Is your organisation working to improve gender equity?
Are you an advocate raising awareness of the issues?
We want to hear from you!
EFNA’s Advocacy Awards will take place in May 2022. These awards recognise the contribution of an individual or group to the development and promotion of advocacy for people with neurological disorders in Europe. On this occasion, the awards will focus on the topic of ‘Advocating for Gender Equity in Neurology‘.
Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different, but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations, and opportunities.
This is a high political priority, as highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM Committee).
Despite the higher prevalence rate of many neurological disorders in women than in men e.g., Multiple Sclerosis, Migraine, Alzheimer’s Disease, gender stereotypes can have a negative impact leading to under-diagnosis, misdiagnosis and delayed treatment. Furthermore, while women experience neurological disorders differently to men, such as symptomatic profile, pace of progression and effectiveness of medication, women are often excluded from research. In addition to this, the majority of informal care-giving roles are occupied by women who are also burdened by the gender divide.
This year’s EFNA Advocacy Awards will recognise the efforts of one organisation and one individual advocate whose work has raised awareness of the difference in impact of neurological disorders on women and men, or has addressed identified challenges.
Award winners will each be invited to present their work during EFNA’s General Assembly in Brussels on May 9th. Winners will each be presented with a beautiful crystal trophy during a special celebratory dinner at that time. They will also receive 1 night’s accommodation and reimbursement of travel costs (up to €250 p/p) for themselves and a guest!
The categories are:
1. ‘Advocating for Gender Equity in Neurology’ – Outstanding achievement by an organisation
This category is open to any non-profit organisation working in the neurology/brain-health area that is carrying out work to address a gender equity issue (or issues). This could be through awareness campaigns, training/workshops or other activities and could target medical professionals, employers, policy-makers or the general public.
Applications can be made for projects that have been started or completed in the past 12 months.
2. ‘Advocating for Gender Equity in Neurology’ – Outstanding achievement by an individual
This category is open to any individual who is working to address a gender equity issue (or issues) within the neurological disorders/brain health area. This person could be a patient advocate, a health professional, employer/educator or a policy-maker, for example.
Deadline for applications – Friday, April 1st, 2022.