Gender open university as a platform for continuous gender education: experience in the development of innovative educational practices in Ukraine

In the article the relevance and necessity of overcoming gender stereotypes, regarding the distribution types of labor and areas of work, the development of effective mechanisms for promoting female leadership and non-discriminatory practices in choosing human development strategies within the labor sphere in Ukraine are substantiated in the context of searching the ways to reduce the negative consequences of labor migration in Ukraine. The system of non-formal adult education plays an extremely important role in introducing the concept of general gender education into life, as a focused process of developing a person throughout life through the implementation of educational programs and services, and educational and informational activities within and outside higher education. The problem of creating the innovative structure of non-formal adult education, reducing the negative impact of gender stereotypes in the labor sphere, attracting to a competitive activity in various public spheres those segments of the population that have traditionally been the object of labor discrimination and deprivation (women, persons with disabilities, elderly people, migrants, etc.) is becoming relevant in Ukraine. To overcome the gender discrimination and ensure the process of continuous gender education of the population, an innovative partnership project “Gender Open University” was introduced for the first time in Ukraine. Its goal was to overcome the consequences of gender discrimination in the social and labor sphere, to prevent the spread of gender stereotypes and discriminatory practices in the field of social protection and labor relations through continuous gender education of social specialists and the general public. The project is designed for a long-term result - the creation and systematic functioning of an innovative educational structure to increase the level of gender literacy and culture of social workers as a factor in preventing the leakage of labor resources, mitigating the effects of labor migration through the involvement of new traditionally deprived social groups in labor activit