Lithuania Follow Up

Activity was done by Asta Kondrakevičiūtė, the representative of organization Social Effect NEtwork. She organized the seminar for women of different ages 15 to 80 years old. There were 15 people who participated. The meaning of the activity was to show stereotypes about women and men and to open discussion about how Social Media and society affects women and their roles. There is folder in Instagram where all separate photos can be reached about all tasks and activities done during the seminar. The activities used from the training are:

• the stereotype game. 3 volunteers got 3 roles: pensioneer man, 16 year old guy and young mother. They were asked questions about different things and they had to step forward or stay in place if their answer was positive. in that way all participants realized how different conditions can affect different people.

• One more task used from training about stereotypes: the magazine was given for group to look at, pass to each other and they have to think how women and men look in magazine. All participants concluded that the people in magazines are very fit and beautiful.When asked if this exists in reality, they said it is not like this. That's how they could come to a final a conclusion that Media affects us and gives stereotypes that are not realistic about how to look.

Presentation that was prepared from Lithuanian partiipants: 

Links for online dissemination of the project: 

• https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTcwNDQ3NTY5MDQwMjg4?story_media_id=3010546195239691672_6502969136&igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= 
• https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoHlwzxgQUMZ_df_uIJ8UJQWZd7W42kywfMRq00/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= 

• https://youtu.be/XswcxUAi3IQ 

• https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0CXG4zHa9nPtiTjMKjZFp5L44g9PHGzzFiWnnwruEShemRH6XZGUNnibPSzibcv9jl&id=100338191374109&sfnsn=mo

What our participants told us about the project:  

Lina Lorenzo Ruiz: This was my first experience of studying this topic - it provided a thorough grounding in past, present and future. It was one of the most insightful, comprehensive, useful and integral courses which had contributed to my knowledge of gender inequality greatly. Any gender can be a victim of inequality but women are the most hit due to various factors ranging from family, societal , cultural biases and stereotypes in the workplace and at home that have consciously or unconsciously created gendered roles, creating gender pay gap and a whole lot more. I liked the variety of resources that were presented; all very relevant to the topics. It was great how there was a mixture of physical articles, videos and interactive activities. The discussions and questions put forward were very thought-provoking and being able to hear other participants' comments and thoughts was brilliant, though very often we concluded that matters on gender inequality are difficult to tackle.

Jolanta Bervingienė: It was a great experience to meet like-minded people from different cultures and different backgrounds. What is more, it was of immense value to discuss and share our opinions on such a sensitive topic. In my opinion, the greatest benefit of such trainings is that you don't need to pretend as if all of us are in our own way unique, brave, but at the same time very sensitive people. I enjoyed all the moments of sharing experiences, sympathy and advice. The topic of the training itself is very sensitive but, I dear to say, very relevant in almost all countries. Although, I personally have not experienced any humiliating or otherwise insulting me situations, I do realize that many women still suffer violent men abuse, experience emotional abuse of controlling, shaming, blaming, and purposely humiliating. Therefore, voicing such cases is simply more than necessary. It is important to educate all society, and women especially, that all situations do have solutions. I do believe that thanks to such trainings, the world will become a more sustainable place to live where all have the same equal rights. Thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to discuss, to question and spread the issue of the gender equality problems.

Kristina Bogužienė: I found this training very interesting and stimulating, it challenged me to look at gender inequality through many aspects and to also consider what it is in society and what can be done about it. I enjoyed connecting with like-minded people from different countries. It covered a wide range of topics which I valued, like gender identity, gender in the workplace and society, domestic violence and etc. We learned from simpler facts like defining gender inequality to complex like strategies to tackle gender inequality. I think the mixture of videos, articles, creative workshops, topic-based discussions and quizzes were really good at keeping the content interesting. Very much up to date examples also made the learning applicable to current life. The take home message is that gender equality is about fairness and that is good for everyone to know. I feel more determined to overcome gender inequality in my daily life because I am more aware of all the concepts and terms. With this comes confidence to articulate the issues and take actions. Thank you for a fantastic week!

Asta: The week of training was very intense, very challenging emotionally as I have experienced personally most situations mentioned in the training. I loved sharing and connecting with many participants and national groups. I personally had a lot of reflections and adapted some of the activities, games in the follow-up activity as well. The project could have been a few days longer, with shorter schedules, as the topics are very intense and need time to absorb them. Thank you for all team efforts, many tasks and great talks after the training. As in every training, I value diversity, differences of opinions and ideas that I bring home as a result of this experience. Good luck in the other training sessions.