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EQUAL OPPORTUNITY POLICIES IN THE FRENCH COMMUNITY of BELGIUM Introduction : an intricate institutional landscape Belgium is a Federal State composed of two Communities (Flemish and French-speaking), each with its own language and culture, and 3 regions (The Walloon region, the Flemish region and the Brussels-Capital region) each with its own history. The Federal State retains responsibility for, among others, national defence, justice, finance, social security, public health. The communities have powers related to education and matters involving direct services to individuals (certain aspects of health). The regions have responsibilities in socio-economic matters such as land use planning, housing, employment, energy. There are areas of shared responsibility : economy, transportation environment. As a result of the institutional architecture, the EO policy of the French Community is restricted to the matters it is responsible for, among which the major issues are education, womens participation in decision making, violence against women. The issue of employment (equal pay for equal work for example) can only be dealt with within the Community Public Service. Period 1994-2005 : The period examined here stretches over 11 years with a special focus on three points of reference : 1994 which marks the beginning of an EO policy in the French Community ; 1999 when the budget allocated to the EO policy was significantly increased; 2005 when the government of the French Community adopted a new action plan for Equal Opportunity. 1. Gender Equality Policy Development :

In the context of preparation of the UN Conference on Women in Beijing, a Resolution was adopted by the Council of the French Community in June 1994 which established the priorities related to the issue of equality between men and women : -Promotion of positive actions to facilitate womens access to decision making (Parity democray) -Prevention of poverty and fight against all forms of exclusion -Promotion of the image and status of women in the media -Fight against all forms of violence agaisnt women -Fight against human beings trafficking and sexual exploitation -Promotion of womens health and education Those priorities which lay the foundations of the further EO policies were not affected by the political changes following elections in 1999 and 2005. In 1999, a major change is brought in the very conception of the EO policy : the concept of equality was broadened to encompass other groups than women. From then on it has included target groups like migrants, homosexuals, aged people, disabled people. The Community policy declaration of the newly formed government in 1999 mentions the issue of equality between women and men. No official regulation defines that concept. The statement simply assumes that equality between men and women exists de jure but not de facto (no analysis of the causes of inequality is proposed). Therefore the government commits itself to develop a double track strategy : positive discrimination and gender mainstreaming. Three priorities are identified : parity of men and women in the advisory bodies of the French Community ; equal opportunity for boys and girls in terms of studies and guidance (a concrete follow up to the recommendations of the Council on Education and Training); respect of womens dignity in media, advertising and school textbooks. It is to be noted that those issues were already the major issues of the federal EO policy (womens access to decision making; education ; fight against violence against women). One new question receives attention, that of migrant women. On the whole, the feminist approach underlying this declaration is liberal, i.e. the stress is on equal access for women and men ; the male dominated system is not questioned : the norm is male defined and women are required (and helped) to catch up their delay. The problem is seen as a womens problem not as a general social issue concerning democracy. The Action programme aimed at promoting equality between women and men, interculturality and social inclusion- of the newly formed government in 2005 starts with a statistical survey: figures are provided on inequalities in employment (salaries and part times), the sharing of family tasks, education (shortage in sciences), careers (vertical segregation for civil servants), sport, politics, violence. The government reaffirms its double track strategy : integrate gender equality in all the policy areas and if necessary adopt specific measures

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towards the disavantaged sex. The means are legislation or implementation of existing legislation ; awareness raising and information (stereotypes) ; positive measures. Concerning equality between men and women, the Action programme identifies several objectives: -fight sex stereotypes -raise public consciousness and stimulate public debate -promote equality and mixity in compulsory and higher education -promote womens studies and research -ensure a balanced participation of women and men in decision making -establish a system of gender disagregated statistics for all the competences of the French Community -establish a monitoring system for the policies of the French Community by taking into account the gender differenciated effects on women and men. The structural actions planned in the Action Programme all amount to concertation, information, awareness raising, collecting data, in particular statistical data, on the position of women, financing pilote actions, setting up plans to promote equality or simply applying the existing legislation. There is no guarantee that any of these soft plans will be implemented: no compulsion, no sanction. The efficiency of the programme will depend on the good will of politicians, the commitment and dedication of civil servants. 2. Gender Equality Institutions : An EO Advisory Commitee was set up in 1998 within the French Community Parliament to examine issues relative to equal opportunity between men and women. It is composed of representatives of the House of Commons. Due to its lower status compared to that of a Commission, the meetings of this committee are always planned in the Parliament agenda without paying attention to the dates of commissions meetings which means that the representatives often cannot participate to the meeting of this Committee. The Minister responsible for EO policy is the Minister President of the French Community who has his/her say in all the departments but s/he also has many other competences and EO is not his/her priority. His/her cabinet as well as that of the other Ministers of the French Community seriously lack gender experts. The Directorate for Equality of Opportunity between Women and Men (formerly Office for the cultural and professionnal Promotion of the Woman) is an administrative uni, the mandates of which were defined in 1994 : To promote and speed movement toward equality of opportunity in areeas within the competence of the French Community To serve as a resource that is open to dialogue, thinking and creativity. To be an information source and a sounding post for associations, and help them in their research and initiatives To sponsor innovative experiments in support of a specific policy on equality of opportunity, by developing tools for promotion, awareness and training To field expert missions and representatives at the European and internaional levels, and within the frnacophonie, on matters within its competences. These mandates were broadened in 1999 when equality in the new sense of the word targeted other groups than women. At the same time, the Directorates staff was reinforced to cope with these broadened mandates (but is still insufficient and inadequate) and the budget of the EO Directorate was also increased : from an annual level of 37.184 EUR prior to 1999, it rose to 818.048 EUR in 2000, 756.000 EUR in 2001 and 2002, 707.000 EUR in 2003 and 724.000 EUR in 2004. Whereas the political change hasnt had any deep impact on the EO policies, the person running the Directorate has. The current Director who is a committed feminist has done a lot to put a maximal pressure on the Minister and existing institutions to compel them to fulfil their commitments. The two regions have also set up institutions to promote gender equality. In 2003, the Walloon government decided to set up a Walloon Council on Equality between men and women. It is an advisory body composed of representatives of employers organizations, trade unions and womens organizations. Its role consists in : -providing opinions and recommendations or any question relating to gender equality ; -proposing measures for accomplishing its role -issuing opinions on regulatory measures ; -monitoring the issue of gender inequality at other levels of parliament The Council submits an annual report to the government on its activities.

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In 2000, the Brussels-Capital Region appointed a Minister for Equal Opportunity in the broad sense of the word. An EO Unit was created and given the task of introducing gender mainstreaming in local government. 3. State steering instruments Legislation A Decree aimed at promoting the balanced participation of men and women in advisory bodies was adopted by the government of the French Community in July 2002. The new regulations stipulate that at least one man and one woman must be presented as a candidate member or alternate of advisory bodies and that advisory bodies must have at least 35% of members of each sex. If this condition is not met, the opinions rendered by those bodies will have no legal force, although this will not prevent the authority that requested the opinion from taking decision. This quota system ensures one third of female representatives but some people dont care and compliance with the decree is not ensured everywhere (no sanction is provided) but it helps raise consciousness. Unexpected effect: some EO advisory bodies have to appoint male members lacking expertise. So far the implementation of the decree has not been evaluated. Decree on follow-up to UN conference in Beijing In order to monitor policy developments in this area more closely, the Parliament of the FC adopted a decree in December 2002 (following a federal law of 1996 imposing on the government to report annually on progress in achieving the objectives set in the Beijing Platform), on follow-up to the resolutions of the UN Conference on Women in Beijing. This decree is the result of the intense lobbying achieved by the members of the Advisory Committee. An good opportunity for developing equality policies was provided by the fact that Federal Minister in charge of equality and Minister President of the French Community are both French-speaking socialists. The decree calls on the government to report each year on the state of progress and on measures taken as part of its policy to implement the objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action. The first two reports presented to the Parliament of the French Community covered the periods from 1999 to september 2002 and from september 2002 to september 2003. The decree might prove a useful instrument to stimulate the promotion of gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Each Minister is supposed to deliver a report on EO in his department. When s/he does not, it becomes visible in the document issued by the government and this seems to have an impact on the future will to answer the demands in that field. The conclusions of the reports show very poor results compared to the promises and a major difficulty in really admitting that the gender issue concerns the whole society. The report reviews the initiatives related to the areas of action in the Beijing platform : funding of associations (regular subsidies but no permanent funding) ; studies to provide quantitative and qualitative data on the issue of equality; campaigns to raise awareness). No law on sexism in the media or advertising wheras there is one to repress racism.The only legislative acts are -amendments to the legislation on sexual harassment (2002) which include the reversal of the burden of proof and provide that institutions representing the victims interests may bring legal action. -amendments to legislation governing parental leave (parental leave more attractive to men : the full or part time leave of three months can be taken at the rate of one day per week for 15 months ; fathers can take 10 working days of paid paternity leave within the first 30 days after the birth of the child). As to the theme of reconciling private and vocational life and to achieve by 2010 the 33% coverage recommended by the European Union, the French Community has reserved budget funds for the Office of Birth and Childhood (ONE)s Plan Cigogne (Stork Plan) which will create 10.000 childcare places. This plan has been criticized as a plan to bring down unemployment without any real concern for the professional quality of the staff. The decree does not stipulate any sanction when governement bodies dont comply but it succeeds in making the issue more visible and not allowing the government to forget the issue. A Resolution on equality between women and men was adopted by the French Community Parliament in Januray 2002 which recommends that the Government encourages the production of data broken down by sex for all agencies of the French Community and that it should see to the development and coordination of statistical database. This might provide a stimulus to monitoring and developing indicators. Mainstreaming

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The fact that the Minister-President is responsible for EO is per se favourable to the process of gender mainstreaming. Following the example of the federal EO policy which had launched a follow-up process in the various ministerial departments through an overall government agreement in the form of a strategic plan - each minister had to set a strategic objective to promote EO-, the governement of the French Community made a move towards introducing the issue horizontally into all the directorates of the Ministry of the French Community. Coordination In April 2002, the French Community issued a decree instituting an Office of coordination for equal opportunity. The office which is composed of representatives of the Ministry and non profit organizations (Organismes dIintrt Public). Those representatives who were chosen on a voluntary basis, are situated at a rather low level of responsibility ; moreover they are supposed to achieve this new task on top of the others (no specific resources were allocated to the project). So, there is a worrying lack of high status representatives. The Coordination is supposed to provide opinions on all questions relating to EO, either at its own initiative or at the request of the Minister. It is supposed to prepare a voluntary plan to promote EO in two stages : preparing a status report on each of the areas of competence that have been devolved to the French Community and second a list of proposed actions for promoting equal opportunity within each area of competence. The coordination office, which was established in February 2003, submitted its promotion plan to the minister in February 2004. The plan shows how difficult it is to be taken seriously in some ministerial departments : few departments give extended information or suggestions and in this case it is due to committed persons. The plan is limited to the state of the art which is depressing : in an great number of cases, the services or bodies have communicated neither data nor proposal ; in some cases, the advisory bodies do not even comply to the decree on balanced reprsentation of men and women. Fortunately the Coordination is chaired by the EO Directorate which permanently urges the different ministers to respect the demands of the Minister President. It regularly points out the shortcomings as the lack of statistical material and the absence of process of evaluation. The Coordination means a lot of extra work for the Directorate which is already understaffed. There is no guarantee that the plan will be implemented (no sanction has been provided). The use of the term Gender Mainstreaming is rather rhetorical. There are no definition, no clear policy objectives, targets and timeframes ; no tools for gender analysis or monitoring process. It seems to be designed as an administrative project aimed at modernizing the staff (feminization of executives) and working methods (monitoring). Womens organizations support There is no permanent funding of womens organizations in the context of EO policies (there is one by the Directorate of Permanent Education). These organizations only get subsidies when the submitted projects are accepted. The problem is that womens associations which want to get funding have to choose themes or areas recognized as a priority by the French Community (following the Federal and European Institutions).There are unformal contacts between women in the movment and policy makers but no institutionalized consultation of the womens organizations.

SUMMARY STRENGTHS - Quota in advisory bodies - Slight progress in legislation (sexual harassment, parental leave) - Legal obligation for the government to report on EO policy to the Parliament each year - Feminist commitment of the Directorate and some members of the Coordination WEAKNESSES - No quota in universities - No quantified objectives to fight female unemployment, horizontal and vertical segregation - Child care: plan to provide new places not concerned by quality of service - No gender budgeting OPPORTUNITIES

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- better EO policy at federal level - EU EO policy - pilot actions carried out by womens organizations (in education and training) THREATS - EO not a hard issue - Transversal matter difficult to get integrated by the people concerned - Unsufficient funding of womens organization OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS - Reporting for international organizations crucial - Evaluating should be required - Sanctions must be provided - One shot projects (ususally financed by EO policies) should be permanently integrated in and financed by the different Ministry policies - Womens studies should be strongly supported