IT Valley ASBL
Avenue Louise 65/11 – 1050 Brussels, Belgium
BE.0782.792.473
Gender Policy
v.28.03.2023

Gender Policy Statement

to be published on the website of IT Valley ASBL

Gender Policy Statement

Purpose and Rationale

This Policy Statement sets out policies and actions to be taken by IT Valley ASBL to ensure gender equality, including through women’s empowerment, is fully incorporated in all IT Valley ASBL work towards more effective and coherent non-profits actions set out in the bylaws of IT Valley ASBL.

We hereby declare that as IT Valley ASBL we will be in line with the EU’s and the Kingdom of Belgium’s gender policies and regulations.

As it is outlined by the EU institutions, although inequalities still exist, the EU has made significant progress in gender equality over the last decades. This is the result of

  • equal treatment legislation
  • gender mainstreaming, integration of the gender perspective into all other policies
  • specific measures for the advancement of women

Encouraging trends are the higher number of women in the labour market and their progress in securing better education and training. However, gender gaps remain and in the labour market women are still over-represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions.

IT Valley ASBL is acting in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Kingdom of Belgium and the EU. We also try to do our best to be in line with the EU policies with regard to gender issues. We are committed to the EU Gender Equality Strategy that delivers on the EU Commission’s president’s commitment to achieving a Union of Equality. The Strategy presents policy objectives and actions to make significant progress by 2025 towards a gender-equal Europe. The goal is a Union where men and women, boys and girls, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead the European society. The key objectives are ending gender-based violence; challenging gender stereotypes; closing gender gaps in the labour market; achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy; addressing the gender pay and pension gaps; closing the gender care gap and achieving gender balance in decision-making and in politics. The Strategy pursues a dual approach of gender mainstreaming combined with targeted actions, and intersectionality is a horizontal principle for its implementation. While the Strategy focuses on actions within the EU, it is coherent with the EU’s external policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Gender Policy Statement

IT Valley ASBL is committed to achieving gender equality, ensuring the human rights of men, women, boys and girls are equally promoted and protected in all of our actions, activities, employment procedures, decision making procedures, and ensuring that men, women, boys and girls have equitable and safe access to our activities provided. To achieve this, all components of gender equality programming need to be included in our actions:

  • gender mainstreaming across all sectors related to technology and innovation;
  • empowerment of women and girls;
  • a human rights-based approach to programming;
  • prevention and response to gender-based violence;
  • targeted actions based on gender analysis;
  • mechanisms to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse
  • protection of fundamental human rights in workplace and preventing the abuse of gender-based workforce
  • promotion of equal pay for equal work
  • promotion of equal responsibilities for all
  • promotion of gender balance in the workplace

IT Valley ASBL recognizes the importance of promoting gender equality across the entire organization and applying its principles to all our work. Our gender policy guides this effort. Our general objective is to contribute to a society in which men, women, boys, girls, and people of other gender minorities, have access to the same opportunities, rights, and obligations in all spheres of life.

Our Gender Policy Statement signifies our ongoing commitment to equity and integration of a gender perspective in our policies, programs, and projects, as well as in our institutional structure. IT Valley ASBL understands that gender refers to the socially constructed roles, responsibilities, and opportunities associated with men and women, boys and girls in a society at a specific time and place, and that gender roles and relationships are not fixed; they evolve based on circumstances.

For IT Valley ASBL, Gender Equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of men and women and boys and girls and other gender minorities. Equality does not mean that men and women will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities, and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. We see equality between people of all genders as both a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development. Therefore, nobody can be treated in a different manner based on gender, or no any responsibilities can be enforced for a gender. Equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities are our main principles for all genders.

We promote gender equity because we appreciate that every IT Valley ASBL policy, program, and project may affect women and men, and other gender minorities differently, and may include specific measures to empower specific marginalized groups and individuals. This is an essential building block for sustainable development and effective conservation or regeneration and it is an integral part of our mission to ensure that innovation and technology sectors are open for all.

Empowerment is about women and men taking control over their lives: being able to perceive alternatives, make choices, and fulfill those choices. It is both a process and an outcome, and it is collective and individual. Women’s empowerment is essential to achieving gender equality. Outsiders cannot empower women, only women can empower themselves. However, institutions can support empowering processes both at the individual and collective levels.

Diversity in the approach means recognizing that women and men do not constitute homogeneous groups. Women’s and men’s diversity with respect to age, socioeconomic status, education, ethnicity and culture, ability, and geographical location etc. must be taken into account whenever issues of gender and health are addressed.

We are committed to empowerment, especially with regard to women’s empowerment, and diversity in all of our activities and works.

This policy applies to all work throughout the association: research, policy and program planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, human resource management, program budgeting, event management, and many more. We will also take part in initiatives at the EU and local level regarding women empowerment within innovation and technology sectors. We fully support gender equality and diversity in the sectors that we are interested in.

We observe that girls are disadvantaged when it comes to digital adoption, have lower levels of access to and use of digital technology than boys, and often they are not benefitting from digital technology in the same way as boys. We are committed to efforts for better access of girls to technology and digital world.

We support the fact that digital products and services need to be designed with and for girls to meet their realities. Digital solutions, products and content tend to be designed for a ‘default’ user and fail to consider, for example, the connectivity and data limitations, devices girls have access to, the digital platforms they are on, their digital literacy levels, or content girls find relevant and want to see. Despite best intentions, teams often design for a user base that is predominantly male. Girls are left out of co-creation, design, and product testing. As a result, female users often are not able to access these digital products and services, or see no reason to use them, which means that girls engage less with digital solutions. This in turn widens the gender digital divide and puts girls at a further disadvantage. Therefore, IT Valley ASBL is open for any collaboration and initiatives in this regards to meet our Gender Policy goals. We do believe that the increased participation of women and girls in digital technology and innovation, and their engagement as students and professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is crucial to economies around the world as well as for the EU.

The board of directors of IT Valley ASBL will take the necessary steps to ensure the policy is translated into action in both technical and management aspects of our activities. They will transmit the policy to technical and administrative staff and monitor its consistent and effective application throughout the work for which they are responsible. They will be accountable to the members of IT Valley ASBL for the successful incorporation of gender considerations into their work.

Innovation and Technology Valley – IT Valley a.s.b.l.
Registered in Brussels, Belgium under number BE.0782.792.473

This text was last revisited in: March 2023.