Gender Equality In Education

GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION 1

Gender Equality in Education

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Institution

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Gender Equality in Education

Introduction

Equity and diversity in education have been one of the biggest problems that the world

has faced over many years. Most human rights activist have in many occasions highlighted

various problems in the education system that promotes favoritism as well as unfair treatment of

students based on their gender, culture or social class. The subject of equality and diversity in

education has over the years grew as an area of interest for many researchers who seek to

highlight the gaps that still exist in the current education system as far as equality and diversity

are concerned (Aikman and Unterhalter, 2007, p.25). Equality is used in this case to refer to the

process of ensuring that every individual or a group of individuals are treated equally without

any favor by their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, and race.

According to Fennell and Arnot (2008, p.524), equality aims at removing any form of

discrimination in the process of providing education to students across the world. It also aims at

giving equal opportunities to children and students from different backgrounds in the education

system. On the contrary, diversity can be defined as the process of identifying, respecting and

valuing the differences between people to contribute and realize their individual strengths and

potentials by having an all-inclusive culture of students and staff. Schools are made of people

from different cultural, political and social backgrounds, and hence the diversity strategies aim to

create a harmonized society regardless of all the above differences. Equality and diversity in

education can be approached in various ways that may include looking at the various areas of

concern such as gender, ethnicity, social class, disability, and higher education inequality poverty

among other social characteristics that define the nature of people (Arnot and Ghaill, 2006,

p.112). The paper herein focuses on gender equality in education and some of the challenges that

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affect lead to gender discrimination in the education system. The paper reviews the literature

works done by various researchers about gender equality in education and highlights the

approaches used by each author in investigating the topic. The literature review also highlights

the major concerns in the school system that promotes gender issues.

Gender and Gender Equality

Understanding the role of gender in educational equality and diversity requires one to

first get the definition of gender as opposed to sex as well as the definition of gender. A clear

understanding of the three terms gives one the opportunity to relate and highlight the various

concerns in the education system that may be considered as gender discrimination. Sex refers to

the physiological or the biological characteristics of a person that determines whether he is a

male or a female (Unterhalter, 2012, p.12). Therefore, sex can be considered as the physical,

biological features that are possessed by an individual that makes him a man or a woman. On the

contrary, gender can be defined as the socially constructed behaviors, roles, activities, and

attributes that are considered appropriate for both genders in a societal setup. Unlike sex where

its associated physiological functions are defined by the genetic composition of an individual, the

gender functions are defined by the society.

Therefore, it is important to note that gender characteristics vary from culture to culture

and they are also subject to changes as the time changes. The society also sets various roles that

it believes are appropriate for men and those that are appropriate for women only. Gender roles

are the specific social, economic, and political responsibilities that are regarded as appropriate

for men and women in a given societal setup (Unterhalter, 2009, p.14). The gender roles are

defined by the relationship between men and women in a given society as the society defines this

kind of relationship through cultural practices, traditions among other ways.

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Conversely, gender equality defines to the provision of equal rights, opportunities, and

responsibilities for both genders in a given society. Gender equality emphasizes that the rights,

priorities and the interests of both men and women should be taken into consideration regardless

of one’s gender. Gender equality advocates for the understanding of the diversity that exists

between men and women and use the diversity to offer equal opportunity to both men and

women. According to the UN, gender equality is a principle of human rights and a condition to

developing a sustainable global development as highlighted by Unterhalter (2008, p.115).

Gender equality is a major principle of human rights, and it prohibits the discrimination of

anybody based on his gender. Several acts have been passed to enforce gender equality in

various areas of the society that include education, workplace, homes and other areas of the

society.

Gender Equality and Education

Education is acknowledged universally as a bridge to sustainable development. Education

for all creates opportunities for both men and women who can increase their earnings and hence

expand their future choices as boys and girls. However, some gender equality advocates argue

that educating girls produces many other socioeconomic gains that benefit the whole society. The

direct benefits of educating girls in the current society include increased earnings, increased

economic productivity, delayed marriages, reduced teenage parenting, improved health and

survival rates of infants and children. Over the past years, education has focused on closing the

gap between the girls and the boys going to school. However, the attention given to the girl child

has been argued to be too much as many concerns have been raised about the neglect of the boy

child as the world pushes for gender equality in the education system (Ainscow, 2005, p.124).

Giving too much attention to the gender equality and closing the gap between girls and boys in

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school has significantly affected the delivery and the retention of quality education. The primary

focus on girls accessing education may sometimes lead to the overlooking of boys and their

educational needs. Therefore, a well-structured system for equality in education should take into

consideration all the genders without assuming any of them. Approaching the gender equality

with the focus of pushing for girl’s access to education does not also address the key factors that

contribute to the gender inequalities in the education systems.

The educational programs should be developed to meet the learning requirements of all

the students and should also focus on sustainable development. Using an approach that comes

daily interaction between males and females or what is called the gender dynamics. The gender

equality framework addresses the issue using four dimensions of education equality which

include the equality to access, equality of educational outcomes, equality in the learning process

as well as the equality of the external outcomes.

The Relationship between Quality and Equality

Achieving equality in school enrollment remains a major concern in the fight against the

gender problem in the education system today. However, giving much focus to access for girls

may undervalue the importance of relevance and quality of the education offered. Such focus

gives a false conclusion that what is in the classroom needs to be analyzed to find out if it fits

both the needs of the boys and the girls. Many approaches have been used to encourage parents

to send their girls to schools a move that has only helped to solve the minor problems associated

with gender equality, but it does not address the cause of the problem (Armstrong, Armstrong &

Spandagou, 2011, p.30). Some of the traditional methods that have been used to increase the

number of girls in the learning institutions include offering incentives to parents who take their

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daughters to schools. The latter only treats the symptoms of gender inequality in schools, but

they do not address the roots of the problems.

Other ways that have been used to ensure more girls join higher learning institutions

include lowering the cut-off points for entering high schools and colleges for girls and raising the

cut-off points for boys. The latter only focuses on having more girls join the schools but do not

focus on the quality of the education that they are going to receive once they are in the schools.

Therefore, there should be a balance between equitable access, quality and relevance of the

education to ensure that there is an education for all. Addressing gender equality in education

requires a consideration into the quality and the equitable access to education to ensure that all

children get access to the right kind of learning materials as well as the right infrastructure

(Armstrong, Armstrong & Spandagou, 2011, p.31). Teachers should be in a position to identify

the children who are more vulnerable go the effects of discrimination and give them close

attention. For example, children from low-income families or the low-income families are more

likely to depend only on their teachers and the materials given to them to learn than those from

well-off families. Therefore as the world continues to advocate for gender equality in the

education system, a serious look should also be given to the quality of the education provided to

the children or the students.

Equality of Access

Equality of access to education means that girls and boys are given equal opportunities to

be admitted to the formal, non-formal and other alternative approaches to gaining an education.

Equality of access focuses on ensuring that both girls and boys have the chance to enroll, attend

and learn in the available learning institutions and education centers. The facilities at the schools

should also be in a position to support the access to learning for girls and boys. The access to

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education both girls and boys is a basic human rights and not a privilege according to UNICEF

(Ainscow, Booth, and Dyson. 2004, p.130). There are about sixty million children who are

within the school going age who have been denied the chance to attend school in the world

today. The region around the Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than half the number of

children who are out of school worldwide. Out of the children who are out of school, fifty-five

percent of them are girls. Out of the sixty million students or children who are out of school,

twenty percent of them were in school but dropped out due to various reasons. Thirty-eight

percent of the non-school going children are expected to join the school in their near future while

the remaining forty-one percent are unlikely to join school any time in their lives (Ainscow,

Booth, and Dyson. 2004, p.130). The data shows that the equality of access to education is still a

major challenge to the global goal of closing the gap between the boys and the girls in the

education system.

However, several interventions have been put across to ensure that students access

education irrespective of their gender, ethnicity, tribe or social class. The main steps that have

been taken to ensure that children access school include situating schools near homes and in the

villages where the population of children is relatively high. Schools have also been encouraged

to form girls’ advisory committees that are responsible for monitoring the conduct of girls

(Ainscow, 2005, p.124). The committees are formed by teachers who are responsible for

monitoring how the girls conduct themselves in the schools and also offer counseling services to

the girls to help keep them in school. Other interventions also involve raising the awareness of

parents in their roles in education and the relevance and importance of educating both girls and

boys.

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Establishing other initiatives such as reintegrating ex-combatants and other individuals

especially youths affected by conflicts by offering non-formal education to them has also been

used to promote equitable access. The non-formal activities are designed to emphasize on

healing, self-discovery, democracy, good governance, as well as basic numeracy and literacy

skills. Various organizations also have scholarship programs that aim at supporting the children

from marginalized communities to access education in better schools and colleges across the

world. The scholarships mainly target bright students who lack the opportunity to get the right

education that can assist the children to improve their skills and knowledge (Ainscow, Booth,

and Dyson. 2004, p.132). The sponsored children are then allowed to come back to their

communities where they are expected to act as good examples in the society and support other

children from accessing education as well as enlightening the society on the importance of

schooling.

Equity and the Learning Process

Equity in the learning process focuses on the attention given to girls and boys in the

schools. Equity in the learning process ensures that boys and girls get equal treatment and

attention as wells as equal opportunities during the learning process. The girls and the boys must

be exposed to the same curricular, and the learning process must also take into account the

difference in the learning styles of boys and girls. Therefore, the delivery procedure might be

designed differently for boys and girls to accommodate the needs of the two groups (Ainscow,

2014, p.78). All children or learners should also be exposed to learning materials that are free of

any gender stereotypes or gender bias to ensure that both boys and girls have the opportunity in

getting best out of the process. In general equity in the learning process means that girls and boys

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should be given equality of opportunity to explore, learn and develop skills in both the academic

and the extracurricular activities.

Promoting equity in the learning process depends on what happens in the class and the

roles that teachers play in ensuring that children get the best. Teachers are tasked with the

responsibility of ensuring that there is equity for all children. Through going through advance

studies, teachers learn the ethics of professional practice and fairness as they offer their services

to the children in the classrooms. Teachers ensure that no student falls a victim of any bias such

as gender, ethnicity, and social status.

Several steps have been taken to support the achievement of equity in the learning

process, and all of them focus on the classroom, teachers, and the learning materials. One of the

major steps that have been adopted by many states includes training curriculum developers

administrators, teachers and textbook writers on the issue of gender equality before commencing

on curriculum development (Ainscow, 1999, p.09). Training teachers to practice inclusive

teaching is also another step that has helped in ensuring that teachers treat the children as equals

while in class giving them level opportunities. The initiatives such as girls in science,

technology, and mathematics are also important moves in ensuring that girls and boys have the

same chances in technical training. The ministry of education in most states has formed

committees and school inspectors who go to the schools to monitor the interaction between

teachers and students to ensure that the participation of boys and girls is equal. The syllabus has

also been coined to include the basic rights of children so that they can understand their rights in

the society. Empowering children with knowledge about their rights ensures that they become

aware of the importance of school.

Equality of Education Outcomes

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Equality of education outcomes means that the girls and the boys are given the

opportunity to see or have the actual outcomes of their learning. The outcomes of the learning

process should reflect on the individual’s efforts and not any favoritism based on their gender.

The concept argues that to ensure fair opportunities for achievement for boys and girls, the

length, assessment, and qualifications to various diplomas or colleges should not be different

according to their gender. The methods of evaluating the students should be fair and ensure that

there are no biases as far as gender is concerned. According to Unterhalter and Carpentier, (2010,

p.116), ensuring that the examinations are tested fairly and the results reflect the efforts of the

individuals can help boost the confidence of girls and boys as well as give the sense of knowing

that they can compete fairly. Fair results from the national examinations help in boosting the

confidence of the girls and help them realize their abilities in the learning process. According to

the report by the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, the scores in sciences and

mathematics showed that the difference in attitude between boys and girls were more

pronounced than the difference in performance (Unterhalter, Yates, Makinda, and North, 2012,

p.16). Girls showed to have a much lower interest in mathematics and sciences as compared to

boys. To deal with the attitudinal differences between males and girls, it is important to

encourage girls to join the specialized classes and also help them to compete fairly with the boys.

Gender equality is still a major challenge in the education sector globally, and it relies on many

factors. The extent of gender inequality across the globe depends on culture, traditions and

societal perception. The issue of gender equality in education can be studied in various

dimensions that include equality to access, equality of the learning process and equality of

learning outcomes. Various steps have been taken to ensure that the current education system

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meets all the above requirements and to ensure that girls and boys have equal opportunities in

accessing education.

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References

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Ainscow, M. (1999) Understanding the development of inclusive schools. London: Routledge.

Ainscow, M. (2005) Developing inclusive education systems: What are the levers for change?

Journal of Educational Change 6, no. 2: 109-124.

Ainscow, M. (2014) From special education to effective schools for all: A review of progress so

far. L. Florian, (ed) 2nd edition. The handbook of special education 146 -159. London:

Sage.

Ainscow, M., T. Booth, and A. Dyson. 2004. Understanding and developing inclusive practices

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Armstrong, D., Armstrong, A.C. & Spandagou, I. (2011) Inclusion: by choice or by chance?

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15:1, 29-39

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Oxfam: Oxford.

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Routledge.

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Unterhalter, E. (2008) 'Cosmopolitanism. Global social justice and gender equality in education',

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Cowen, R. and A. Kazamias (eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Education.

Dordrecht: Springer.

Unterhalter, E. (2012) Poverty, education, gender and the Millennium Development

Unterhalter, E., and Carpentier, V. (Eds) (2010) Global Inequalities and Higher Education:

Whose interests are we serving? Palgrave, London.

Unterhalter, E., Yates, C., Makinda, H. And North, A. (2012) 'Blaming the poor: Constructions

of marginality and poverty in the Kenyan education sector', Compare 42, 2, 213-233.

Walker, M. and Unterhalter, E. (2007) 'The Capability Approach: its potential for work in

education ' In M. Walker and E. Unterhalter (ed). , Amartya Sen's capability approach

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