International conference on "European politics, equality and democracy"

31.5.2023

Between May 25 and May 26, our marketing manager had the opportunity to attend an international conference on "European Politics, Equality and Democracy" in Helsinki.

This conference was the final result of a 5 years-research project called EUGenDem, short name for "Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament's party groups", funded by the European Research Council.

EUGenDem is a collaborative research project that addresses crucial questions about the gendered and gendering policies and practices of European party politics.

The project team has included: Professor Johanna Kantola as the Principal Investigator; Dr Anna Elomäki and Dr Petra Ahrens as Senior Researchers; Dr Cherry Miller and Dr Barbara Gaweda as Postdoctoral Researchers; and Dr Valentine Berthet and Liliia Antoniuk as PhD students. Dr Berthet completed her doctoral degree within EUGenDem in September 2022.

A international conference to mark the research's ending

"How can we make European political institutions and policies more democratic and equal? What methods, concepts, and theories are needed to study them?"

Those questions were directly asking during the two days conference in Helsinki where our marketing manager, Yleanna Robert, represented Monaliiku. Amongst academicians, few NGO were also present to hear about research's results.

For two days, we all thought about key issues for democracy and equality in European politics today. We explored power structures, actors and dynamics. It was really interesting to discover new elements on how European institutions such as Parliament worked on gender equality, anti-racism or LGBTQI rights.