"IS GENDER INEQUALITY VIOLENCE?"

Reflections and opportunities for emancipation: a community lab to be set up in Taranto

PORT OF TARANTO, 27 NOVEMBER 2023 - On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November 2023), the port city of Taranto is opening a new bridge for dialogue and reflection, in response to the desire of women, professionals, bodies and institutions in the area that have identified gender and equal opportunities issues as an element on which to develop cross-cutting and joint dissemination actions, capable of generating virtuous processes of cultural, social and professional emancipation.

In the history of humankind, the topic of violence against women has been perceived in its ever-urgent need for dissemination to all communities, with the main objective of reaching, and raising awareness among, citizens of all genders, ages and backgrounds, outlining, in each sphere, the opportunity to develop a conscious culture of emancipation, aimed at overcoming inequalities.

Fighting and preventing violence against women, in all its expressions, is one of the many topics on which the activation of tables and the implementation of systematic actions that can be added to the initiatives that the States - and, therefore, at the various territorial levels, the Bodies, associations and Enterprises - have the responsibility to develop in order to overcome the inadequacies that still persist, for example, in the areas of access to work, welfare and leadership, understood as an element of authority and influence in the working environment and, in a broader sense, economic and social (in which the theme of gender-neutral language also finds space).

In this context, about two months after the recent initiatives promoted respectively by the Comitato Pari Opportunità dell’Ordine dei Dottori Commercialisti ed Esperti Contabili (Committee for Equal Opportunities of the Register of Chartered Accountants, ODCECTA) ("Equal Remuneration" of 7 October 2023) and the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea (AdSPMI) - Port of Taranto ("BET WE CAN! Circle of women who love the sea" of 8 October 2023) the two organisations shared the desire to guide and raise awareness of the dialogue and engagement of the city and port community, with the aim of enhancing pluralism and inclusive practices in all professional spheres and, in particular, on the issues of equal opportunities, gender policies and women's empowerment.

To this end, on 24 November, in the educational hall of the Acclavio Library in Taranto - a discussion was launched for the creation of a community table set up thanks to the initiative of the contact persons of the above-mentioned bodies, Franca Todaro, President of the Committee for Equal Opportunities of the ODCECTA , and Noemi Frascella, of the International Relations and Communication Section of AdSPMI and member of the National Working Group on Gender Inequalities set up within Assoporti. This round table, in which numerous professional associations in the area (labour consultants, engineers, agro-technicians, architects, agronomists and forest services officials) together with other organisations and enterprises (Larry Agency, Surfhers aps, Jonian Dolphin Conservation, San Cataldo Container Terminal - Yilport Taranto, Centro Antiviolenza Sostegno Donna, Lions Club “Terra jonica”) took part, aims to act as a bottom-up laboratory, thanks to the participation and entertainment of a network of actors in the area who, on a voluntary basis, have decided to contribute to the mapping of services and initiatives that a multiplicity of public and private organisations have launched, or intend to develop in Taranto and its province to enhance pluralism and inclusive practices aimed at overcoming the gender gap, in all its forms.

Sharing the launch of a community table on the day for the elimination of violence against women is a constructive provocation: an invitation or a signal of the emerging need to emphasise the priority of working together for cultural emancipation (which concerns all genders) to prevent any prejudice and action of violence, whether physical or related to economic, social disparity and inequality and those concerning access to services by the working, family, school and association community.