FIONA - Foundation for Young Women

The aim of the foundation is to promote gender equality, especially among young people by raising their involvement and participation in gender equality policy making and regional and national social and civil life. The foundation also aims to make young people - mainly girls and young women - recognize gender-based discriminition through strengthening of their self-consciousness and their knowledge on human rights. Recognizing discrimination indicates a social sensitivity, the strengthening of this is the first step towards elimination of gender-based inequalities present in today's societies. The main focus areas are: fight against gender stereotypes; gender equality in education, work and media; work-life balance.

Tax number: 18118683-1-41
Bank account number: 1170-5008-2048-9908-0000-0000

Activities of the Foundation

Programmes for schools and youth groups:
The main activity of the foundation is the education for tolerance, anti-discrimination and promotion of gender equality in schools and youth groups. To achieve these aims it organizes awareness-raising campaigns and programmes, takes part in primary and high school events and issues informational publications.
The foundation participated in March 2006 in the Berzsenyi Dániel High School's "Tolerence Week" bringing there some gender equality programmes (movie-watching with discussions about domestic violence, prostitution, "girls only" and "boys only" group-talk about gender stereotypes, sexual rights, etc).
We had the opportunity to be at the 2006 Sziget Festival where many young people came to our tent and took part in our programmes: interactive gender game, gender quiz and exhibition of sexist advertisements and campaign posters of fight against domestic violence.
In April 2007 we were present at the "Equality Day" organized by the Eötvös Loránd Science University"s Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology.

Projects:
We conducted a research called "Men's Talk - about family and work" in 2006-2007.  The purpose of our research was to get an impression on the attitude and stance of men who work as top executives (both in the public and the private sector) and who have encountered gender equality issues or measures aiming at the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities. To complete the study, we analyzed the social, legislative, and economic environment in the European Union and, particularly, in Hungary. We chose a research method (personal interviews) we considered appropriate for the subject matter, and processed the acquired data to formulate recommendations for the administration and policy makers on how measures aiming at the reconciliation of work and family could be made more effective.
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Our foundation, together with Tűsarok.org online magazine and in cooperation with Czech, Slovak and Polish NGOs, organized the "Ads and genders" international exhibition and conference in June-July 2007. The aim of the project was to draw attention to the fact that sexist advertising that presents women and men through simplified gender stereotypes has harmful effect on society and hinders to fulfil one of the European Union's top priorities of achieving gender equality. The exhibition presented photos of Polish, Czech, Slovakian and Hungarian sexist billboards in the urban environment. The exhibition took place in a popular independent cultural centre (Gödör Klub) in Budapest that was free of charge for visitors. The exhibition was presented in September 2007 in Pécs and will be brought to other cities of Hungary, like Szeged and Debrecen. We held an international conference as well, where the advertisers and the women's NGOs, consumers' right defenders could discuss the problem of sexist advertising. The photo and text material of the exhibition and the conference has been published in an e-book.
More info

Advisory and consulting activities:
The members of our foundation are permanently doing consulting work about gender equlity. We are founder members of the professional group ESZME which aims to criticize the documents of the Hungarian New Development Plan and its Operative Progammes. We wrote the group's opinion about the Social Infrastructure and the State Reform Operative Programmes, and one of our curators is the delegate of the Gender Equality Council to the State Reform Operative Programme's Monitoring Committee.

Living in the capital, we are interested in a much more women-friendly city, so we try to find solutions to make our city more concious of gender equality and to mainstream the gender issue in the government and development of Budapest.

FIONA is an active cooperating partner of the Hungarian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. We are members of two working groups founded by the ministry to achieve the goals of the European Union's Roadmap for Gender Eqaulity 2006-2010. One is for supporting work-life balance at workplaces and the other is for the elimination of gender stereotypes.

Publication:
In 2007 we published the Hungarian, updated and revised version of European Women's Lobby's "Young Women's Guide to Equality between Women and Men", which shows in 32 coloured pages the unequalities between women and men at different social areas with statistics and examples. It also tries to give recommendations for the young people and the decision-makers.

Cooperation with other women's NGOs:
Besides our international cooperations, we supported some other projects, initiated by other NGOs. Last November we joined the 16 action days against domestic violence and took part in the demonstration. On the 8th March 2007 a dozen of women's NGOs declared the "Women's 12 points" which - like those 12 points of 1848 - showed the need of change in the social situation and everyday problems of hungarian women.