essay on gender equality in schools

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Gender Equality Essay

Everyone should live as they want in society, and there should be no discrimination. Equality in society is achieved when all people, regardless of their caste, gender, colour, profession, and status rank, are considered equal. Another way to describe equality is that everyone gets the same rights and opportunities to develop and progress forward. Here are a few sample essays on ‘Gender Equality’.

100 Words Essay On Gender Equality

Gender equality is the belief that men and women should be treated and perceived as equals in society, including all areas such as education, employment, and in decision-making positions. It is a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world.

Despite significant progress in advancing gender equality, women and girls continue to face barriers and discrimination in many areas of society. This includes the gender pay gap, difficult access to education and employment opportunities, and limited representation in leadership positions. Creating a more equal society benefits everyone, as it leads to greater prosperity and happiness for all. It is important for individuals, communities, and governments to work towards achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls to reach their full potential.

200 Words Essay On Gender Equality

Gender equality is the equal treatment and perception of individuals of all genders in society.

Importance Of Gender Equality

Gender equality is important because it is a fundamental human right and is necessary for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable society. When everyone, regardless of their gender, is treated fairly and has equal opportunities, it can lead to greater prosperity and happiness for all.

Additionally, gender equality can have a positive impact on economic growth and development. When women and girls are able to fully participate and get proper education and employment opportunities, it can lead to increased productivity and innovation. It can also contribute to more balanced and representative decision-making, which can lead to more effective and fair policies and practices.

Furthermore, gender equality is essential for promoting social justice and fairness. When women and girls are marginalized and discriminated against, it can lead to a range of negative outcomes, including poverty, poor health, and reduced opportunities for personal and professional development. Overall, the promotion of gender equality is important for creating a more equal, fair, and just society for all.

Encouraging Gender Equality

Efforts to promote gender equality must involve the active participation and engagement of both men and women. This includes challenging and changing harmful gender norms and stereotypes, and promoting policies and laws that protect and advance the rights of women and girls.

500 Words Essay On Gender Equality

Everyone in the country has the same fundamental freedom to pursue happiness whichever way they see fit. It's possible if people of various backgrounds (race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic class, gender) are treated with respect and dignity. Gender disparity is the most noticeable kind of prejudice. Gender discrimination persists even in many modern nations and calls for immediate action. When men and women are given the same opportunities, we will achieve gender equality. Furthermore, this essay will outline the many issues women encounter due to gender discrimination.

Prevalence Of Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is prevalent in many sectors and areas of society. Some examples include:

Education: Women and girls may face barriers to accessing education, such as lack of resources, cultural or societal barriers, and discrimination.

Employment: Women and girls may face discrimination in the workplace, including lower pay for the same work as men, lack of promotion opportunities, and limited representation in leadership positions.

Health care: Women and girls may face discrimination and inadequate access to quality health care, particularly in areas related to reproductive and sexual health.

Political representation: Women are often underrepresented in political leadership positions and decision-making processes.

Domestic violence: Women and girls may face higher rates of domestic violence and abuse, and may lack adequate protection and support from the justice system.

Media and advertising: Women and girls are often portrayed in stereotypical and objectifying ways in the media and advertising, which can reinforce harmful gender norms and stereotypes.

Gender inequality is a widespread issue that affects many areas of society, and it is important to work towards promoting gender equality in all sectors.

How India Can Achieve Gender Equality

Achieving gender equality in India will require a multi-faceted approach that involves addressing social norms and stereotypes, strengthening laws and policies, increasing women's representation in leadership positions, promoting women's economic empowerment, and improving access to health care.

Address social norms and stereotypes: It is important to challenge and change harmful gender norms and stereotypes that contribute to gender inequality. This can be done through education campaigns and programs that promote gender equality and challenge traditional gender roles.

Strengthen laws and policies: India can work to strengthen laws and policies that protect and advance the rights of women and girls, such as laws against domestic violence and discrimination, and policies that promote equal pay for equal work and access to education and employment.

Increase women's representation in leadership positions: India can work to increase the representation of women in leadership positions, including in politics, business, and other sectors, to ensure that women have a stronger voice in decision-making processes.

Promote women's economic empowerment: Providing women with access to education, employment, and financial resources can help to empower them and enable them to fully participate in society.

Improve access to health care: Ensuring that women and girls have access to quality health care, including reproductive and sexual health care, is essential for promoting gender equality.

My Experience

I remember one time when I was working as an intern at a small consulting firm. At the end of my internship, I was offered a full-time position. However, when I received the offer letter, I noticed that my male colleagues who were also being offered full-time positions had been offered a higher salary than me, even though we had all performed the same job duties during our internships.

I was frustrated and felt that I was being treated unfairly because of my gender. I decided to bring this issue to the attention of my supervisor, and after some negotiation, I was able to secure a salary that was equal to that of my male colleagues.

This experience taught me the importance of advocating for myself and not accepting inequality, and it also made me more aware of the ways in which gender bias can manifest in the workplace. I believe that it is important for individuals to speak up and take action when they see instances of gender inequality, and for organizations to make a conscious effort to promote gender equality and fairness in all aspects of their operations.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

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Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

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In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

Applications for Admissions are open.

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How to Encourage Gender Equity and Equality in the Classroom

• July 16, 2020

As an elementary school teacher, you may think your students are too young for discussions about gender. But did you know that children as young as four years old already express discriminatory beliefs based on gender? The earlier we can empower children with the belief that all gender identities (including their own) deserve respect, the better prepared all students will be for success.

What Are Gender Equality and Equity?

First, let’s explain what we mean by gender. Gender is here defined as a student’s social identity as male, female, or non-binary—the last of which refers to students who identify as a gender other than “male” or “female.” Gender definitions also include transgender students, who identify as a gender that is different from their biological sex.

Gender equality involves empowering all students and providing them with the same human rights.[7] It also includes correcting biases students hold about themselves or gender identities other than their own. As a teacher, you’ll work with many students, some of whom might have trouble understanding their own or other students’ gender. That’s why it’s so important to be aware of and find ways to affirm your students’ identities.[14] You can positively change the way your students see both themselves and others.

According to the ACT Center for Youth, true gender equality can be reached when these three needs are met for all students:[9]

• Equitable access and use of resources
• Equitable participation
• Safety or freedom from violence

And how is gender equality different from gender equity? It can be helpful to look at gender equality as the end goal and gender equity as the means to get there.[8] Gender equity refers to promoting fairness in education, as well as confronting stereotypes and biases that have historically limited a student’s potential. When we achieve gender equality, all students will be free to pursue their education without fear of discrimination or harassment because of their gender.

The Importance of Gender Equity and Equality in the Classroom

In the classroom, students often encounter implicit or explicit assumptions about gender.[12] For example, girls interested in STEM subjects may be discouraged if others say such topics aren’t very “feminine” pursuits. And the prevalence of this stereotype may be linked to the fact that more than 50% of all women in STEM ultimately leave their field due to hostile work environments.[8] Also, 75% of all transgender students report feeling unsafe at school, which affects their academic achievement in very serious and harmful ways.[10]

You can make a difference for younger students by teaching them to find strength in their gender identity and to treat kindly those with different identities than their own. According to Today’s Parent writer Gordon Nore , children are often already thinking about their gender and how it relates to the world around them. As a teacher, you can help facilitate their thoughts and discussions in healthy ways. You can also promote better understanding among your students for those who are different from themselves.

Four Ways to Promote Gender Equity and Equality in Education

Looking for ways to discuss gender equality issues in your classroom and move towards gender equity? We’ve put together four examples of how you can promote gender equality for all of your students.

Be a Role Model for Your Students

Students, especially younger children, often learn by imitation.[2] As a teacher, be aware of your own assumptions about gender and try to correct your biases as you notice them.

In relevant situations, empower your students to believe in their potential to achieve their dreams regardless of their gender identity—and that their gender is a strength, never a weakness. Also, use language in class that is inclusive of transgender and non-binary students, such as using the name and pronouns that a student goes by, even if it is different from their school records.[11]

Don’t Connect Gender to an Ability or Personality Trait

Sometimes our language can reinforce assumptions about gender. Be aware of the language you use in class, and avoid making assumptions about anyone’s ability, profession, or personality based on their gender.

For example, TeachThought suggests you include a female construction worker or male nurse in a class assignment (such as a story problem) to challenge your students’ assumptions and promote gender equity.[1] It can also be helpful to avoid making wide generalizations about gender in class, such as the assumption that boys are louder and girls are quieter, or assuming that all of your students identify as their birth sex.

Include Gender Equality in Your Curriculum

Many textbooks are problematic when it comes to gender. Often they don’t include many notable female figures, tokenize the experiences of women, and stereotype gender roles in harmful ways.[5] If you’re able to pick the textbook you use, try to find one that is known for its equitable treatment of gender.

If not, try to supplement your curriculum by teaching your students about both men and women who challenged their society’s ideas about gender and changed their communities in meaningful ways. It can also be helpful to include gender non-conforming and transgender people in your curriculum to help students with these identities feel represented and accepted.

Teach Students to Be Aware of Personal Biases

One of the best ways to confront gender discrimination in the classroom is by simply making your students aware of it. Teach students about implicit bias, or beliefs we might hold about ourselves or others because of sexist messages we have heard.[3]

Tell your students that many people hold these biases, and it doesn’t mean they are bad people. The important thing is for students to acknowledge their own assumptions. Once they do, they can challenge them to actively change those assumptions—to recognize that a person’s abilities are not linked to their gender.

Sources : 1. TeachThought Staff. 6 Ways You Can Promote Gender Equality In Your Classroom. Retrieved from teachthought.com: teachthought.com/education/6-ways-can-promote-gender-equality-classroom/. 2. Elesapiens Staff. Strategies to promote gender equality in the classroom. Retrieved from elesapiens.com: https://www.elesapiens.com/blog/strategies-to-promote-gender-equality-in-the-classroom/ 3. Briggs, S. How to Teach Students About Gender Equality. Retrieved from opencolleges.edu: https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/gender-equality/. 4. United Nations Development Programme. Almost 90% of Men/Women Globally Are Biased Against Women. Retrieved from undp.org: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/news/2020/Gender_Social_Norms_Index_2020.html. 5. Klein, S. Handbook for Achieving Sex Equity Through Education . Retrieved from eric.ed.gov: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED290810.pdf. 6. Bailey, S.M. Shortchanging Girls and Boys . Educational Leadership, May 1996, 53(8), pp. 75-79. 7. United Nations Staff. Gender Equality: Why it Matters. Retrieved from un.org: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Goal-5.pdf. 8. ForbesWomen Staff. Why We Need Gender Equity Now . Retrieved from forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2017/09/14/why-we-need-gender-equity-now/. 9. ACT for Youth Center of Excellence. Understanding Gender and GenderResearch, Facts, and Findings. Retrieved from actforyouth.net: www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_gender1_1213.pdf. 10. National Center for Transgender Equality. Youth & Students. Retrieved from transequality.org: https://transequality.org/issues/youth-students 11. Welcoming Schools Staff. Affirming Gender in Elementary School: Social Transitioning. Retrieved from welcomingschools.org: https://www.welcomingschools.org/pages/affirming-gender-in-elementary-school-social-transitioning/ 12. Smith, M. J., & Payne, E. Binaries and biology: Conversations with elementary education professionals after professional development on supporting transgender students. The Educational Forum, 2016, 80(1), pp. 34-47.

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February 12th, 2019

Promoting gender equality in/through schools – examples to learn from.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

In the first of this two-part article on promoting gender equality through schools, Anushna Jha and Mehrin Shah explore successful examples from around the world. 

The second half of the series will be published on Tuesday 19 February. 

Education and Gender Equality- Interconnections

There is a lot in common between education and gender equality- both are instrumental to the development of a society as also intrinsic to living in a society and interacting with fellow beings. Yet, as is the case in many contexts, one functions to the detriment of the other. Education, as is imparted in many institutions and systems, works not just to impede gender equality, but also actively promote gender inequality. Whether comments like- ‘She is quite good at Maths for a girl!’, ‘He is so uninterested in sports- unlike regular boys’, or reinforcement of gender norms such as ‘girls don’t laugh so hard’ or ‘boys don’t cry’, or in some cases segregating seating arrangements in classrooms according to students’ gender- the ways in which gender inequality is perpetuated in schools are many.

In schools, b oth girls and boys are under continuous surveillance by their teachers and school staff, but girls are particularly grilled and their behavior and appearance are frequently judged – girls should not be loud, should have fine manners, should have clipped fingernails and so on. Consequently, girls tend to contribute less to discussions and ask fewer questions in order to lessen the risk of attracting attention. Furthermore, this negatively affects their zest for learning. As a result of this attitude towards girls at schools, they tend to behave and act more in accordance with the prevailing gender norms and roles and grow up to internalise them.

To stop the perpetuation of gender inequality through schools as well as to address its existence in the society at large, initiatives to promote gender equality in and through schools are imperative. Schools have enormous potential to effect change in gender relations, views and practices vis-a-vis gender, and create a gender-sensitive and gender-equal generation of men and women.

Harnessing the potential of education as a change agent- Examples

The first part of our two-part blog looks at initiatives in education systems that have begun to harness this potential. We shall briefly discuss each example by looking at the nature of the initiative, successes achieved, and learnings to be drawn. We shall then think about the South Asian context and whether such initiatives are needed there.

• Consent classes – Kenya

In classes organised in Nairobi by an organisation called No Means No Worldwide since 2009, girls are taught to say “No” and are given training in self-defense. With an aim to bring about a generational change, young boys are trained to change their perspectives on gender and are given lessons on ‘positive masculinity’. For instance, they are taught to intervene when they find a girl in trouble.

There has been reported success of this initiative in the form of reduction of incidences of sexual harassment by 50% . Moreover, participants challenged socially embedded stereotypes and myths about gender and sexual assault. Most boys, who had come to believe socially embedded myths that it was okay to rape women who were taken on expensive dates, wore revealing clothes or were out alone at night, were reported to have changed their minds after attending these classes . They were also able to identify sexually inappropriate behaviour rather quickly and intervened in such incidents. To sustain these positive changes, trainings were followed-up with subsequent sessions and refresher trainings.

Primary learnings – Context-based curriculum design; identifying specific needs of boys and girls and targeting the programme to ensure effectiveness among both sets of participants.

• Gender-aware curricula – Turkey

Turkey’s  “2008-2013 National Action Plan for Gender Equality” and the “Form of Gender Equality Attitude of Higher Education Council” state that the issue of gender inequality must be included in the curriculum of various undergraduate and graduate programs of the faculties of Education – to make the curriculum gender sensitive. Based on the orders given by the National Action Plan and Higher Education Council, the curriculum was then revised and is now based on interactive teaching techniques and pedagogies which are gender sensitive.

Another project, funded by the European Union and the Government of Turkey and known as “Promoting Gender Equality in Education”, aims at promoting gender equality throughout the schools of Turkey by aiding the ministry of education and schools to assess the schools’ capacity to create a safe environment and curriculum for learning devoid of gender biases. This project entails multiple efforts to make schools gender-neutral – developing tools to make the educational system sensitive to gender inequality, reviewing educational policies, curricula and textbooks and drawing recommendations, conducting sessions on gender equality to bring awareness in the society. Around 98% of the female educators who were a part of this project have stated that their association with this project have made them aware of the suitable attitude that a teacher should adopt in order to make the school environment gender sensitive.

Primary learnings – Gender-sensitive pedagogies, eliminating gender bias from education systems, making school gender neutral, teachers as change-agents

• Period boxes – India

In response to a question by two 13-year-old girls’ on why there had been no discussion on periods in school, their teacher convened an interaction in class on menstruation. There were many questions asked (especially by the boys), experiences shared, and the girls showed sanitary napkins to their male classmates. The discussion, led by girls, culminated into a collective decision of placing a ‘period box’ in the classroom. This box is stocked with sanitary napkins, tissues, and candies. When the girls took turns to take responsibility the box, parents of boys protested against the exclusion of boys from sharing the responsibility. The practice was also adopted by other classes of the school.

Although the initiative exists in one or perhaps few schools in the country, it is a practice worth replicating. Acknowledging the importance of biological processes such as menstruation and having conversations around them is a step towards creating spaces where men and women can coexist with each other while being sensitive to each others’ bodies and experiences.

Primary learnings – Opening up classrooms to conversations about menstruation and related issues; mutual sharing of gendered experiences among boys and girls; taking measures to enable a conducive environment for girls and boys alike.

• Policies forbidding gender discrimination in textbooks – Thailand

In response to findings worldwide regarding the importance of educational units being influential in shaping the behaviors of students, various countries have taken measures. On a policy level, Thailand is among those few countries which have instituted practices forbidding discrimination based on gender in textbooks and curriculum – particular directives are provided to eliminate the gender stereotypes and textbooks are taken under revisions all over the country. The aim is to go beyond equal access to schools, towards achieving equality within schools.

Primary learnings – Acknowledging and addressing gender discrimination in textbooks, policy directives to eliminate gender inequality in curricula

The South Asian Case

We shall now turn to the South Asia and explore the need to bring in such practices in schools and education systems in the region.

South Asian countries have a deep-rooted structure of gender inequality to combat- patriarchy is embedded in the lived experiences of people. Be it discriminatory practices that begin even before a child’s birth, or, differential access to educational and economic opportunities, or, unequal marriages or, non-consensual pregnancies, or, gender biases at the workplace, or, gender-based violence in public and private spheres- gender inequality assumes a status of normalcy in most parts of the South Asian region. Part of this inequality is statistically represented in terms of gender gap in indicators of health, literacy, economic participation. Much of the inequality is not. For example, even the female population that has been able to get access to education does not escape gender-based discrimination or violence. To put it differently, even the male population that gets educated does not acquire gender awareness or practice gender equality. This points to a component that is lacking within the education practice of the region- gender equality. Gender-equal education is needed at the level of regional cooperation initiatives, national policies, in-school programmes, and classroom engagements.

The next part of our two-part blog shall suggest a roadmap to promote gender equality in/through schools in South Asia.

Anushna Jha ( @ anushnajha ) completed Master’s in Development Studies in 2018 from the department of International Development at the LSE. She has previously interned with Breaking Barriers UK, Department of Social Welfare, Government of Bihar, India and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a think tank based in New Delhi, India. Her research interests include education policy, gender and education, and public private partnerships in public services.

Mehrin Shah ( @ MehrinShah )  completed Master’s in Development Studies from the department of International Development at the LSE in 2018. She has previously interned at the Aga Khan Rural Support Program in Pakistan. Her primary research interest lies in public policy, specially in areas of poverty eradication, education, and gender.

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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About the author

Gender equality is great as long as it’s equality of opportunity, and not forced equality of outcome.

Really appreciable article. I love to read such quality content. Thanks for sharing. Really Amazing.

• Pingback: 5 Ways To Practice Gender Equality In Today's Society - Five Cowries Creek

Throughout history, females have been subjected to their fair share of inequality. The perpetuation of gender roles entrenched in cultural traditions compounds the issue further. India serves as a case in point, where cataract surgical coverage (CSC) is 27% lower among women compared to men, with men having approximately 1.46 times higher odds of receiving treatment.

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Girls' education, gender equality in education benefits every child..

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Investing in girls’ education transforms communities, countries and the entire world. Girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.

Girls’ education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. It contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals – including boys and men – the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

But education for girls is about more than access to school. It’s also about girls feeling safe in classrooms and supported in the subjects and careers they choose to pursue – including those in which they are often under-represented.

When we invest in girls’ secondary education

• The lifetime earnings of girls dramatically increase
• National growth rates rise
• Child marriage rates decline
• Child mortality rates fall
• Maternal mortality rates fall
• Child stunting drops

Why are girls out of school?

Despite evidence demonstrating how central girls’ education is to development, gender disparities in education persist.

Around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age. In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries.

Worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school.

Only 49 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. At the secondary level, the gap widens: 42 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity in lower secondary education, and 24 per cent in upper secondary education.

The reasons are many. Barriers to girls’ education – like poverty, child marriage and gender-based violence – vary among countries and communities. Poor families often favour boys when investing in education.

In some places, schools do not meet the safety, hygiene or sanitation needs of girls. In others, teaching practices are not gender-responsive and result in gender gaps in learning and skills development.

Gender equality in education

Gender-equitable education systems empower girls and boys and promote the development of life skills – like self-management, communication, negotiation and critical thinking – that young people need to succeed. They close skills gaps that perpetuate pay gaps, and build prosperity for entire countries.

Gender-equitable education systems can contribute to reductions in school-related gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation .

Gender-equitable education systems help keep both girls and boys in school, building prosperity for entire countries.

An education free of negative gender norms has direct benefits for boys, too. In many countries, norms around masculinity can fuel disengagement from school, child labour, gang violence and recruitment into armed groups. The need or desire to earn an income also causes boys to drop out of secondary school, as many of them believe the curriculum is not relevant to work opportunities.

UNICEF’s work to promote girls’ education

UNICEF works with communities, Governments and partners to remove barriers to girls’ education and promote gender equality in education – even in the most challenging settings.

Because investing in girls’ secondary education is one of the most transformative development strategies, we prioritize efforts that enable all girls to complete secondary education and develop the knowledge and skills they need for life and work.

This will only be achieved when the most disadvantaged girls are supported to enter and complete pre-primary and primary education. Our work:

• Tackles discriminatory gender norms and harmful practices that deny girls access to school and quality learning.
• Supports Governments to ensure that budgets are gender-responsive and that national education plans and policies prioritize gender equality.
• Helps schools and Governments use assessment data to eliminate gender gaps in learning.
• Promotes social protection measures, including cash transfers, to improve girls’ transition to and retention in secondary school.
• Focuses teacher training and professional development on gender-responsive pedagogies.
• Removes gender stereotypes from learning materials.
• Addresses other obstacles, like distance-related barriers to education, re-entry policies for young mothers, and menstrual hygiene management in schools.

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Opinion: The road to gender equality is through quality education

By Stefania Giannini and Alice Albright

Twenty-five years ago, world leaders from 189 countries signed the Beijing Declaration and launched the Platform for Action , a bold roadmap for women’s equal participation in every facet of society and life.

Today, as we observe International Women’s Day, no single country is on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality by 2030. Despite hard-won gains over last quarter century, we are still 100 years from closing the gender gap . For girls and women today, that is as good as never.

To be sure, there has been progress: girls’ enrolment rates have doubled in the past 25 years. The global gap between the number of girls and boys in school has narrowed to near or full parity, and in some places, girls now outnumber boys in some levels of education. UNESCO estimates that since 2000 the number of girls not getting any education has dropped substantially from 205 million to 129 million.

But 129 million is an appallingly large number of girls who are being denied their fundamental right to a quality education and to the future that learning unlocks. Moreover, the challenge to girls’ education does not stop when girls get into the classroom. They are up against entrenched social, economic and cultural barriers that mean that for 6 out of 10 girls in low-income countries, primary schooling is the end of their educational road, and barely 1 in 10 will graduate from high school. The odds are worse for the most marginalized: refugees, girls living with disabilities and girls from poor families and rural areas.

Just as appalling is that millions of girls who are in school are not learning the skills they need. In some countries, as few as 2 in 10 girls can read and understand a simple story by the time they finish primary school. Even when girls do go all the way to higher education, they are grossly under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the very fields that are shaping the economies and societies of the future.  

This is a sheer waste of talent and potential.

Clearly, we need a profoundly new approach. But this will happen only when leaders and their citizens recognize -- and dismantle – power inequities in their societies that uphold the status quo.

Progress in education is proof that this is possible. When countries make and follow through on concrete commitments to change, they can accelerate the velocity of gender equality progress . About 85% of the developing countries the Global Partnership for Education works with included gender equality in their long-term education plans. That means they are doing more to lower the common barriers to girls’ education: by enrolling and retaining girls, making sure they get good quality learning materials, reducing sexual harassment and violence in and around school, installing proper menstrual hygiene facilities and boosting the number of female teachers who can motivate and relate to girls.

These approaches work. Ethiopia , for example, has made girls’ education a priority in recent years. The result: more girls are going to, staying in and improving their performance in school, and the wide gap between the number of girls and boys who completed primary school has all but disappeared. Kenya has also invested intensively in girl-friendly interventions – especially in more remote areas – and as a result, girls’ grade 1 enrolment has increased, and they are outperforming boys in math. Likewise, Nepal ’s efforts have, among other indicators, increased girls’ enrolment in and completion of school in Nepal, even exceeding boys’.

The Beijing Platform for Action recognized that equal access to education is vital if more women are to become agents of change. That’s why we and the organizations we represent are joining the Generation Equality campaign, which is mobilizing people of all ages and genders to reinvigorate the aspirations articulated in Beijing 25 years ago.

An equal generation is an educated generation. We must play our part to ensure that all girls and women everywhere have the knowledge and skills they need to lead the charge and break down the barriers to gender equality for good.

Stefania Giannini is Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO and Alice Albright is the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education .

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Editorial article, editorial: gender equality and women’s empowerment in education.

• 1 Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
• 2 Department of Educational Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Editorial on the Research Topic Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Education

Current scholarly literature shows that gender inequalities are still present in the process of curricular decision making and teacher practices. These inequalities are expressed through the selection of educational content, the application of methodological strategies, the selection of teaching resources, interpersonal relationships, specific task assignments, or even seating choices within the classroom. These ongoing gender-related issues drive the need for teachers to receive specific and transversal training in this area. Such trainings should be aimed at revealing gender relations as a type of power relationship for the promotion of social change.

The literature in the field of teacher training indicates that the maintenance of gender stereotypes and biases in teacher discourses and practices reinforces the sex-gender system and, consequently, inequalities. Further research is therefore still needed to study the discourses that emerged from the teaching practices around gender. Moreover, research in this field should encourage critical reflection on teacher training plans and the teaching curriculum itself.

The adoption of coeducational approaches and the promotion of education in and for gender equality entails transforming the traditional teaching curriculum to overcome the androcentric constructive bases of historical, social, and literary knowledge. Such transformation would also motivate the incorporation of “polysemic views” in the understanding and interpretation of social reality. Even today, it is common to recognize in mainstream social communication discourses, such as advertising or audio-visual artistic expressions, clear imagery of unquestionable, allegedly identarian gender cultural patterns. The overcoming or relativization of these patterns should necessarily go through the reexamination of curricular content.

The eradication of gender inequalities requires not only the integration of all the voices that have built social knowledge but also the overcoming of gender stereotypes within the education system. It is thus essential to identify the shortcomings of teachers’ training and encourage gender studies as a requisite for their curricula in order to achieve inclusive, plural, and diverse models for teaching practices.

This Research Topic includes 15 manuscripts, from nine prestigious international academic institutions (Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Germany, Spain, and Sweden) on important topics related to the inclusion of gender inequalities in teacher training, and the analysis of this concept in the official school curriculum, materials, and teacher practices.

The experiences and socio-cultural constructions of the concept of gender constitute the explanatory core of the research problem addressed in “ The Challenge of Women’s Inclusion for Novel Teachers. Case Study in a Teacher Educator Public University ”. This research analyzes the representations of novice teachers of History and Social Sciences on the presence and absence of women’s historical experience in their teaching practices. The research demonstrates the permanence of positivist and androcentric epistemological approaches in the teaching of History, and highlights the urgency of addressing gender inequalities as one of the most pressing social problems of our contemporaneity. In this vein, “ Classical Sociology Through the Lens of Gendered Experiences ” seeks to promote discussion on the mediating role of gendered experiences in classical sociology’s theories of the move towards modern society. This study evidences the constructive relativity of social knowledge and its consequences for sociological teaching and learning.

From the conception of a socio-constructive nature of sexism, the research “ Intersections Around Ambivalent Sexism: Internalized Homonegativity, Resistance to Heteronormativity and Other Correlates ” explores the levels of internalized sexism and homonegativity, and the resistance to heteronormativity of Spanish psychology students. Its results are consistent with those obtained in the study “ Evaluation of Sexist and Prejudiced Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in Spanish Future Teachers: Analysis of Related Variables ”, focused on the analysis of sexist and prejudiced attitudes toward homosexuality of future Spanish teachers. Both studies show the influence of factors such as political ideology, gender identity and sexual orientation on students’ beliefs and perceptions. They also point out the need to advance in the eradication of discrimination based on sex and sexual diversity in the training of future professionals, and the implementation of intersectional approaches to understand the sexist construct.

The consequences of the invisibility of female referents in education and, therefore, of models on which to build plural and empowered identities, derives from the limitations inherent in traditional gender expectations and attributions. The educational hegemony of these attributions, the basis of the study “ Nine Contradictory Observations About Girls’ and Boys’ Upbringing and Education—The Strength-Based Approach as the Way to Eliminate the Gender Gap ”, continue to limit the potential expectations and talents of girls. Through “nine contradictory observations”, this article directs its proposal towards a “strength-based approach” as a way to eradicate the gender gap. Along these lines, “ Mindfulness and Empathy: Mediating Factors and Gender Differences in a Spanish Sample ” highlights the lack of studies aimed at analyzing the potential moderating role of gender in the development of empathic skills.

The research production around the gender gap and gender-segregated differentiation seems not to have received the desired impact in educational social spaces. From this perspective, on the one hand, the article “ Differentiations in Visibility-Male Advantages and Female Disadvantages in Gender-Segregated Programmes ” starts from the differential articulation of inter- and intra-group visibility, by gender, in students, underrepresented in their programmes. On the other hand, the works “ Distributing Feedback Wisely to Empower Girls in STEM ” and “ Girls in STEM: Is It a Female Role-Model Thing? ” highlight the still distant presence of women in the development of STEM professions, a circumstance originating in the educational context and influenced, therefore, by traditional gender models and by social factors that have an impact on the construction of personal identities, as also evidenced by the work “ What Dominates the Female Class Identification? Evidence From China ”.

These constructed identities are revealed in the underestimation of the self-efficacy of secondary school students regarding their competences in STEM subjects, as shown in the work “ Parent and Teacher Depictions of Gender Gaps in Secondary Student Appraisals of Their Academic Competences ”. Consequently, the analysis of self-efficacy, expectations of results, interest in STEM areas and the intervention in the classrooms of plural female role models are proposed as necessary working spaces to redirect this trend. These results are completed with the analysis of the potential influence of gender stereotypes in biased student evaluations of teaching in “ Gender Stereotypes in Student Evaluations of Teaching ”.

From the area of Brazilian physical education, “ Gender Participation and Preference: A Multiple-Case Study on Teaching Circus at PE in Brazilians Schools ” reports on the elective influence of Primary Education teachers in the assignment of circus physical activities according to gender, extensible to the sports activities of traditional teaching. In order to advance in critical and emancipatory training proposals in gender equality in this area, “ Breaking Cultural ‘Taboos’ About the Body and Gender: Brazilian Students’ Emancipation From a Thematic Perspective of School Physical Education ” stresses the importance of teaching programs oriented to the cultural construction of the differential concept of the body. From this perspective, the work “ REFLECT—A Teacher Training Program to Promote Gender Equality in Schools ” emphasizes the hegemonic role of socializing agents in maintaining the status quo of gender stereotypes in education and in the future professional development of men and women. As a response to the permanence of the sex-gender system, and to the evidence of the influence of teachers’ attitudes and practices in the promotion of truly coeducational educational environments, this program, aimed at future teachers of Secondary Education, aims to contribute, in a sustainable way, to gender equality from the educational spaces of subjective action (such as self-efficacy), and objective action (teaching methods and knowledge).

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

This Research Topic was completed with the main support of the Research Group Recognized in Didactics of History and Social Sciences (DHISO) (cod. 137), directed by Prof. Dr. Delfín Ortega-Sánchez (University of Burgos, Spain). Likewise, it has also been carried out within the framework of the projects Teach and learn to interpret contemporary problems and conflicts. What do social sciences contribute to the formation of a critical global citizenship? (EDU2016-80145-P), financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spanish Government), and Future Education and Democratic Hope. Rethinking Social Studies Education in changing times (PID2019-107383RB-I00), financed by the Ministry of Science, and Innovation (Spanish Government).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Keywords: gender equality, teacher training, gender representation, gender stereotypes, higher education, primary and secondary education, early childhood education

Citation: Ortega-Sánchez D, Sanz de la Cal E, Ibáñez Quintana J and Borghi B (2022) Editorial: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Education. Front. Educ. 7:833977. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.833977

Received: 12 December 2021; Accepted: 10 January 2022; Published: 26 January 2022.

Edited and reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Ortega-Sánchez, Sanz de la Cal, Ibáñez Quintana and Borghi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Delfín Ortega-Sánchez, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Education

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• School Education /

Essay on Gender Equality: Break Stereotypes

• Updated on  
• Feb 19, 2024

Gender equality refers to equal opportunities for both men and women. It is the state of having equal access to resources for everyone regardless of their sex. There is a huge disparity in the number of opportunities available for men and women. Gender equality is an important social issue which requires an adequate amount of attention from everybody.

Social issue topics like gender equality are often part of academic writing, most importantly essay writing. Students are given the task of writing an essay on gender equality, where their understanding of the topic and proficiency in English are measured. So, to help students with their essays on gender equality, we have listed down some essay samples. These essays on gender equality samples will provide you with creative ideas, that you can add to your essay topics.

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Also Read: Essay on Women Empowerment: Samples & Useful Tips

Table of Contents

• 1 Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 100 words
• 2 Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 200 words
• 3 Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 300 words
• 4 Gender Equality Paragraph

Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 100 words

‘Gender equality is the cornerstone of a progressive society. It grants everyone the same rights and opportunities irrespective of gender. Gender discrimination continues to limit the potential of countless individuals all over the world. To overcome gender-based discrimination that limits the potential of an individual, society must recognize that every person, regardless of gender, possesses unique talents and abilities that deserve equal recognition and opportunities. In a world where diversity is celebrated, gender should be no exception. By overcoming gender bias we pave the way for a more inclusive, progressive, and harmonious world.’

Also Read:   Women’s Equality Day 2023: History, Theme, Significance

Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 200 words

‘Gender equality is a fundamental human right that should be embraced by all. It goes beyond mere parity between men and women; it encompasses the elimination of stereotypes, biases, and discrimination that hinder anyone from realizing their full potential. Achieving gender equality is not just a moral imperative; it also benefits society as a whole. When women and men have equal opportunities in education, employment, and leadership roles, economies thrive, communities prosper, and peace prevails.

Gender equality extends beyond basic rights; it embodies the struggle for a world where gender ceases to be a determining factor in one’s opportunities or treatment. It’s a call to arms against harmful stereotypes and prejudices that persist in our societies. It’s about nurturing an environment where everyone, regardless of gender, can thrive, pursue their ambitions, and contribute their talents to the fullest.

The fight for gender equality is far from over. Unequal pay, underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, and gender-based violence are stark reminders of the challenges we face. We must dismantle these barriers, foster inclusivity, and promote diversity in all aspects of life.’

Also Read: What are Human Rights?

Sample Essay on Gender Equality in 300 words

‘Gender equality is not just an abstract concept; it’s a critical aspect of human rights that affects individuals’ daily lives. Achieving gender equality necessitates systemic changes across society, politics, and the economy. It begins with recognizing that gender disparities are deeply rooted in our history, culture, and institutions, and it requires a concerted effort to uproot them.

To bridge the gender gap, we must first address the root causes of inequality. Stereotypes that dictate traditional gender roles must be challenged. Education plays a pivotal role in this endeavour, as it equips individuals with the knowledge and critical thinking skills to question existing norms. Moreover, it empowers women and men to make informed choices about their lives and careers.

One of the most urgent challenges is combatting gender-based violence. Millions of women and girls worldwide suffer from physical, sexual, or psychological violence simply because of their gender. Achieving gender equality means creating a world where no one lives in fear or faces violence due to their gender identity.

Gender equality encompasses not only equal rights but also equal opportunities, respect, and the freedom to express one’s identity without fear or prejudice. The fight for gender equality is a collective responsibility. It requires dismantling patriarchal norms and embracing diversity. It requires a shift in mindset, proactive policies, and unwavering commitment. When we embrace gender equality, we unlock the full potential of half the world’s population, creating a brighter, fairer future for all.

In conclusion, gender equality is not just a lofty ideal but an urgent necessity. It’s about reshaping our world into one where every individual, regardless of their gender, has the same rights and opportunities. Achieving gender equality requires a collective effort to change not only policies but also attitudes, cultures, and social norms.’

Gender Equality Paragraph

Ans. 1 One example of Gender equality is receiving equal pay for equivalent work, irrespective of one’s gender. It also involves ensuring that women do not face repercussions upon their return to work after taking maternity leave, for instance.

Ans. 2 India has supported Sustainable Development Goals and one of the sustainable goals is Gender Equality. India as a country believes in Gender Equality and longs for an impartial and unbiased society. The government of India has also taken many initiatives like Beti Padhao Beti Bachao.

Ans. 3. Gender discrimination is an obstruction in the path of development. Hence becomes one of the challenges to gender equality. With this, child marriage, domestic violence, and sexual abuse are some more challenges to gender equality.

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GENDER EQUALITY IN SCHOOLS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CURRICULUM, TEACHING AND CLASSROOM INTERACTION

This paper discusses the content and delivery of education and how it can reflect and reproduce gender inequalities. Girls’ and boys’ learning and interaction with each other, and the teacher, are influenced by ways of teaching, the content of the curriculum, and relations within the classroom. The paper highlights these aspects of educational provision-curriculum, teaching and learning, and the dynamics of the classroom and school. It further discusses a gender-equitable approach to schooling, making teaching and the curriculum gender equitable in schools and ways of educating teachers to promote gender equality in schools. The paper recommends changes needed to ensure that educational provision will promote gender equality in schools in the new millennium.

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In this article on gender and learning Harry Daniels and colleagues suggest that boys experience a contradiction between the cultural messages and practices associated with masculinity (competition and individuality) and the teaching practices typical of successful primary schooling (collaboration and codependency). They consider the impact of this contradiction on the question of boys' underachievement, and their account of the views of children as to whether boys and girls learn the same or differently makes salutary reading. ‘Which pedagogy,’ they ask, ‘suits who best?’

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This research is related to the importance of introducing a gender approach in educational curricula. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has defined in its 4th goal the need to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. This means that educational systems should have in mind the need to introduce gender debate in different areas of educations, from teacher training to subject knowledge definition, to change traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Using a qualitative research methodology based in documental analyses it will be presented how some European countries have been developing efforts to include gender equality as a topic or as an interdisciplinary subject in school curricula. The research focus on how these efforts are happening in Portugal and how school curricula are not involved in it – and this is an important challenge to be met by policy makers. Some recommendations are issued to foster the goal of gender equality as a tool to improve quality in education and contribute to a more balanced society in terms of gender representation.

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Teachers are responsible for inclusive teaching about gender and addressing gender bias through teaching practices. In this Unit Professor Jayne Osgood supports early career teachers to examine ideas about gender in childhood. The unit starts with background information about gender, followed by a description of ways in which restrictive ideas and practices concerning gender in school have come about and how, by engaging in critical reflection on (often unacknowledged) personal prejudices, ideas about gender in childhood can be reappraised. Finally, some practical approaches to pursue more inclusive practices to achieve improved gender equity in primary school are discussed.

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Equality or Equity?

• Posted December 2, 2022
• By Jill Anderson
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Inequality and Education Gaps
• K-12 School Leadership
• Moral, Civic, and Ethical Education

Subscribe to the Harvard EdCast.

Longtime educator Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade thinks schools have been focused on equality for too long and need to fundamentally rethink the way they do things. He says a focus on equality is not producing the results that schools really need — providing all students with a quality education. While visiting schools many years ago, he noticed educators used the terms "equality" and "equity" interchangeably. Then, he started tracking what that actually means. The data clearly demonstrates that aiming for equality doesn't work. What would schools look like if they were, instead, truly equitable places?

In this episode of the Harvard EdCast, Duncan-Andrade reimagines what education could look like in America if we dared to break free of the system that constrains it. 

Jill Anderson:  I'm Jill Anderson. This is The Harvard EdCast. Long time educator, Jeff Duncan-Andrade, was working with schools when he noticed people using the words equality and equity interchangeably. Those words don't mean the same thing. Everybody's talking about equity without really taking the time to understand what it means, he says. And even worse, he says American schools have been more focused on equality for decades, and data shows it's not working. He's calling for a fundamental rethink of education nationwide with a real focus on equity. I wondered what that means, and what that might even look like. But I wanted Jeff to first tell us a bit more about the difference between equality and equity.

Jill Anderson: What is the difference between equity and equality? Because it seems like a lot of us are confused.

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: Well, so the way that I talk about equity is that I use my own home. I have twin boys that are nine years old. On virtually every measure, they're as equal is two children can be. Right? And yet, one of them when he was much younger was constantly thirsty, and the other one was constantly hungry. If I give both of them a bottle of water, is that equal? The immediate reaction of some people is to shake their head no. Then I ask the person, I say, "Why do you say it's not equal?" And then they say, "Well, because you're not giving [inaudible 00:02:35], your son who's always hungry, what he needs." And I say, "Yeah, but that's not the question I'm asking you. I'm asking you if it's equal." And then they kind of course correct. And they're like, "Well, yeah, it's equal, but it's not fair." 

What I follow up with there is to say, "Yeah. You're right." But if you look at the definition of equality, there's nothing in there about fairness. It's presumed. The problem is we're attempting to have an equal education system in the most radically unequal industrialized nation in the history of the world. So to design an equal education system is both to ignore present and historical data and real material conditions, and it basically virtually guarantees that the social reproduction of those same inequalities. And we're not even doing equal schools.

Equity, on the other hand, is about fairness. And so the definition of equity that I use is that in an equitable system, you get what you need when you need it. This requires schools to first really assess: What do the children and the families in the community that we serve actually need? So you can't carbon copy. You can't just say, "Well, this worked over here in this community, and they have a really similar demographic profile, so we'll just copy this over." You can't McDonald-ize it. Right? And that requires, one, a lot of institutional dexterity, which schools really don't have right now. It requires dexterity around resource allocation. And it requires a very different kind of questioning and wondering and thinking and teacher support and teacher development, which schools really don't have right now.

And that's why I said that if we were going to really pursue an equitable education system, it requires us to make a hard pivot. And I think the hard pivot begins first with the purpose question, which I don't hear us asking in this country. And the purpose question is: For what? Why do we take children by law from their families for 13 consecutive years, for seven hours a day? Why are we doing that? And because we don't reexamine the why, the purpose, then what we end up doing is effectively putting lipstick on the pig. Public schools are presumed good in this society. I want us to challenge that.

Jill Anderson: I was looking around and I read an interview with you from many years ago where you said, and I'm quoting, "We lack the public will to transform our public schools."

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: I do think we lack the public will, and it's particularly disconcerting to me right now because I felt like coming back from the pandemic that we had a real opportunity. I felt like the potential for the will was there. People were really willing to rethink a lot of stuff. And what happened was that window has largely closed and what happened was that schools really went back to business as usual, even though they were saying, "We can't go back to business as usual." If you go to schools today, they look exactly like they did before the pandemic, excepting that you'll see more masks, you'll see more hand sanitizer, and you'll see occasional group testing for COVID. That's it. Everything else looks literally identical, the design of the school day, the curriculum, the set up off the classrooms, totally blew the opportunity to do a fundamental rethink.

In order to do a real rethink, you have to have resources. And I think that one of the things that gets in our way is that people don't really know what happens in schools. And so their kid gets dropped off, they come home. How was your day? It was good. Continue on. Right? And so we really want to re-jigger this whole thing. So I think that, one, we have to raise the national consciousness about what is actually happening in schools, and raise the national consciousness and awareness about the fact that, one, schools are really not good for kids the way we've designed them. Our children are not well. I'm not talking about just vulnerable and wounded kids, poor and working class kids, kids of color. I'm talking about the national data set on youth wellness is deeply, deeply troubling. And it's reflected in our larger public health data outcome.

I mean, we are the least well of any of the industrialized nations, and it's not even close. And yet, we spend by some estimates 100 X as much on healthcare as the next closest industrialized nation, which actually makes some sense because: When do you need healthcare? When you're sick. We have a national crisis, public health crisis, that public health officials have been banging the drum about for quite a while. And it can be directly connected to the way in which we organize our school day, and the experiences of our children over those 13 years. You can only ride this ride for so long before slamming on your brakes doesn't prevent you from careening off the edge of the cliff. And if you really look at the data, and I'm talking about our economic data, I'm talking about our health data, I'm talking about our broader social data, it's really, really troubling. We're in trouble.

This sits right up there with the climate crisis. If we correct the climate and the ozone layer, that doesn't mean we're going to be well. So I think that we have to raise the national awareness and consciousness about the place we're in as a society. And then we have to follow that by saying that it doesn't have to be this way. This is a choice that we can make, and the good thing that may be different than the climate crisis is that we could literally course correct this in one generation. If you had a generation of children that experienced in the public school system for all those 13 years and all those hours, a singular focus on wellness, to me, that is the purpose of public schools in a pluralistic multiracial democracy, is a promise to every family that when you give us your child, when you come back at the end of the day, they will be more well for having spent time with us than when you dropped them off. That's it.

So you can teach reading, you can teach writing, you can teach math, you can teach science, you can do sports, you can do art, you can do dance, you can do all of those things. But the question is: For what? If it's the model that we've designed, which is to maintain social inequality without social unrest, and to create pathways into employment, then carry on. If the goal is a pluralistic multiracial democracy that is more equal and more equitable, then we have to rethink the role of public schools in growing a generation of young people that know that is the agenda of our society.

Jill Anderson: Do you think that the intent was never really to make anything better? Is it just a Band-Aid? 

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: We have an allergy in this country to truth telling. And I think without real truth telling, then the consciousness won't emerge. And I think that there's a fear in the broader society that: If we change schools, if we really do what you're saying, Jeff, if we really change schools, what if it's worse? Better the devil you know, right? Again, this goes back to people don't really know what happens in schools. The fear is I don't want to experiment on kids. Right? And what people don't process in that statement is we're already experimenting on kids. And we have an incredible amount of data on how that experiment is going, and it is failing, flat out. 

And it's not that things have been slow to change. Things are worse. We're headed in the wrong direction. The wealth gap in this society is far and away the biggest it's ever been. Health outcomes, wellness is far and away the worst it's ever been. The forms of inequality that we can track, even economists are freaking out. They are really concerned. So for me, the question is one: Why aren't people putting that picture together? Why aren't more leaders talking about that? I'm an imminently hopeful dude. I firmly believe we're going to figure this out. But I don't think that you can really close your eyes and pray your way out of this. I was looking for what's the kind of big, global gold standard data set for looking at this in nations, and what I stumbled upon is called the World Peace Index. 

That is the global gold standard for measuring peace, democracy, economic stability and sustainability in 99.8 of the world's population. So I figured when I started looking at this in 2015, and this is used by the United Nations, UNESCO, by the World Health ... I mean, this is a widely accepted kind of mega index to look at how our nation's doing. And when I first looked at it, I figured we're top 20, some of the Nordic countries will probably outpace us. But in 2015, I think we were 94th.

Jill Anderson: Wow.

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade:  And my jaw dropped. I was like, "Whoa." Right? And then I kept tracking it every year, and every year since 2015, we have dropped and dropped and dropped. The '22 index just came out, and I think now we're 122nd in the world. That is such an indictment of the maintenance model that we're hanging onto, the devil that we know. And we're in a free fall. And I think schools are ... If we're going to do a fundamental rethink about schools, we have to really have a coming to truth, as South Africa did. We have to have a truth and reconciliation conversation about: Where are we? How did we get here? What sets of decisions did we make to get here? And then how are we going to course correct? Right? How are we going to raise a generation of young people that experience truth telling about what this society is? And then let's create school systems that are really developing young people that are problem solvers, whether it's for cancer, whether it's for the climate crisis, and schools are not that.

Schools are about compliance, internalize, regurgitate, repeat. That model at some level made some sense when we first started schools because schools were designed to create functional workers for factories. We're not that anymore. And I think that's why so many young people find school completely inane and obsolete.

Jill Anderson: Are there any schools that you would say are equitable today, are practicing that kind of model? 

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: Whole schools, none that I've seen. I think some are more committed to it than others. There is incredible research and examples of spaces and places where it's happening inside of schools, so individual classrooms, or individual programs. But tip to finish, edge to edge, top to bottom, I have not seen it in a US school. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But I think that is one of the questions that we have to solve for. There has to be a major influx of resources to begin to create the space for schools to innovate, to begin to figure out. How do we stop moving deck chairs around on a Titanic and calling it different? And how do we start really thinking about remaking the ship? And schools are not given the runway or the resources to be innovative.

You saw that coming out of the pandemic. All these superintendents were like, "Yeah. You're giving me this crisis money right now, but I can't build anything long-term with this because you're going to take it away. And then I'm going to have to cut that, and the damage that does both to staffing and to the climate and culture of a community is bad." I'm immediately adjacent to Silicon Valley. And I've had the privilege of spending quite a bit of time with some of the leaders of some of the largest companies there. And to a person, when I'm in those conversations with them, one of the things that they have all said to me at some point or another is that one of our most valuable commodities as a corporation is failure. And I was like, "Huh?" 

And then I started thinking about how in education. We duck, dodge, and deny failure like it is the worst thing ever. And the more I explored that with them, the more I understood just how different the consciousness, the climate, and the culture has to be for a space to be innovative, the goal isn't to fail, but the known is if we're going to push the envelope, if we're going to innovate, if we're going to try and really do things that are cutting edge and different, we're going to fail, and we're going to fail a lot. And the key is not that you start worrying about failure, but that you build an infrastructure around the failure, so that you're learning and you're growing.

What schools try to do is they try to do mega change, so the whole school's going to do X, Y, or Z. The whole district's going to do X, Y, or Z. And that consistently falls flat on its face because one, that's not how you do institutional change. The only way that you pull that off is with power. You just force people. But no one actually changes, they just comply. But if you want to change, you have to start with smaller units. You have to have good R and D. And you have to innovate and tweak constantly. You can't wait for a semester to get test scores back and decide if your literacy program needs improvement. You can't wait for a year. There's a whole lot of spaces and places that we could be learning from in education about how to make this move in a way that is actually creating transformation and change that's healthy, that's good for kids, that's good for teachers, that's good for families. 

Jill Anderson: So in an equitable school model, do you think that it's just every school, every classroom, will really look different?

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: I think it depends on how you operationalize the term different. Every classroom you go into right now looks different. Whether you want to admit it or not, it is a different teacher, a different group of kids. So there's a way in which there's a cold comfort in the kind of fast food approach to schools, which is I'm going to go in and I'm going to see a teacher in front of the room, and I'm going to see desks organized. I'm going to see kids seated and calm. And I'm going to see important stuff on the walls, and kids are going to be raising their hand. And I think that we have to let go of that. The classrooms that I know where real learning is happening are on fire. And people are like, "Whoa, this is chaos."

But when you look at what actually comes out of that classroom, it's super investment. Kids are super excited. The teacher's super excited. And lots and lots of learning is happening. So part of the national consciousness has to change in giving people live look ins to: What are we actually talking about here? What should we expect to see when we walk in classrooms? What that looks like day to day and room A to room B, it needs to look a little bit different based on who's in there and what they're doing in the particular moment. 

What I think shouldn't be different is the core values. So pedagogically, you're going to see some difference. Curriculum, you're going to see some difference. Interactions, you're going to see some difference. But when you kind of zoom out a little bit and you look at what are the core values that are happening right here, no, we've actually known this again for 40 years from the research. The most effective teachers across four decades of research pretty much do the same things. And no matter what the political climate of the day is, or what the sexy curriculum or assessment is, they are doing pretty much the same things. What we've been calling the kind of new three Rs, but they're not new, they're the old three Rs, that is widely supported by the research not just in education, but across all those fields about what actually creates wellbeing and investment from children.

First and foremost, it's relationships. Right? So if you walked into classroom A or classroom B, what you would see is deep, caring relationships between the adult and the children, and between the children and the children. The second thing is relevance. You walk into the space and you would see kids on fire about learning because they actually care about what they're learning. Right? It's relevant to their life. It's relevant to their history. It's relevant to their language. It's relevant to their community. If you went space to space, that might look a little different because what's relevant to group A might be a little different than what's relevant to group B. But you could still hit all the state and national standards with a modified curriculum.

And then the third thing is the space would reflect responsibility, a responsibility to themselves, a responsibility to the school, a responsibility to the community, a responsibility to the nation, a responsibility to the world. Part of that responsibility would be that if a child is wounded, that we don't punt. We don't send them away. We don't make them somebody else's problem. The classroom community would be responding and understanding that is education. Learning your responsibility to your brother or your sister that's sitting next to you, and saying that we can teach all the standards we need to teach with a focus on wellness and care. That's not going to stop you from reading.

In fact, that's actually going to increase reading. But what happens right now is because we're trying to develop, we're trying to sanitize classrooms, so it's like, "Don't bring any of that in here." What you end up, people think they want to see is they want to see flat compliance. Nobody is hurting. Nobody is sad. Nobody is laughing out loud. None of the human emotions are allowed in the classroom. We don't even let kids talk to each other. That's seen as disruption.

Jill Anderson: If we have some educators listening, what can they actually do? 

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: Start a pilot. Start a pilot project, one classroom. You're a parent, just figure out. How can that classroom where your child is going to school every day be more equitable? My sons are in fourth grade. Oftentimes when I go in, I'm not particularly focused on them because I know where they're at. I'm looking at some of the other kids that are sitting next to them that I know based on my conversations with them, and based on my time being invested in the kids that are moving along the grades with them, I know the kids that need a breakfast bar. And so I'm coming with that to begin to develop a relationship with them around: How do I start getting you loving reading as much as my sons love reading?

People will be surprised at how micro investments can create institutional cultural transformation because if you really think about it, if you change one kid's experience on one day, you've changed the institution. Schools have become consumed wrongly with not only big data, but the wrong big data. And that then leads us to think about change at the wrong scale. For a teacher, or for a school leader, seriously, just start a pilot project, one unit, one classroom, one group of teachers that say, "Hey, we really want to do something fundamentally different." And give them the runway and the bandwidth to innovate and learn with the expectation, this is the expectation that I always have when I go in and work with schools, is that we're going to start with the coalition of the willing. So if you're not down for this right now, it's cool. Right? 

But if you are, then we're going to invest and work with you, that small group. But the expectation is that you become a teacher of teachers. So you're not going to get all this runway to be really innovative and then you're off and running and goodbye. There's going to be a phase two, and I often work in three year phases because that's about how much time it takes for you to really start seeing cultural transformation. It doesn't happen overnight, it takes a real investment of time and energy. And then at the end of that phase one, that third year, then those teachers that I work with, they go get five more teachers. And that becomes meta project two, where now each of those five teachers that did the innovative process for the first three years, they now have satellite groups. And it's something about when a parent invites a parent, or a kid invites a kid, or a teacher invites a teacher, that warrants a very different entry point. Right?

And I think that's back to our earlier commentary about: How do we build the will? I think part of the way you build the way is the way you do the ask. And if it comes from power, the relationship to power in schools has historically been a negative one, so even when good ideas get shoved down from power, the idea wasn't bad, the implementation approach was flawed. Part of what we need to rethink, or part of what I would encourage the audience to rethink is the way in which you approach innovation and just the invitation to doing it, and a commitment to learning, an arc of growth, and understanding that at the end of year one, at the end of year two, at the end of year three, at the end of year 30, it's still going to be messy. But what we have got to change in our consciousness is this desire to sanitize the classroom, and embracing that meaningful education is messy. The meaning is in the mess. And if you resent the mess, you will miss the meaning. 

Jill Anderson: Thank you so much, Jeff. Lots and lots of stuff to think about from this conversation today.

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade: Thank you for making some time to allow me to run my mouth. 

Jill Anderson: Jeff Duncan-Andrade is a professor of Latina and Latino studies and race and resistance studies at the San Francisco State University. He's the author of Equality or Equity: Toward a Model of Community-Responsive Education . I'm Jill Anderson. This is The Harvard EdCast, produced by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Thanks for listening. 

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April 23, 2018

There are well-documented achievement and opportunity gaps by income and race/ethnicity. K-12 accountability policies often have a stated goal of reducing or eliminating those gaps, though with questionable effectiveness . Those same accountability policies require reporting academic proficiency by gender, but there are no explicit goals of reducing gender gaps and no “hard accountability” sanctions tied to gender-subgroup performance. We could ask, “Should gender be included more strongly in accountability policies?”

In this post, I’ll explain why I don’t think accountability policy interventions would produce real gender equity in the current system—a system that largely relies on existing state standardized tests of math and English language arts to gauge equity. I’ll argue that although much of the recent research on gender equity from kindergarten through postgraduate education uses math or STEM parity as a measure of equity, the overall picture related to gender equity is of an education system that devalues young women’s contributions and underestimates young women’s intellectual abilities more broadly.

In a sense, math and STEM outcomes simply afford insights into a deeper, more systemic problem. In order to improve access and equity across gender lines from kindergarten through the workforce, we need considerably more social-questioning and self-assessment of biases about women’s abilities.

As soon as girls enter school, they are underestimated

For over a decade now, I have studied gender achievement with my colleague Sarah Lubienski, a professor of math education at Indiana University-Bloomington. In a series of studies using data from both the 1998-99 and 2010-11 kindergarten cohorts of the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we found that no average gender gap in math test scores existed when boys and girls entered kindergarten, but a gap of nearly 0.25 standard deviations developed in favor of the boys by around second or third grade.

For comparison purposes, the growth of the black-white math test score gap was virtually identical to the growth in the gender gap. Unlike levels and growth in race-based gaps, though, which have been largely attributed to a combination of differences in the schools attended by black and white students and to socio-economic differences, boys and girls for the most part attend the same schools and come from families of similar socio-economic status. This suggests that something may be occurring within schools that contributes to an advantage for boys in math.

Exploring deeper, we found that the beliefs that teachers have about student ability might contribute significantly to the gap. When faced with a boy and a girl of the same race and socio-economic status who performed equally well on math tests and whom the teacher rated equally well in behaving and engaging with school, the teacher rated the boy as more mathematically able —an alarming pattern that replicated in a separate data set collected over a decade later .

Another way of thinking of this is that in order for a girl to be rated as mathematically capable as her male classmate, she not only needed to perform as well as him on a psychometrically rigorous external test, but also be seen as working harder than him. Subsequent matching and instrumental variables analyses suggested that teachers’ underrating of girls from kindergarten through third grade accounts for about half of the gender achievement gap growth in math. In other words, if teachers didn’t think their female students were less capable, the gender gap in math might be substantially smaller.

An interaction that Sarah and I had with a teacher drove home the importance and real-world relevance of these results. About five years ago, while Sarah and I were faculty at the University of Illinois, we gathered a small group of elementary teachers together to help us think through these findings and how we could intervene on the notion that girls were innately less capable than boys. One of the teachers pulled a stack of papers out of her tote bag, and spreading them on the conference table, said, “Now, I don’t even understand why you’re looking at girls’ math achievement. These are my students’ standardized test scores, and there are absolutely no gender differences. See, the girls can do just as well as the boys if they work hard enough.” Then, without anyone reacting, it was as if a light bulb went on. She gasped and continued, “Oh my gosh, I just did exactly what you said teachers are doing,” which is attributing girls’ success in math to hard work while attributing boys’ success to innate ability. She concluded, “I see now why you’re studying this.”

Although this teacher did ultimately recognize her gender-based attribution, there are (at least) three important points worth noting. First, her default assumption was that girls needed to work harder in order to achieve comparably to boys in math, and this reflects an all-too-common pattern among elementary school teachers, across at least the past couple decades and in other cultural contexts . Second, it is not obvious how to get teachers to change that default assumption. Third, the evidence that she brought to the table was state standardized test scores, and these types of tests can reveal different (often null or smaller) gender achievement gaps than other measures.

On this last point, state standardized tests consistently show small or no differences between boys and girls in math achievement, which contrasts with somewhat larger gaps on NAEP and PISA , as well as with gaps at the top of the distribution on the ECLS , SAT Mathematics assessment, and the American Mathematics Competition . The reasons for these discrepancies are not entirely clear, but what is clear is that there is no reason to expect that “hardening” the role of gender in accountability policies that use existing state tests and current benchmarks will change the current state of gender gaps. Policymakers might consider implementing test measures similar to those where gaps have been noted and placing more emphasis on gains throughout the achievement distribution. However, I doubt that a more nuanced policy for assessing math gains would address the underlying problem of the year-after-year underestimation of girls’ abilities and various signals and beliefs that buttress boys’ confidence and devalue girls, all of which cumulatively contributes to any measured gaps.

More obstacles await women in higher education and beyond

Looking beyond K-12 education, there is mounting evidence at the college and postgraduate levels that cultural differences between academic disciplines may be driving women away from STEM fields, as well as away from some non-STEM fields (e.g., criminal justice, philosophy, and economics). In fact, although research and policy discussions often dichotomize academic fields and occupations as “STEM” and “non-STEM,” the emerging research on gender discrimination in higher education finds that the factors that drive women away from some fields cut across the STEM/non-STEM divide. Thus, while gender representation disparities between STEM and non-STEM fields may help draw attention to gender representation more broadly, reifying the STEM/non-STEM distinction and focusing on math may be counterproductive to understanding the underlying reasons for gender representation gaps across academic disciplines.

In a recent study , my colleagues and I examined how perceptions on college majors relate to who is entering those majors. We found that the dominant factor predicting the gender of college-major entrants is the degree of perceived discrimination against women. To reach this conclusion, we used two sources of data. First, we created and administered surveys to gather perceptions on how much math is required for a major, how much science is required, how creative a field is, how lucrative careers are in a field, how helpful the field is to society, and how difficult it is for a woman to succeed in the field. After creating factor scales on each of the six dimensions for each major, we mapped those ratings onto the second data source, the Education Longitudinal Study, which contains several prior achievement, demographic, and attitudinal measures on which we matched young men and women attending four-year colleges.

Among this nationally representative sample, we found that the degree to which a field was perceived to be math- or science-intensive had very little relation to student gender. However, fields that were perceived to discriminate against women were strongly predictive of the gender of the students in the field, whether or not we accounted for the other five traits of the college majors. In short, women are less likely to enter fields where they expect to encounter discrimination.

And what happens if a woman perseveres in obtaining a college degree in a field where she encounters discrimination and underestimation and wants to pursue a postgraduate degree in that field, and maybe eventually work in academia? The literature suggests additional obstacles await her. These obstacles may take the form of those in the field thinking she’s not brilliant like her male peers in graduate school, having her looks discussed on online job boards when she’s job-hunting, performing more service work if she becomes university faculty, and getting less credit for co-authored publications in some disciplines when she goes up for tenure.

Each of the examples here and throughout this post reflects a similar problem—education systems (and society) unjustifiably and systematically view women as less intellectually capable.

Societal changes are necessary

My argument that policy probably isn’t the solution is not intended to undercut the importance of affirmative action and grievance policies that have helped many individuals take appropriate legal recourse. Rather, I am arguing that those policies are certainly not enough, and that the typical K-12 policy mechanisms will likely have no real effect in improving equity for girls.

The obstacles that women face are largely societal and cultural. They act against women from the time they enter kindergarten—instilling in very young girls a belief they are less innately talented than their male peers—and persist into their work lives. Educational institutions—with undoubtedly many well-intentioned educators—are themselves complicit in reinforcing the hurdles. In order to dismantle these barriers, we likely need educators at all levels of education to examine their own biases and stereotypes.

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Gender Equality Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on gender equality essay.

Equality or non-discrimination is that state where every individual gets equal opportunities and rights. Every individual of the society yearns for equal status, opportunity, and rights. However, it is a general observation that there exists lots of discrimination between humans. Discrimination exists because of cultural differences, geographical differences, and gender. Inequality based on gender is a concern that is prevalent in the entire world.  Even in the 21 st century, across globe men and women do not enjoy equal privileges. Gender equality means providing equal opportunities to both men and women in political, economic, education and health aspects.

Importance of Gender Equality

A nation can progress and attain higher development growth only when both men and women are entitled to equal opportunities. Women in the society are often cornered and are refrained from getting equal rights as men to health, education, decision-making and economic independence in terms of wages.

The social structure that prevails since long in such a way that girls do not get equal opportunities as men. Women generally are the caregivers in the family. Because of this, women are mostly involved in household activities. There is lesser participation of women in higher education, decision-making roles, and leadership roles. This gender disparity is a hindrance in the growth rate of a country. When women participate in the workforce increases the economic growth rate of the country increases. Gender equality increases the overall wellbeing of the nation along with economic prosperity .

How is Gender Equality Measured?

Gender equality is an important factor in determining a country’s overall growth. There are several indexes to measure gender equality.

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) –   GDI is a gender centric measure of Human Development Index. GDI considers parameters like life expectancy, education, and incomes in assessing the gender equality of a country.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) – This measure includes much detail aspects like the proportion of seats than women candidates hold in national parliament, percentage of women at economic decision-making role, the income share of female employees.

Gender Equity Index (GEI) – GEI ranks countries on three parameters of gender inequality, those are education, economic participation, and empowerment. However, GEI ignores the health parameter.

Global Gender Gap Index – The World Economic Forum introduced the Global Gender Gap Index in 2006. This index focuses more on identifying the level of female disadvantage. The four important areas that the index considers are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health, and survival rate.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Gender Inequality in India

As per the World Economic Forum’s gender gap ranking, India stands at rank 108 out of 149 countries. This rank is a major concern as it highlights the immense gap in opportunities in women with comparison to men. In Indian society from a long time back, the social structure has been such that the women are neglected in many areas like education, health, decision-making areas, financial independence, etc.

Another major reason, which contributes to the discriminatory behavior towards women in India, is the dowry system in marriage.  Because of this dowry system, most Indian families consider girls as a burden.  Preference for son still prevails. Girls have refrained from higher education. Women are not entitled to equal job opportunities and wages. In the 21 st century, women are still preferred gender in home managing activities. Many women quit their job and opt-out from leadership roles because of family commitments. However, such actions are very uncommon among men.

For overall wellbeing and growth of a nation, scoring high on gender equality is the most crucial aspect. Countries with less disparity in gender equality have progressed a lot. The government of India has also started taking steps to ensure gender equality. Several laws and policies are prepared to encourage girls. “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana ” (Save girl, and make girls educated) campaign is created to spread awareness of the importance of girl child.  Several laws to protect girls are also there. However, we need more awareness of spreading knowledge of women rights . In addition, the government should take initiatives to check the correct and proper implementation of policies.

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Welcome to the United Nations

Breaking gender barriers through education

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Roseline Adewuyi  is a fervent advocate for gender equality in Nigeria, driven by a passion for dismantling entrenched gender stereotypes. She spoke to Africa Renewal’s  Kingsley Ighobor on the need to empower girls through education. This is in line with the African Union’s theme for 2024: Educating and skilling Africa for the 21 st   Century.

Roseline Adewuyi believes that fighting gender inequality requires raising awareness and empowering young women and girls through education.

“My goal is to help break those barriers that limit our potential,” she told  African Renewal  in an interview. “I am talking about issues related to land rights, access to education, economic empowerment, leadership, and trust me, gender discrimination.”

Gender discrimination, she explains, is heightened during times of severe economic constraints such as now, when the tendency is often to invest in boys over girls. “That’s when parents often choose to send their sons to school or provide them start-up funding for business ventures, while daughters are expected to focus on house chores and wait for marriage. It’s absolutely absurd.” she insists. 

Roseline has her work cut out for her. “We are constantly finding ways to help women and girls break free from these constraints.” 

She founded the Ending Gender Stereotypes in Schools (ENGENDERS) project, which is dedicated to unlearning gender stereotypes in educational institutions.

“We reach the students, boys and girls in high schools and universities, and we do community engagement, speaking to parents and other influential community inhabitants,” she explains.

Already, she claims to have reached tens of communities and over 6,000 young girls through seminars and webinars, while her  blog , featuring over 300 articles on gender equity, has garnered a wide audience.

Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in French Literature with a focus on women, gender, and sexuality studies at Purdue University in Indiana, US, Roseline now aims to merge academic rigour with passionate advocacy.

“It’s an interesting intersection,” she says, adding that “The body of knowledge that we pass on to future generations is full of gender stereotypes. Our books need to be gender conscious.

“In most African literature, characters often depict women or girls as housemaids and men as pilots or engineers. It reinforces stereotypes; we need to root it out,” she stresses.

Roseline's journey into gender advocacy began in her childhood, fueled by a belief in the transformative power of education. She recognized the systemic challenges faced by African women and girls, including limited access to education and entrenched cultural biases.

“When I served as a prefect in secondary school, the belief among boys and even some girls was that I did not merit the position, that leadership was reserved for the boys. That experience sparked my curiosity as to why girls weren’t perceived as equally competent as boys.”

In 2019, she worked as a translator and interpreter for the African Union (AU), having been selected as one of 120 young people from various African countries to participate in the AU Youth Volunteer Corps. 

Her exposure to continental leaders' efforts to address gender-related challenges reinforced her conviction that gender equality is essential for achieving sustainable peace and security.

“At the AU, I also realized the connection between gender and peace and security. When there is a crisis, it is women who suffer the most. Therefore, women must be at the centre of efforts to achieve peace in our societies,” she adds.

Her international exposure includes being a participant in the Young African Leaders Initiative in 2016 (YALI – Regional Leadership Center West Africa), as well as being a Dalai Lama fellow in 2018. She says these experiences exposed her to gender best practices and strengthened her resolve to advocate for change in her home country.

Although some advances have been made in gender equality in Nigeria, Roseline highlights that the remaining hurdles include challenges in female land ownership, financial inclusion, and access to education.

“For example, we have laws [in Nigeria] that provide for women’s rights to land, but many communities still prevent them from owning a piece of land. We also have situations in which widows are not allowed to inherit the properties of their husbands. 

She says: “So, we have a lot more work to do. We need effective community engagement in raising awareness among women about their rights.

“Importantly, we need to provide women with access to education to equip them with the knowledge and skills to assert their rights effectively.”

In her ongoing advocacy work, she acknowledges facing cyberbullying, which she attributes to resistance from elements of a patriarchal society reluctant to embrace progress.

Roseline's final message to young African women and girls is for them to drive positive change, stand up for their rights, and challenge gender norms.

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5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality

Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point.

Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities!

“Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy

This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree.

They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed.

“Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank

When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone.

Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career.

“China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan

Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China.

The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores.

“Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality.

Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality.

“Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu

The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism.

Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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• Gender Equality Essay

Introduction to Gender Equality

In a society, everyone has the right to lead his/her life accordingly without any discrimination. When this state is achieved where all individuals are considered to be equal irrespective of their caste, gender, colour, profession, and status, we call it equality. Equality can also be defined as the situation where every individual has the same rights and equal opportunity to grow and prosper. 

Every individual of society dreams for equal rights and access to resources available at their disposal, but there is a lot of discrimination. This discrimination can be due to cultural differences, geographical differences, the colour of the individual, social status and even gender. The most prevalent discrimination is gender inequality. It is not a localised issue and is limited to only certain spheres of life but is prevalent across the globe. Even in progressive societies and top organisations, we can see many examples of gender bias. 

Gender equality can only be achieved when both male and female individuals are treated similarly. But discrimination is a social menace that creates division. We stop being together and stand together to tackle our problems. This social stigma has been creeping into the underbelly of all of society for many centuries. This has also been witnessed in gender-based cases. Gender inequality is the thing of the past as both men and women are creating history in all segments together.

Gender Equality builds a Nation

In this century, women and men enjoy the same privileges. The perception is changing slowly but steadily. People are now becoming more aware of their rights and what they can do in a free society. It has been found that when women and men hold the same position and participate equally, society progresses exclusively and creates a landmark. When a community reaches gender equality, everyone enjoys the same privileges and gets similar scopes in education, health, occupation, and political aspect. Even in the family, when both male and female members are treated in the same way, it is the best place to grow, learn, and add great value.

A nation needs to value every gender equally to progress at the right place. A society attains better development in all aspects when both genders are entitled to similar opportunities. Equal rights in decision making, health, politics, infrastructure, profession, etc will surely advance our society to a new level. The social stigma of women staying inside the house has changed. Nowadays, girls are equally competing with boys in school. They are also creating landmark development in their respective profession. Women are now seeking economic independence before they get married. It gives them the confidence to stand against oppression and make better decisions for themselves.

The age-old social structure dictated that women need to stay inside the home taking care of all when men go out to earn bread and butter. This has been practised for ages when the world outside was not safe. Now that the time has changed and we have successfully made our environment quite safer, women can step forward, get educated, pursue their passion, bring economic balance in their families, and share the weight of a family with men. This, in a cumulative way, will also make a country’s economy progress faster and better.

Methods to measure Gender Equality

Gender equality can be measured and a country’s growth can be traced by using the following methods.

Gender Development Index (GDI) is a gender-based calculation done similar to the Human Development Index. 

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is a detailed calculation method of the percentage of female members in decision-making roles. 

Gender Equity Index (GEI) considers economic participation, education, and empowerment.

Global Gender Gap Index assesses the level of gender inequality present on the basis of four criteria: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival .

According to the Gender Gap Index (GGI), India ranks 140 among 156 participating countries. This denotes that the performance of India has fallen from the previous years, denoting negative growth in terms of closing the gender gap. In the current environment where equality and equal opportunities are considered supreme, this makes India be at a significant disadvantage.

Roadblocks to Gender Equality  

Indian society is still wrecked by such stigmas that dictate that women are meant to manage the home and stay indoors. This is being done for ages, leading to neglect of women in areas like education, health, wealth, and socio-economic fields. 

In addition to that, the dowry system is further crippling society. This ill practice had led to numerous female feticides. It has created a notion that girls are a burden on a family, which is one of the primary reasons a girl child cannot continue her education. Even if they excel in education and become independent, most of them are forced to quit their job as their income is considered a backup source, which is not fair. New-age women are not only independent, but they are confident too. The only thing they demand from society is support, which we should provide them.  

Along with dowry, there is one more burning issue that has a profound impact on women's growth. It is prevalent in all kinds of society and is known as violence. Violence against women is present in one or another form in public and private spaces. Sometimes, violence is accompanied by other burning issues such as exploitation, harassment, and trafficking, making the world unsafe for women. We must take steps to stop this and ensure a safe and healthy place for women.  

Poverty is also one of the major roadblocks towards gender equality. It has led to other malpractices such as child marriage, sale of children, trafficking and child labour, to name a few. Providing equal job opportunities and upliftment of people below the poverty line can help bring some checks onto this.

Initiative Towards Gender Equality

Any kind of discrimination acts as a roadblock in any nation’s growth, and a nation can only prosper when all its citizens have equal rights. Most of the developed countries has comparatively less gender discrimination and provide equal opportunity to both genders. Even the Indian government is taking multiple initiatives to cut down gender discrimination. 

They have initiated a social campaign called “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana” to encourage the education of girl children. Besides this, the government runs multiple other schemes, such as the Women Helpline Scheme, UJJAWALA, National Mission for Empowerment of Women, etc., to generate awareness among the people. Moreover, as responsible citizens, it is our responsibility to spread knowledge on gender discrimination to create a beautiful world for wome n [1] [2] .

FAQs on Gender Equality Essay

1. What Makes Women Unequal to Men?

The social stigmas and beliefs that have been running deeply in the veins of all families make women unequal to men. Women are considered to be a burden by many families and are not provided with the same rights men enjoy in society. We are ill-informed regarding women’s rights and tend to continue age-old practices. This is made worse with social menaces such as the dowry system, child labor, child marriage, etc. Women can gather knowledge, get educated, and compete with men. This is sometimes quite threatening to the false patriarchal society.

2. How can We Promote Gender Equality?

Education is the prime measure to be taken to make society free from such menaces. When we teach our new generation regarding the best social practices and gender equal rights, we can eradicate such menaces aptly. Our society is ill-informed regarding gender equality and rights. Many policies have been designed and implemented by the government. As our country holds the second position in terms of population, it is hard to tackle these gender-based problems. It can only be erased from the deepest point by using education as the prime weapon.

3. Why should Women be Equal to Men?

Women might not be similar to men in terms of physical strength and physiological traits. Both are differently built biologically but they have the same brain and organs to function. Women these days are creating milestones that are changing society. They have traveled to space, running companies, creating history, and making everyone proud. Women are showing their capabilities in every phase and hence, they should be equal to men in all aspects.

4. Mention a few initiatives started by the Indian Government to enable gender equality.

The Indian government has initiated a social campaign called “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana” to encourage girls’ education. Besides this, the government runs multiple other schemes, such as the  Women Helpline Scheme, UJJAWALA, National Mission for Empowerment of Women, etc., to generate awareness among the people.

Essay on Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment

Students are often asked to write an essay on Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment

Understanding gender equality.

Gender equality means that men and women have the same rights and opportunities. It’s like having two different types of fruits, say an apple and an orange, and giving them the same amount of care, sunlight, and water to grow. No one is better than the other; they are just different but equally important.

What is Women’s Empowerment?

Women’s empowerment is about making sure women can make their own choices in life. It’s like teaching someone to ride a bike. Once they learn, they can go anywhere they want, do things on their own, and feel strong.

Education and Jobs

For true gender equality, both boys and girls should go to school and learn. When they grow up, women should have the same chances to get good jobs as men. Think of it as a game where everyone gets a fair turn to play and show their skills.

Leadership Roles

Women should also be leaders, like being the captain of a team or the president of a club. This shows everyone that girls can lead and make important decisions just as well as boys can.

Equality at Home

At home, chores and responsibilities should be shared. It shouldn’t be just the girl or woman doing the cleaning and cooking. It’s like a team sport where everyone plays their part to win the game together.

250 Words Essay on Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment

Gender equality means that men and women have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. It’s like a game where everyone gets a fair chance to play, no matter if they are a boy or a girl. Everyone should be able to go to school, work, and take part in making decisions.

Women’s Empowerment

Women’s empowerment is about giving girls and women the power to make their own choices. It’s like letting them be the captain of their own ship. They can decide what they want to study, where they want to work, and stand up for what they believe is right.

Why It’s Important

When women and men are equal, it’s good for everyone. Women can bring new ideas and skills to the table, which can help solve problems better and make the world a nicer place to live. It’s also fair that everyone gets to chase their dreams and be happy.

Challenges to Overcome

Sadly, not all places have gender equality. Some girls are kept from going to school, and some women are not allowed to work or have to work harder for less money. It’s important to change this so that everyone has the same chances in life.

How to Support Equality

To help, we can make sure that both boys and girls know that they are equal. We can also stand up for our friends if they are being treated unfairly. By working together, we can build a world where everyone is respected and can live the life they choose.

500 Words Essay on Gender Equality And Women’s Empowerment

Gender equality means that men and women have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. It’s like making sure that both your left and right hands get the same chance to do things, no matter if one is stronger or more used to working. Everyone is equal, and no one should be treated unfairly just because they are a boy or a girl.

Women’s empowerment is about giving girls and women the power to make choices for themselves. It’s like letting them decide what clothes to wear or what games to play, instead of someone else telling them what to do. Empowerment helps women to speak up, get a good education, and find jobs that they want to do.

Why Gender Equality is Important

When girls and boys, or women and men, are treated equally, it’s good for everyone. It’s like a team game where every player gets a fair chance to play, making the team stronger. Countries with gender equality are usually happier and wealthier because everyone can work, create new things, and help make decisions.

Challenges in Achieving Gender Equality

Even though many people agree that gender equality is important, it’s not easy to achieve. Some people still think that men should do certain jobs and women others, or that boys should study some subjects and girls others. This is unfair and stops people from reaching their full potential.

Education and Gender Equality

Education is a powerful tool for gender equality. When girls go to school and learn just like boys, they can get better jobs and make better choices for their lives. It’s like giving them a key to a big door that leads to a world of opportunities.

Women in Leadership

Having more women in leadership roles is also important for gender equality. Leaders make big decisions that affect everyone. When women are leaders, they can make sure that the needs and ideas of both women and men are included. It’s like making sure that both sides of a story are heard before deciding what to do.

How to Support Gender Equality

Everyone can help support gender equality. It starts with treating everyone fairly, no matter if they are a boy or a girl. You can also learn about the achievements of women and tell others about them. It’s like cheering for your friends when they do something great.

In the end, gender equality and women’s empowerment are about making sure that everyone, no matter if they are a boy or a girl, has the same chances in life. It’s like a game where the rules are fair for all players, and everyone can win. When we work together to treat everyone equally, we make the world a better place for everyone.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Gender Equality And Sustainable Development
• Essay on Exciting Cricket Match
• Essay on Gender Discrimination In Workplace

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Quality worth making room for

Does gender-segregated schooling make a difference?

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Expert opinion from University of Auckland - Waipapa Taumata Rau

Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option for girls – she was my role model.

It may well be that because of her, I went to uni and majored in maths – a path that led to a scholarship to complete a PhD in pure mathematics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. I loved my co-ed school – which is just as well as there was no alternative. Everyone went to co-ed schools in my hometown. Would it have made any difference if I’d gone to a single-gender school?

It came as a big surprise to me when I moved to New Zealand to realise that over 14 percent of secondary students attend single-gender schools. Moreover, unlike the USA and Australia, where single-gender schooling is predominantly offered by private and/or Catholic schools, most New Zealand gender-segregated schools are state schools. In many parts of New Zealand, students don’t have a choice – they are zoned only for single-gender schools. For a maths education researcher like me, New Zealand presented an exceptional opportunity to investigate the impact of gender segregation on maths education.

Maths teaching fails pupils by ignoring cognitive science findings

Maths education more than just test scores.

A few years ago, I was contacted by Distinguished Professor Geoff Chase from the University of Canterbury. He and his colleagues noted a strange statistic: of all girls enrolled in engineering degrees at the University of Canterbury between 2005 and 2017, 56 percent had attended girls-only schools. This is almost five times higher than expected .

Another report by the Ministry of Women found that girls from girls-only schools in Auckland ranked more male-dominated professions in their top 10 occupational choices than girls from co-educational schools in the same city. But the research into the impact of single-gender versus co-ed schools and whether it affects students’ interest and achievement in Stem subjects (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics) is complicated, and often contradictory. A comprehensive study of schools in Seoul in South Korea, where assignment to single-gender or co-ed high schools is random, found significantly positive effects of all-boys schools consistently across different Stem outcomes, but not for girls.

My summer research scholar, Alice Smith, and I decided to investigate the role of school type on the maths and science achievement of Year 9 girls and boys in New Zealand.

We examined data from more than 5,900 Year 9 students, sourced from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 dataset. The findings of our study reveal a compelling narrative: students at girls-only and boys-only secondary schools did better at maths and science than their peers at co-ed schools.

However, the extent of this advantage and its significance depended on gender and the socio-economic background of the students. Boys at single-gender schools perform significantly better than in co-ed schools with small effect sizes across all socioeconomic bands, which is in line with international evidence. However, the results for girls were surprising.

The outperformance was most pronounced by students in low socio-economic environments. Girls at low-decile girls-only schools performed significantly better than their counterparts in co-ed schools, and the effect size was large. They also surpassed boys in both boys-only and co-ed schools with medium effect size.

In the high-decile band, however, the advantage of girls-only schools was insignificant.

What could explain these findings? We don’t know. We can speculate that single-gender schools may excel in counteracting prevailing gender stereotypes that have long plagued maths and science. We can speculate that by purposefully positioning themselves as bastions of gender equality, these schools create environments where aspirations aren’t circumscribed by gender norms. St Cuthbert’s College for Girls in Auckland is an example of a school that actively promotes the involvement of women in Stem fields through deliberate messaging and engagements with prominent female Stem leaders who serve as role models.

However, we must approach these findings with a critical lens. We need to be mindful of the potential confounding factors such as selection bias. It is plausible that academically inclined students gravitate towards single-gender schools, skewing the results. On the other hand, students in many New Zealand regions have no choice because of zoning since public single-gender schools are the only option.

Other study limitations are the lack of longitudinal data – we do not know what happens during all five years of secondary schooling and our study involved a small sample size of low-decile schools; only two low-decile girls-only schools were in the sample (versus 26 co-ed schools), raising the possibility that idiosyncratic factors had an effect and the results can’t be generalised.

But we clearly need to understand what those two low-decile girls-only schools did so well. Could the absence of boys in maths and science classes diminish the manifestation of societal stratification and remove the stereotyping effect – a well-documented phenomenon known as stereotype threat? What is more than apparent is that while we still have single-gender schools, the impact of that on students’ education and their career choices needs to be better understood.

Dr Tanya Evans

Dr Tanya Evans is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland, with a research focus on mathematics education More by Dr Tanya Evans

Join the Conversation

In my humble experience, if I got a dollar for every time I heard a mother say, usually within earshot of her daughter, “I was never good with figures or maths”, I’d be sunning myself on the French Riviera by now. I suspect that the larger significant results for low decile single-sex girls’ schools witnessed might be because the effect of that type of stereotyping feedback is reduced? Interested to hear further.

Thank you for this comment – definitely worth exploring.

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• Black Americans Firmly Support Gender Equality but Are Split on Transgender and Nonbinary Issues   

1. Black Americans’ views of gender equality in society and gender roles in families

Table of contents.

• Black adults differ by gender and education in their views on the progress of gender equality
• Gender, faith and family
• Black adults say feminism has had a significant impact on women’s rights
• How Black Americans describe feminism
• 3. Black Americans’ views on transgender and nonbinary issues
• Acknowledgments
• The four studies

Black Americans are largely in support of gender equality between women and men and are critical of society’s lack of progress in the United States.

For many Black adults, their support of gender equality aligns with their spiritual or moral beliefs. Large majorities say opposing gender discrimination is essential to what those beliefs mean to them.

However, those who attend religious services at least a few times a year say their congregations often do not share their egalitarian views. Whereas Black adults think men and women should share financial responsibilities for their families equally, their congregations emphasize this role for men more than they do for women.

Findings in this chapter are drawn from two Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults conducted in 2019 and 2020.

The majority of Black adults say it is very important for women to have equal rights with men in the U.S. (79%), according to a Center survey conducted March 18 to April 1, 2020. 2 Only 18% say it is somewhat important, while 3% say it is not too or not at all important.  

Three-quarters or more of Black men (76%) and Black women (82%) say it very important for women to have equal rights with men, as do 81% of Black adults 18 to 49 and 77% of those 50 and older.

Black Americans’ views on gender equality vary by educational attainment. About nine-in-ten Black adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education (89%) say that women having equal rights with men is very important. Though still a majority, Black adults with some college experience (78%) and those with a high school diploma or less (75%) are less likely to say this.

While most Black adults favor gender equality, they are also critical of the lack of progress toward it in the United States. About seven-in-ten Black adults (69%) say the U.S. has not gone far enough when it comes to giving women equal rights with men. Much smaller shares say the speed of this progress has been about right (23%) or has gone too far (7%). Black adults’ views on this question differ by gender, age and education.  

About three-quarters of Black women (76%) and Black adults 50 and older (76%) say the U.S. has not gone far enough when it comes to gender equality, compared with 61% of Black men and 64% of Black adults under 50.

About eight-in-ten Black adults with a bachelor’s degree (79%) say the country has not gone far enough in giving women equal rights with men, as compared with 68% of Black adults with some college experience and 65% with a high school diploma or less.

Overall, Black adults (69%) are more likely than all U.S. adults (57%) to say the U.S. has not gone far enough when it comes to gender equality.

Among Black adults who say the U.S. has not gone far enough in giving women equal rights with men, three-quarters say it is at least somewhat likely that women in the U.S. will eventually have those rights (75%). However, only 24% say it is very likely, similar to the share that says it is not too or not at all likely (25%).

Black women who say the country has not gone far enough in giving women equal rights are more pessimistic about the prospect of achieving gender equality in the U.S. than Black men. About three-in-ten Black women say it is not too or not at all likely that women will eventually have equal rights with men (31%). Only 17% of Black men say the same. 

Black women and men not only differ in their views on the progress of gender equality in the country, they also differ on the costs. About a quarter of Black men say the gains women have made in society have come at the expense of men (26%). Smaller shares of Black women (17%) say the same. Still, most Black men (71%) say these gains have not come at the expense of men.  

Although majorities of Black adults across age and education groups say the gains that women have made have not come at the expense of men, Black adults 50 and older and those with college experience (both with and without bachelor’s degrees) are the most likely to say this.

When it comes to sharing their views about gender and gender equality, Black adults are more likely to do so in conversations with family or friends (51%) than to post or share content on social networking sites (23%), contribute money to an organization working on gender issues (13%), contact a public official to express their opinion (9%) or attend a protest or rally (8%), according to the 2020 survey.    

Some 56% of Black women say they have conversations about gender or gender equality with family and friends, and 46% of Black men say they do the same. Black women (29%) are more likely than Black men (15%) to post about gender issues on social media.

Black adults who have a bachelor’s degree (67%) are more likely than those with a high school diploma or less (42%) to have conversations about gender and gender equality with relatives and friends.

And Black adults ages 18 to 49 (51%) are about as likely as those 50 and older (52%) to have conversations about gender and gender equality with their family or friends.

Many Black Americans see their views on gender equality as a core part of their religion or sense of morality, according to a Center survey of U.S. adults, with a large sample of Black adults, conducted Nov. 19, 2019, through June 3, 2020. 3

Two-thirds of Black adults are Protestant Christians (66%), while others are Catholic (6%), members of other Christian faiths such as Jehovah’s Witnesses (3%), members of non-Christian faiths such as Islam (3%), or unaffiliated with a religion (21%).

About seven-in-ten Black adults, regardless of their religious affiliation, say opposing sexism or discrimination against women is essential to their faith or sense of morality (71%). Much smaller shares of Black adults say opposing sexism is important but not essential to their faith or sense of morality (19%) or not important at all (7%).

Roughly seven-in-ten Black adults across genders and age groups say opposing sexism is essential to their faith or sense of morality. However, Black adults with a high school diploma or less (64%) are less likely than those with a bachelor’s degree (76%) or those who have some college experience (73%) to say this.

Although the majority of Black adults say opposing sexism is essential to their faith or sense of morality, only about three-in-ten Black adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year (28%) say they heard a sermon on sexism in the year prior to the survey. 4

Black Americans’ broad acceptance of gender equality carries over to their views of gender roles in their families. The majority say mothers and fathers should be equally responsible for family finances in households where both are present (73%), while a quarter say that fathers should take the lead. 

Black women (76%) are somewhat more likely than Black men (69%) to say mothers and fathers should share financial responsibilities equally. Though still a majority, Black adults ages 18 to 49 (75%) are slightly more likely to say this than those 50 and older (70%). And about three-quarters of Black adults across all education levels say that mothers and fathers should share family financial responsibilities equally.

An even larger majority of Black Americans believe that mothers and fathers should split child care responsibilities in households where both parents are present (86%). Most demographic subgroups of Black adults share this view, with few differences among them.

Although Black adults take these egalitarian stances on gender roles in their personal lives, many of them belong to congregations with different views. Roughly 60% of Black adults attend religious services at least annually. This includes 33% who attend weekly or more. And among those who attend annually, 60% go to houses of worship where the majority of the congregation and the clergy is Black – meaning that Black adults are hearing these gendered messages about Black families from Black religious leaders in predominantly Black religious spaces.

About seven-in-ten Black adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year say their congregations place a lot of emphasis on the need for both men (71%) and women (69%) to be involved parents.

But when it comes to being involved in congregations and being role models in Black communities, somewhat fewer hear these messages emphasized for women than men. For instance, 61% of Black congregants say their houses of worship strongly emphasize the need for men to be good role models, and 52% hear this emphasized for women.  

There is an especially large gap on the issue of financial support within families: Only about a third of Black adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year (35%) say that their congregations stress that women should support their families financially, compared with 64% who say their congregations emphasize this for men.

• In this survey, Black adults only include U.S. adults who are single-race Black and have no Hispanic background, unless otherwise noted. ↩
• In this survey, Black adults include those who say their race is Black alone and non-Hispanic, Black and at least one other race and non-Hispanic, or Black and Hispanic. ↩
• This survey was conducted from Nov. 19, 2019, to June 3, 2020, with most respondents participating in January 2020. ↩

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The Importance of Brown V. the Board of Education

This essay about Brown v. Board of Education highlights its crucial role in American history as a landmark Supreme Court case that challenged and ultimately overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine. It discusses the historical context, the legal battles led by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, and the profound societal changes spurred by the ruling. The essay emphasizes the case’s lasting impact on civil rights and education, reflecting on the ongoing struggle for equality and the persistent issues of segregation.

How it works

In the vast narrative of American history, the case of Brown v. Board of Education emerges as a pivotal moment, echoing with themes of justice and the quest for equality. This landmark Supreme Court decision is immortalized as a critical milestone in the ongoing fight for civil rights, illustrating the profound impact that legal action can have on societal transformation. Amidst a setting marked by deep-seated racial segregation and systemic discrimination, Brown v. Board of Education represented a definitive call for change, undermining the very pillars of inequality and initiating a wave of societal reform that would resonate for generations.

To fully appreciate the significance of Brown v. Board of Education, it is essential to understand the historical context from which it arose. In the United States of the mid-20th century, the toxic doctrine of “separate but equal” under the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, legitimized widespread segregation, relegating African Americans to inferior, segregated public facilities, and denying them equal access to the opportunities available to white Americans.

However, the winds of change began to stir in the aftermath of World War II. The bravery and sacrifice of African American soldiers highlighted the stark contradictions of a country that fought for freedom abroad while upholding segregation at home. This set the stage for a pivotal legal confrontation that would challenge and ultimately overturn entrenched norms of inequality.

Central to the case of Brown v. Board of Education was Oliver Brown, a modest father from Topeka, Kansas, who became the face of a collective struggle for justice for his daughter, Linda, and other African American children. Bolstered by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the indefatigable Thurgood Marshall, Brown’s legal challenge was a crucial battle for equality.

The legal arguments presented by Brown’s team were simple yet profound: segregated educational systems inherently fostered inequality and thus, violated the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law. Thurgood Marshall and his team skillfully deconstructed the justifications for segregation, exposing the deep moral flaws of a system entrenched in racial division.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine had no place in public education, declaring that segregated schools were “inherently unequal.” This decision not only dismantled Plessy v. Ferguson but also signaled a radical shift in the interpretation of the Constitution regarding equality.

The impact of Brown v. Board of Education extended well beyond the classrooms. It galvanized the civil rights movement, inspiring activists and prompting a broader challenge against racial discrimination. The decision forced school districts nationwide to grapple with integration, catalyzing significant, though often contested, educational reforms.

Moreover, the decision spurred a wider reflection on racial injustices in America, igniting debates over the true meaning of justice and equality. While Brown v. Board of Education is hailed as a monumental legal victory, its legacy is a nuanced narrative of progress mixed with ongoing challenges. Persistent segregation in many American schools today reflects the incomplete journey toward the integrated vision championed by the ruling.

In sum, Brown v. Board of Education is not merely a legal landmark; it is a symbol of hope and a beacon for the civil rights movement, embodying the potential of law to drive societal change. It celebrates the courage of ordinary people to achieve extraordinary shifts and serves as a constant reminder that the pursuit of justice is an essential, enduring aspect of the American ethos. Brown v. Board of Education stands as an enduring symbol that justice, though sometimes delayed, is a powerful force shaping the moral trajectory of society.

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FL and the feds teed up for fight over new Title IX rule and school districts caught in the middle

G overnor Ron DeSantis is going to war with the US Department of Education over a new rule that expands Title IX to protect gender identity.

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The new rule  from the US Department of Education prohibits schools from adopting policies that prevent people from participating in programs or activities consistent with their gender identity.

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It’s set to take effect in August and already, Governor Ron DeSantis is promising to fight back.

“We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men in women’s activities. We are not going to let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents,” said DeSantis in a video posted to social media  Thursday.

Some Florida laws will likely conflict with the new federal rule.

Specifically, the state’s prohibition on transgender women playing in women’s sports and a law passed last year that requires bathrooms and locker rooms be segregated by biological sex.

Jon Harris Maurer with Equality Florida argued the Florida laws in question discriminate against trans youth.

“This position from the Governor is outrageous,” said Jon Harris Maurer with Equality Florida.

A memo from Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz sent this week directed school leaders to refrain from implementing any changes to comply with the new federal rule.

“Instead of implementing Congress’s clear directive to prevent discrimination based on biological sex, the Biden Administration maims the statute beyond recognition in an attempt to gaslight the country into believing that biological sex no longer has any meaning,” Diaz wrote in the letter.

But Maurer noted by failing to comply with the new rule, Florida schools will be put at risk of losing their federal funding.

“We’re talking about an environment where Duval County Public Schools has already identified 30 schools that may be at risk for closure because of funding scarcity and low enrollment. So, taking a position that is clearly at odds with federal protections that should control here is incredibly outrageous and really, again, putting our students’ education at risk,” said Maurer.

We asked Northeast Florida’s three largest school districts whether they plan to follow federal or state guidance when the rule takes effect in August.

St. Johns County Public Schools said it had not yet discussed how to move forward on the issue.

We’re still awaiting responses from Clay and Duval.

The new rule will almost certainly be challenged by the State of Florida.

Similarly, it will also likely create new opportunities for LGBTQ groups challenge Florida’s laws on transgender sports participation and restroom access on Title IX grounds.

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