Pledge 36 – Gijon

On 31 March 2020, Gijon’s Mayor, Ana Gonzalez Rodriguez, signed a strong pledge to gender equality, which is principle 2 of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The city has a well-defined framework for equality policies, which is known as ‘The Local Charter for equality between women and men in the municipality of Gijon’.

Gijon is committed to:

• Allocate an annual budget of €655,100 to gender equality measures.
• Apply dual approach to work effectively on gender equality at municipal level, which means combining transversal actions under the direct competence of the Mayor with targetted actions managed by the Department for Equality Policies.
• Involve women in decision-making through the Women Council, an advisory body to the municipality
  combat gender violence by offering support to victims via the Integral Care Centre for Women Victims of Gender Violence and the Advice Centre for Women.
• Implement specific programmes for training, employment and active inclusion of women in under-represented sectors, such as in technological jobs.
• Support work-life balance by making childcare easily available through the integrated network of 12 kindergartens and the flexible programme for schools ’12 x 11′ allowing extensive opening hours for 11 hours per day, 12 months per year.
• Extend the network of 67 companies that are committed to promote gender equality.

Mayor Ana Gonzalez Rodriguez said: “Gijon is committed to build an equal society where women and men have the same opportunities to exercise their rights”.

In addition, in September, Gijón joined a campaign led by Amsterdam, whereby six European cities signed a joint pledge to equal opportunities, reaffirming their commitment to the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Helsinki, Gijón, Utrecht, Frankfurt, Ghent and Amsterdam joined efforts to ensure equal opportunities (principle 3 of EPSR), because they believe that, especially in these unprecedented times of the pandemic crisis, every person has the right to equal treatment. To achieve this, the cities are committed to take bold actions.

To ensure equal opportunities, Gijón pledges to:

• provide targeted support to the self-employed and micro-SMEs, to support the reopening of companies and the reinstatement of their staff.
• develop a training and awareness plan for companies, in order to promote the employment of women, facilitate reconciliation of work and family life and ensure the social clauses in public contracting.