How can institutions be ‘re-wired’ so as to provide a gender-equal environment, where everyone can thrive and is included? This will be the focus of the closing conference of the Horizon Europe RE-WIRING project on realizing girls and women’s inclusion, representation and empowerment hat will take place in Leuven, Belgium, from 5-6 February 2025.

The conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, civil society, law- and policy-makers and other stakeholders to discuss key findings and good practices from the RE-WIRING project on the development and application of an interdisciplinary transformative gender equality approach, including from an intersectional perspective.

It will do so by taking participants on a life journey, discussing how gender stereotyping, biases and power hierarchies that persist in different domains, institutions and contexts mark people’s lives through time, how they reinforce each other and how they can be changed. The conference will zoom in on particular life stages, including early life education, working life and work-life balance and late life retirement, but also address overarching issues that have an impact throughout these stages. These include anti-gender movements, the impact of crises and representation in leadership and in media and art.

What are the pathways to bring change in these different domains and stages of life and the responsible institutions and how are law- and policymaking processes to be designed in such a way that they effectively mainstream a transformative gender equality approach? How can allyship be promoted and the engagement of men and boys? The conference will specifically focus on practical actions, practices and tools, including those that have been developed in co-creation with a broad range of institutions and stakeholders.