Gender Inequality in Education and STEM

World goal: By 2030, all forms of discrimination against women will no longer exist.

Task: How can we improve gender equality in education and STEM?

4A and 4B participated in a class debate, based on the topic of gender inequality after completing a Kahoot quiz in small groups.
During the Kahoot, the following information was presented:

•           Barriers that affect education in third world countries include school fees, limited resources, issues of early marriage, lack of transport and inadequate sanitation facilities in schools. Schools might also lack sufficient numbers of female teachers, who can support girls' specific needs and can act as role models.
•       Most parents would want their children to be educated, but they are often forced to make the difficult choice between which of their children goes to school. This often means that girls miss out on school because boys are seen as more likely to get good jobs within their communities. Children who don’t go to school might also be needed by their family to work. However, if girls do attend school, there can be huge benefits for their families and their community as well as themselves.

Educated girls will:

 • earn up to 25% more, start businesses, and reinvest their income into their community and family.

 • have fewer, healthier children - who are 40% more likely to live past the age of five.

 • tend to be less vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

 • become role models for the next generation of children.

• Although there have been huge improvements in enrolment for girls and boys at a primary level of education, thanks to the Millenium Development Goals, girls still lag far behind in terms of secondary education. This is because most girls are excluded at the entry point of secondary education as tuition costs are high. Girls from rural areas tend to be especially disadvantaged in comparison to boys under the same conditions.
• It is important to understand that equality in education is the starting point for equal representations in society.

CAMFED is an international non-profit organisation, which tackles gender inequality and poverty by supporting girls in primary and secondary education. Working in the poorest communities, CAMFED not only provided school fees, supplies and uniforms to help girls throughout their school years; they also work against the barriers that prevent girls from gaining an education such as social issues or the quality of the curriculum. Furthermore, CAMFED supports female graduates after they finish school when employment and family pressures make them vulnerable and at high risk of ending their studies. They provide financial, health and ICT training through grants and interest-free loans, which allows women to use their experiences to teach courses to the next generation of students, demonstrating the organisation's efficiency and sustainability.

• Despite the fact that primary education is free in most countries, 59 million children are still out of school - moreover, girls are still less likely to complete primary school than boys. For example, 47% of girls finish primary school in Malawi compared to 57% of boys. 
• Girls are vulnerable to pressures such as early marriage and pregnancies however, it is well known that equal access to secondary education not only benefits individuals but also improves society too. This is because educated women are healthier, earn more and have opportunities that allow them to become role models for future generations. Gender equality within secondary education will lead to better representation of women at university and in work environments.

Gender Equality - is when everybody is treated in the same way and are valued equally by having the same opportunities and rights regardless of who they are.

Gender Parity - is when an equal number of men and women are represented in a particular situation. For instance, a school with 100 female students and 100 male students would have gender parity.

Topic vocabulary:

English	Translation	English	Translation
Gender Equality	Igualdad de género	towards	hacia
Unfair treatment	Trato injusto	Impressive	impresionante
Gender Inequality	Desigualdad de género	greater numbers	Mayor números
estimated	Un estimado	earn	ganar
worldwide	mundial	progress	progreso
poverty	pobreza	disadvantages	desventajas
barrier	barrera	gender parity	Igualdad de género
lack of sanitation	Una falta de sanidad	benefitted	beneficiado
limited resources	Recursos limitados	leaders	líderes
early marriage	Matrimonio temprano	empowering	empoderando
school fees	Pagos escolares	tackling	abordando
vulnerable	vulnerable	non profit organisation	Organización no gubernamental
invest	invertir	exploitation	Explotación
violence	violencia	improvements	mejoramientos
fewer	menos	although	aunque
employment	empleo	managers	Gerentes / directores
access	acceso	however	Sin embargo
inability	Incapacidad Falta de habilidad	stereotypes	estereotipos
degrees	títulos universitarios	graduates	Graduados/as
rarely	raramente	discouraging	desalentador
important role	Un papel clave	workplace inequality	desigualdad en el lugar de trabajo
sexism	sexismo	malnutrition	desnutrición
lack of interest	falta de interés	food security	seguridad alimentaria
low numbers	números bajos	poverty cycle	ciclo de pobreza
myth	mito	remove	Retirar/ eliminar
infant mortality	mortalidad infantil	unqualified teachers	maestros no calificados
pregnancies	embarazos	classrooms	Las aulas
vitamins	vitaminas	overcrowded	abarrotado
literacy	alfabetismo	lower quality	baja calidad
improve standards	mejorar los estándares	less available	menos disponible
additional income	ingresos adicionales	role models	modelos a seguir
healthy crops	cultivos saludables	transportation	transporte
farming techniques	técnicas de cultivo	subject	asignaturas
agriculture	agricultura	additional costs	costes adicionales
undermined	socavado	stage	etapa
harrassment	acoso	walk out/ strike	huelga
occupations	ocupaciones	social constructs	construcciones sociales
senior positions	posiciones importantes	lack of promotions	falta de promociones
childcare	guarderías	systematic  discrimination	discriminación sistemática
housewife	Ama de casa	unequal pay	salario desigual
interruptions	interrupciones	demonstrated	demostrado
professionalism	profesionalismo	hire	emplear
alienating	alienante	underrepresented	subrepresentado
Stigma	estigma	male dominated	dominado por los hombres
marginalized	marginado	reject	rechazar
existence	Existencia	furthermore	además

Kahoot activity: https://play.kahoot.it/#/lobby?quizId=e5628786-ee9f-458b-a63f-bcbe9296ed78

Kahoot questions:

1) Does gender inequality exist?

2)An estimated 62 million girls worldwide are out of school - true or false?

3)What is CAMFED?

4)Does gender parity exist?

5)Women face disadvantages in education and employment - true or false?

6)What is STEM?

7)Poverty has a huge impact on education - true or false?

8) Some people argue that gender inequality does not exist  - true or false?

9)Issues faced by women in STEM include...?

10) 14th February is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science - true or false?

Debate:

Video:    https://www.wevideo.com/view/1316363641

After the Kahoot activity, each class was divided into 2 groups and I presented the debate question "Does gender inequality exist today?". One group had the role of arguing that it no longer exists whilst the other group had to defend the idea that gender inequality continues to exist in 2019. Each group had 10 minutes to prepare their own ideas before the debate began.

The following points were suggested and discussed in both classes:

Gender inequality does not exist

Gender inequality does exist

"The world has changed" - Many governments now have female and male representatives, whereas, in the past, it was a male-dominated environment. Many companies are now owned or managed by women. For example, since 2014, the CEO of Youtube has been Susan Wojcicki.  A lot of progress has been made since the 1960s. For instance, men now help with childcare whilst more women are working in fields such as politics and STEM.  Countries that demonstrate gender equality are examples for other countries to follow. This is because it shows that gender equality can be achieved and events such as women being allowed to drive and go into football stadiums, may seem insignificant now but they ultimately show that things can change and these examples can be used in the future to create and promote more gender equality. Counter-argument: Gender equality is only starting to progress in a few countries, not all. Society still generally believes that women should take care of the children whilst men should work and earn money (be the 'breadwinners' for the family). Many important laws have been passed to ensure equality in the workplace.

Women still earn less than men and despite having the same experiences and qualifications, they are often overlooked in terms of promotions etc. Furthermore, women are not given enough responsibility based on the idea, for example, that they might become pregnant Counter-argument: Companies now pay for maternity and paternity leave, which is supported by the law. Many governments are still male-dominated whilst women are still underrepresented. Many countries and religions treat women as objects rather than individuals. Double standards are still problematic in today's society. This topic is still relevant. We are having this debate because there is still inequality - if gender inequality no longer existed, there would be no reason to discuss the matter. Hundreds of years of history can't be changed instantly.

Resources:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KtifgR_Y27o4Myhuk6cEcN8hsNfDW42X/view

https://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/simply-into-science-how-to-tear-down-stem39s-gender-wall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1MkBNVfAxE

https://annmichaelsen.com/2017/03/12/teaching-gender-inequality-and-the-lack-of-education-in-developing-countries/

https://othersociologist.com/2015/04/16/myth-about-women-in-science/

http://the-fonix.org/docs/2019/recursos/STAGE%201%203%20i%204%20ESO%20INPUTS%20SCHEME.pdf