Classwork at the San Alfonso Public School, near Santiago, Chili
IFUW welcomes you to the re-launch of the blog section. We would like to hear the thoughts of IFUW members around the world on current topics. We will blog every Wednesday morning (CET) and look forward to your comments.
The Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2009 by UNESCO suggests that countries continue to make progress toward gender parity in school enrollments, but full gender equality is proving more difficult to achieve. Full gender equality is not just a question of parity in attendance numbers.
According to UNESCO, girls in many countries are catching up or surpassing boys in achievement test results at the primary and secondary levels, even in the maths and sciences. Yet, at the tertiary level, some subject areas remain “male domainsâ€, especially in science and engineering. In half the countries with data, women account for more than two-thirds of students in fields long considered ‘feminine’, such as education, health and welfare.
Why is there such a difference in educational outcomes? UNESCO suggests that how education systems are organized, whether teachers treat girls and boys differently in the classroom, and sexual stereotyping in textbooks all play a role.
What is your experience from your country?
Rwanda has achieved gender parity in enrolment in primary school, however girls start dropping out towards the end of primary, and then also in secondary and tertiary. There are many reasons for this, including lack of role models and inadequate toilet facilities at school, cultural requirements for girls to be at home contributing to the household and caring for the sick, etc. RAUW has projects to assist with encouraging girls to select relevant subjects for good careers, career mentoring and development for women managers, production of reasonably priced sanitary pads made of local products.
While we have made great progress in education in Rwanda there is still a long way to go
best
Shirley Randell
“Yes, girls can do engineering…” is a headline in the New Zealand Herald on Friday 3 July. Though females have equal rights with males in all aspects of education in New Zealand there is considerable effort made to encourage girls to enter courses that are seen to be male domains. To encourage girls to enter engineering the Engineering faculty at the University of Auckland hosted a day-long programme for female year 13 students studying physics and calculus. Females are 22% of the 500 who started engineering this year. It is hoped eventually to reach a 50/50 split. The students were introduced to the range of careers in engineering where women’s voices need to be heard – things like biomedical engineering, computer systems, software design.
In Australia it is true that girls as a total group are outpacing boys in the results of final year at school. They also now outnumber males at undergraduate level in universities.
And yes, they are still predominantly graduating in the ‘feminine’ subjects of the humanities, social services, health. Some of this may still be due to societal expectations, especially perhaps
in relation to the entry of girls into the ‘trades’ sector of Vocational and Training Education.
And yes, it is wasteful and a pity if this is a misdirection or failure to develop natural talents for other fields.
But (being a humanities graduate) I’d like to ask why otherwise than the reason above are we so worried that girls are still choosing to take the ‘feminine’ subjects of the humanities, social services, health?
Surely these are valuable areas of knowledge, expertise and employment. Isn’t the problem that they are not valued in money terms by society? So as a result we worry about the financial future that follows from their choice by girls.
If we had a combination of diminished gender stereotyping AND wage equity that really valued all areas of the life of the mind, part at least of the ‘problem’ would evaporate.
But women will have to fight to have their chosen work properly rewarded,
Jennifer Strauss
I am writing up my PhD thesis on a case study of teacher professional development in a Community of Practice. The study wsas carried out in a Chinese university.
Among the four participants, there are three female teachers and one male teacher. It turned out that the male teacher, the most inexperienced one with the lowest teaching qualification, dominated most of the discussions. The female teachers also regarded him as the authority. One reason might be this junior, inexperienced male teacher was the director of their teaching and researching group.
In Argentina, there is not this problem, about sex discrimination. In the last years and with the woman President, it is different. Now we have more women in political, cultural, scientific areas. In school this is no problem, but in different areas of the social structure is the problem. I think it is a cultural and economic problem in low areas, where women and girls don’t receive education and economic development. The young women don’t obtain the freedom to grow, and to reach their full potential. So we must work hard for it.
I have a similar view as does Jennifer Strauss, in that choosing humanities for areas of study and a later profession is simply not valued in society to the same degree as are the higher paying professions of economics, science and technology. It is not as much a matter of discrimination based on gender as it is based on what society values in terms of money and power.
In the US, more women than men receive undergraduate degrees and enter law school, are nearly equal numbers are in medical school, and their numbers are rising in engineering. But even when women excel in school and are in the “non-traditional” professions, they are not promoted, and regardless of laws which have been passed that call for pay equity, a very small number reach the top levels.
Societal paradigms are difficult to change, but this is where change needs to start.
My view may be looks different from the rest of the group, but this is what I have to say; if we surely need empowered women….hey, we cannot have a woman with out a girl.It all starts from down.I gree with the view that there is a lot of stereotype even in the text books, at family level,even at classroom level.A nurse is a girl while a doctor is a man in most of the books I have read. No wonder all the gynacologists I’ve met are all men.
Now we have more women in political, cultural, scientific areas. In school this is no problem.but still woman is not quit confident about herself. we need to encourage women and with the basic level . I mean when we start empowering girls. Woman empowerment will also take place.we need to encourage girls so that one day they will convert in women of iron will..
thre topic was really awesome. the body was excellent. and it was a
message full comment.
thank you
Jennifer Strauss above says that there is a problem in Australia where females are still graduating in the “Feminine” subjects and that puts them at a disadvantage compared to males. In actual fact, males are being forced out of the professions in all areas except a few as shown below. Males are being actively discriminated against in industrialised countries education systems by the way they are set up and examined. You people may think that this is a good thing and should be encouraged, but you should talk to professional women over the age of 35 who cannot get husbands. That is because us professional men refuse to marry them as we do not like being discriminated against. Women are not victims in education in industrialized countries, men are.
For 2008, the following applies for the percentage of male graduates compared to female at Bachelor level, less than 25 years old:
Accounting 44.7%, Agricultural Science 43.4%, Architecture and Building 50%, Art and Design 30.4%, Biological sciences 35.7%, Computer Science 78.6%, Dentistry 44.6%, Earth Sciences 60.6%, Econ & Business 42.4%, Education 17.2%, Engineering 80.9%, Humanities 28.5%, Law 34.4%, Mathematics 61.0%, Medicine 39.1%, Optometry 30.3%, Other Social Sciences 28.4%, Paramedical Studies 17.9%, Pharmacy 34.2%, Physical Sciences 58.5%, Psychology, 18.2%, Social Work 11.5%, Veterinary Science 23.0%.
Indonesia is my country. I’m 36 years old. No job because at my age it is difficult to find a job here. I graduated as English Teacher in 2008. I really want to get a scholarship in Australia in education. No job because no chance for me. You know why? Because if you don’t have good connection, it is very difficult to get a job here. Unfortunately, I have no people who can help me. I think it is very right if someone gives me a job because of my ability and capability, not because I know someone. I stay at home and dream. I need to explorer myself outside my country, I feel trapped here. No scholarship here for women like me. I hope I can study abroad and open my eyes about equality, freedom and have a good career there. Not in my country..but somewhere abroad. Do you think I can do the best thing in my life if I just stay at home taking care of my family without knowing how to increase my ability? Because there is no limit for studying. I’m am tired of hoping. I just follow my destiny, but now I really want to change my fate. In here people underestimate if you want to change your life..because they think I’m a happy woman and have a good life. I’m not rich, just only house wife and has so many dreams. In fact, I’m not a happy woman. No one believe that, and I don’t want to share this with people in here. Many woman here are trapped in cultural and gender. I just want to change my mind about that. Education is a field of study that I believe can change woman perspective about equality, in every aspect of life. Unfortunately there is no scholarship for me abroad. I hope my dream will be true. I hope this letter don’t give me trouble, because in my country, there was a woman who shared her problems with her friends and she was put in jail by police.
It is not women that are being discriminated against in education in countries like England and Australia, it is men. Men are being forced out of the professions. In Australia, like New Zealand, there are many programs to attract women into IT and Engineering and none to attract men into other degree subjects. As usual, no one cares about men. However, we are having our own revenge. Have you heard of the increasing trend of single graduate women? More women graduate then men these days and they seek other graduate men for marriage/relationships. However many of us graduate men are refusing to marry/have relationships with them and instead go for women who are younger and less qualified than us. Thus there are many lonely graduate women around, particularly in their 30′s.
I agree that it is not just a question of attendance as in countries like my own (Jamaica and indeed the rest of the English Speaking Caribbean) there may be parity in school enrollments, possibly because it is compulsory by law, but from as early as the elementary/primary level the drop-our rate is much higher for boys. This increases at the secondary level where girls tend to outpace boys in almost all areas and at the tertiary level the female / male ratio was 82:18 in 2007. I doubt it has improved where males are concerned. Yes, the achievement of girls could be due the the falling ratio caused by high male dropouts but who says women and girls were not capable all along. Not so long ago education was not the focus for girls it was the home and family so maybe they are only now coming into their own where formal education in both traditional and non-traditional areas is concerned.
All the reasons suggested by UNESCO for the difference in educational outcomes are feasible – the systems are organised by women; most teachers are female and they do treat differently with boys and girls. Note however that it is not different to how boys are treated at home and in the wider society. They are allowed to roam while girls are mostly confined to being inside. A natural tendency for girls being inside and away from idling influences may be to take up a book and this translates into higher grades.
The flip side to all this is that fear of control and leadership by women has given way to ‘male privileging’ so despite their achievements women are more likely to be unemployed, stay below the glass ceiling and earn less then their male counterparts who realise that they can succeed without tertiary education and have no interest in getting a degree. Now funding and focus is on males due to the male marginalisation argument proffered by males and a few females. If females continue to excel under the resulting circumstances and the X/Y factor is stripped away we may see a different story.
Men are being forced out of the professions? Maybe they do not have a monopoly on that domain and in the not so long ago decades when they outnumbered women it was not a problem. Yes I may be one of those single graduate women but I would like to think that it is because the men are afraid of the competition.
India is my country and in many parts of the country, girls still drop out of schoool as soon as they attain puberty, as they are considered to be at risk of sexual exploitation. Amongst the urban Indians, there is no obvious gender discrimination, but illegal sex selection of the unborn (and female infanticide) is practised all over the country, leading to enhanced risk for all females due to the resulting gender imbalance.
Girls have been outperforming boys at the secondary school level, consistently. However, in what we consider “professional” courses (law, medicine, engineering..) girls are still outnumbered by boys.
my country is kenya am 22 in university. The number of girls who drop out of school is still very high esp. In primary level some because of poverty, early marriage,pregnancies while others stay at home to take care of their siblings some are sent of to work for other people as househelps. This has undermined their education.