The FEM Toolkit was developed to help organizations and individuals empower young women by increasing their democratic participation and active citizenship. We, the consortium of organizations behind this toolkit and the project, want to approach active citizenship in a profound sense, helping beginners and experienced facilitators to inspire young women, while also providing them with the know-how to take their first steps into the world of politics and activism.

That is the main purpose of this toolkit - to give you the tools you need to build strong feminist communities of empowered, young, and diverse women ready to take their place at the table.

Discover the toolkit here. It is available in English and it can be downloaded by anyone interested.

Our problem: Where are the women?

Gender equality remains one of the most pressing issues that keep us from a just and equitable world for everyone, but work is being done on all fronts to achieve it as soon as possible.

Achieving gender equality in Europe is becoming increasingly complex, and this is a fact. This is due both to our increasingly globalized world and to the use of intersectional lenses that show that gender cannot be addressed separately from other types of characteristics of our identity that intersect and discriminate.

That said, their complexity and difficulty should not discourage us or those in power from addressing gender issues that end up affecting half of Europe. The historical and current lack of sufficient measures to combat gender inequality has had and still has devastating consequences for the economic, social and democratic system of the European Union.

A huge problem in our fight to achieve gender equality stems from one simple fact – women are still massively underrepresented in politics, economics and democratic systems at local, national and European levels.

Translation: women still have less power than men.

If we look at the 2023 Gender Equality Index, this criteria has the lowest scores of all areas monitored with a devastatingly low score of 59.1 points at EU level. But the problem is that this number does not even take into account how many of the women in power are young or come from underrepresented groups. For the year 2022, the data we have shows that less than 1% of women MEPs are young women (under 30). But this data does not look at intersecting identities, so the percentage for women of color, women with disabilities, women from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, LBTQ+ women or non-binary people is much lower.

While women in general face many barriers to democratic participation, young women (and especially young women from underrepresented groups) face even more obstacles to becoming full citizens of Europe and leaders.

Young European women often face a lack of voice and power to make decisions that affect their lives and create positive social change. These deterrents range from multiple discrimination, the burden of prejudice, the risk of violence and fear of stigmatization, the unequal division of care work and lack of accessibility, social pressures and the lack of consideration of women’s skills and expertise, according to the Council of Europe’s Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination.

All these obstacles can lead to low self-esteem and a sense of inadequacy when speaking out, which prevents young women from engaging in political life and democratic participation. Even when politics is open to women, it does not seem to be open to all women, as those who gain decision-making power often come from privileged backgrounds.

The project is financed by Erasmus+, a program of the European Union.