Hat Tip to BWI - Building and Woodworkers International

At the BWI founding Congress in Argentina, BWI adopted a global programme that addresses the needs and priorities of women workers and also committed itself to continuing support of women and young people in our sectors. In this regard BWI adopted in its strategic plan a global objective for Gender Mainstreaming.

Gender Mainstreaming comprises of the reorganisation, improvement, development and evaluation of decision making processes in all policy fields and areas of work of BWI. This means in practice that BWI and its affiliates should:

• Integrate women and gender concerns in all education and training activities
• Develop gender training sensitive materials
• aim for a minimum of 50% women participants in all gender fair training programmes and at least 30% in all other programmes

In order to organise effectively women workers in our sectors, BWI should address both the practical and strategic needs of working women. The International Women’s Committee has called for all BWI regions to conduct a gender audit, reports for each region should be tabled to IWC in November 2007 for consideration and Way-forward.