The seminar "Gender Equality and Law in Europe: a comparative perspective" brings together the theoretical and practical dimension of the socio-political issue of gender equality in contemporary European societies, with a special emphasis on comparison between the Western and Central and Eastern European countries. The seminar will integrate different topic including i.e.: the political participation of women, gender pay gap and segmentation of the labour markets, antidiscrimination legislation of the EU, human trafficking and prostitution, domestic violence or the role of men in gender equality. The aim of the seminar is to discuss the mechanism which underpin the gender inequality in different areas of social and political life, as well as to evaluate the existing legal and policy solutions to tackle these problems. The students are expected to develop their own research questions and throughout the semester will work on preparation of their final presentation, which will take place during the workshop.

The seminar consists of two parts: regular weekly seminar meetings in the first part of the semester (8 meetings) and a final one-day workshop at the end of the semester (proposed date: 05.02.2016). The participation in both parts of the seminar is required for obtaining credits. This format serves to give the students opportunity to develop and work on their own research questions, which will be presented during the final workshop.

WORKSHOP: The formula of the workshop is based on the model of "student conference", where the students are actively taking part and presenting their research work in a form of conference panels, with questions and discussions to a wider audience. The workshop will include 4-5 panels: 2 expert panels (invited guests) and 2-3 student panels (depending on the number of students participating in the seminar). The expert panels will include experts from Eastern European countries, as well as Berlin-based experts in the area of gender equality. The idea of the workshop is to present different perspectives and approaches to the issue of gender equality, so that the students get acquainted not only with theoretical academic debates, but also get practical knowledge of which policies and mechanisms of equal treatment are efficient in practice.