URBACT project partners commit to establishing and leading an URBACT Local Support Group to make sure that exchanges have an impact on local practices and policies. This group assembles the main interested parties and local actors concerned by the project topic and the issues the partner is looking to resolve; the groups include local elected officials, representatives of various local administrative departments, representatives of residents/users, etc. URBACT Local Support Groups contribute to implementing transnational activities (production/approval of case studies, for example) and producing the Local Action Plan that each partner has to produce as the result of participation in the programme. Javier Ferrero is an active participants of Santiago de Compostela's WEED Local Support Group.

Can you tell us a bit more on your city ?

Santiago de Compostela has a population of close to 93,000 inhabitants. The city's economy depends mostly on the public administration, health, cultural and tourism sectors. The economically active population has increased over the last ten years and whilst women have been more effectively integrated into the labour market. They are predominantly employed in the service sector (73%) and there are high levels of unemployment amongst young women and those above 45. This is partly due to inadequate levels of education and training but also to the persistence of gendered stereotypes and lack of facilities and services allowing family and work-life conciliation.

What are the local actions that your Local Support Group is preparing within the framework of WEED?

Our local action is based on the three subthemes of the WEED project ie improving employability and access to the local labour market, the knowledge economy and entrepreneurial activity.Our Local Support Group is preparing a base document which will help in the development of the Local Action Plans for each of these three subthemes. The document is still a "work in progress" but includes the following objectives and planned actions:

• To create a mentor net to promote women entrepreneurship, this can generate synergies and support lines for entrepreneurship projects.
• To support innovative entrepreneur ideas aimed at women and that generate employment.
• To support through a subsidy program, entrepreneur initiatives for women in the area of Santiago de Compostela.
• To create subsidies for women employers who contract women employees to work in their companies in Santiago de Compostela.
• To establish measures to promote equality as a social responsibility for companies in Santiago de Compostela.

Besides, we are very happy to be hosting the next WEED workshop which will take place here on the 5-7 May 2010 as we believe it will give some good impetus to our work at the local level.

How has your Local Support Group been set up?

When we created our Local Support Group we wanted to ensure representation from a wider range of stakeholders, therefore our Local Support Group includes technicians from the city council such as the Department for Economy and Employment, representatives from the University of Santiago de Compostela, representatives from the autonomous administration as well as representatives from organisations who are working on gender equality issues. Each of these groups will concentrate on their area of expertise in the preparation of the local action plan.

What are the challenges you see for your Local Support Group?

I would say that one of the challenges we are foreseeing will be in the practical implementation of the bottom up approach that we have adopted here in Santiago. That is to say that we would like to discuss our base document - once it has been completed – with our citizens and disseminate our plan to the relevant social entities, stakeholders and the public at large which will allow us to collect their opinions and suggestions for the local plan. The main problem we see with this is mostly on the logistical side not on so much on how to do it.

To what extent have you included women into your employment strategy for Santiago?

The situation in Santiago de Compostela is very similar to the rest of the country in that we have seen an increase in the unemployment rate of women in the local labour market. Having said that the economic crisis of the past two years is especially affecting our male workers, though in general the unemployment rate amongst women remains higher than that of the male population. The sectors where this is most prominent and where women are still having difficulties in accessing the labour market are the sectors related to new technologies, science and research. Concerning our employment strategy in Santiago we want to avoid that the issue of employment becomes solely a question of gender and ensure that a more universal approach is taken. I think the issue of gender equality should be more situated around the methods and ways of showing the richness and potential of incorporating women in local economic activity and to break away from stereotypical views of traditional gender roles. In order to enter into this process we need to encourage actors at the local level to apply strategies that would promote gender equality in all the three themes and areas that we are dealing with in the WEED project.

Read more:

• WEED – URBACT website
• Download Weed - Newsletter 3 (1.35 MB) – URBACT website