On 5th-9^th June 2013, High School "Stefan Procopius' was the host for the third project meeting held in the Grundtvig Learning Partnership" Everybody Can Do It "(ECDI). There were 36 people (staff and learners) of the 7 partner countries.

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Even though in general answers given in Portugal gives us a clear re-assurance of the awareness existing within youngsters regarding equality issues, the fact is that reality and life conceptions do appear as strong enough to fold the principles to which this generation believes.

There are questions were answers make evident a division of perspective.

That is the case of having 2 working parents, suggesting a traditional family model with one of the parents staying at home, even if the husband, according to previous answers. Even though with still 20% salary differences it will hardly be men staying at home.

Family life suffers when both parents work.
 

That is also the case of the understanding and value given to housework. We did not analyse the answers by gender and therefore cannot know if gender representation could help explaining this division, but the importance and effort attributed to housework is not consensual and it is not considered as heavy as a “full time paid work outside de home”.

Household activities are not as demanding as paid work.

This issues associated to perception of genders interest, gives us a picture that supports the need to enlarge and consolidate gender awareness, as the answers obtain can be fragile in front of reality or be of more general political correct behavior than of real belief or intention to apply them in ones life.

Except for Ghosts, Cinema and Global warming, women are clearly associated in a scale of 75% to 95% with Ballet, Fashion, Butterflies, Clothes, Celebrities, Interior design, Recipes and Contraception. Men on the opposite are associated from 82% to 95% with Sharks, Pornography, Tennis, Horse-racing and Cars.

Actually the idea “I see this as a mirror of the actual society, in Portugal. I do not identify myself with that way” (“Vejo isso como espelho da sociedade actual, em Portugal. Não me identifico dessa maneira.”) is quite common all over the comments, taking us back to this duality of real life against world ideals.

 Other comments, interesting to reflect upon and that take us to different reading of reality are:

“I have some difficulty in answering this kind of questions, I think all is very relative. More and more this issues are mixed up and both men and women have the same kind of interest and searches” (“ Tenho alguma dificuldade em responder a esse tipo de respostas, acho muito relativo. Cada vez mais esses assuntos se misturam e tanto homens e mulheres tem o mesmo tipo de interesses e pesquisas.”)

“Man and woman have their specificities, it is unquestionable. There are also areas of interest that can be connected more to one of the gender, however one should not forget that we are speaking about  social representations. Generalizations are always dangerous and can, when taken to the extreme, be the basis of prejudices, which contain within themselves the individuality of each person, with its unique features and capabilities.” (“Homem e Mulher têm especificidades diferentes, isso é inquestionável. Existem também áreas de interesse que podem ser mais ligadas a um ou outro género, no entanto não se deve esquecer que falamos de representações sociais. As generalizações são sempre perigosas e podem, quando levadas ao extremo, ser a base de preconceitos, que encerram dentro de si a individualidade de cada Pessoa, com as suas características e capacidades únicas.”)