The Walloon Council for Gender Equality (CWEHF), a consultative body set up as part of the Economic and Social Council of Wallonia, invited rapporteur Éveline Duhame to present the study at a conference-debate held in Liege on 3 April 2014. The CWEHF is currently preparing a memorandum on this matter for the Belgian government.
Almost 70 people took part in this meeting, which highlighted the multi-faceted dimensions of poverty among women. After noting the collective forms of discrimination suffered by many women: - lack of stability and disjointed access to the labour market; interrupted career paths due to the unequal sharing of family responsibilities within couples; the multiple difficulties facing single mothers - Éveline Duhamel outlined the delegation's paths of action for preventing poverty and opening up the prospect of social inclusion and labour market integration to all women concerned. The contributions of the other speakers, in particular Danièle Meulders, Professor at the Department of Applied Economics at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and Christine Mahy, Secretary-General of the Walloon Anti-Poverty Network, highlighted the similarities of their accounts regarding the increased risks of poverty facing women in Belgium.
Accordingly, the paths of action opened up by the French ESC would, for the most part, appear to be transposable.