I'm packing my bags and heading tonight to attend the international conference “Women and Work”, which will be held on the occasion of International Women’s Day in Turin, Italy.

The conference is organized by The European Training Foundation (ETF), an agency of the European Union, which has been widely involved since its establishment in the identification, monitoring, and evaluation of EU programmes aimed at developing human capital and promoting labour market reforms. In line with EU guidelines for co-operation for development, the ETF is fully supporting the principle that gender equality issues should be included in mainstreaming policy dialogue with partner countries and donors in the field of vocational education, training and employment.

I’m very excited to meet such precious people in a promising conference to discuss women’s issues from different perspectives.

I work as a journalist, but for first time I’m invited as a blooger, which reminds me how words can be powerful because we give them meaning, and if we combine the power of words with the power of the new media tools, we will significantly influence and in some cases transform cultural production, citizenship, economic enterprise, and education.

The conference aims at raising public awareness of gender equality challenges in education and employment and will focus on three themes: transition from school to work, entrepreneurship and social inclusion from a gender perspective. The conference will also mark the 100th anniversary of the first international women's conference held in the labour-movement building in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1910.

The conference will also be an opportunity to present the preliminary results of the current ETF project on Women and Work 2008-2010 carried out in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia aimed at analyzing obstacles and opportunities for women’s employment in the private sector and promoting sustainable gender equality policies in the areas of education and training, and employment.

So if you are interested, please follow this link to know more:

 http://www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf/pages/Women_and_Work_EN

And I will update you soon…..

Jasmine Elnadeem