* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
There's something curious about the old medieval city of Cluj-Napoca, in Romania, if you look closely. Its hundreds of streets and dozens of squares each has its own name, but most are named after male scientists, intellectuals, prominent figures - with only 16 women awarded such an honour.
Choice for the name of streets and squares can say pretty much about the general attitude of local decidents throughout its history, especially since one can realize there are no elected female figures amongst its leaders. A change in this attitude is what a campaign ran by the press association of the city, backed by European funding, is aiming to do. There are many publicly funded projects to be conducted through this particular programme in Romania, but none of this kind - aiming at harnessing the power of the press to shift points of view.
How does the association of journalists do that? By publishing tens of stories which showcase women succeeding in their careers, proving they perform as well as any men in any role, and setting an example for others. All these stories are published on the project's website and in a hard-copy book of hundreds of pages - but that's not the best thing. Before they are published on the website and in book form, all these stories are promoted in the community through the local press: one success story on a news website, another on a daily or weekly newspaper, some interviews on local radio stations, spreading the message to thousands of people.
The project team just held a press conference where it presented the results. „Getting this project to an end, without particular problems, demonstrates that the association is a trustworthy partner,” PPAC president Remus Florescu said. „Our mission is to increase the level of professionalism of the local press, and this project did exactly that.”
Florescu said all these stories, researched and published by 30 local journalists, came about after the group attended two courses on how to tackle discrimination and report gender equality, one of which being conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation trainer Fiona Anderson.
Will the street names of Cluj become more gender balanced in the future? Hard to say. But the community has at least been educated into considering how to focus on equality between men and women. That, I believe, is an even bigger accomplishment.
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