gender notes

1. GENDER CHALLENGES: THE ROLE OF
SCHOOLS, PEERS, TEACHERS, CURRICULUM
AND TEXTBOOKS.
Unit IV/a

2. GENDER CHALLENGES
Work and salary Equality: despite great advances in past years, the economically
active population is significantly lower for women compared with that of men. In
addition, men continue to earn more than women when doing the same job. Women
tend to have jobs in the services or domestic services sectors and not in the areas of
high technology or qualified jobs.

3. Gender Inequality
The historical and multiple forms of inequality that persist between women and
men across all societies enable violence against women and girls to continue in
both public and private settings. This discrimination and the barriers preventing
women and girls from exercising their rights, accessing services and other
opportunities, greatly increase their risks of experiencing violence. Socially-
accepted gender norms and values about set up acceptable behavior and
interpersonal relationships are taught since childhood.

4. Economic Empowerment
Women have a huge potential to energize the economies of the countries, but many times
gender discrimination frustrates these expectations. Often women end up performing
non-remunerated and unsafe jobs, and continue to hold less executive jobs in companies.
In addition, their lower access to financial systems limits their participation in the
economic life.

5. Inadequate human, technical and
financial investments
While an increasing number of countries have adopted laws and policies, they
are rarely accompanied by adequate budget allocations, nor the requisite
institutional, staffing, infrastructural improvements and other supports that may
be needed at the national and sub-national levels to implement them. Skills and
knowledge on preventing and responding to violence against women and girls,
including in evidence-based programming, is often limited, particularly in
resource-scarce settings.

6. Weak coordination and monitoring
mechanisms at the national level
Addressing violence against women and girls requires a multisectoral approach,
involving at a minimum the health, education, social, legal and security sectors,
and strategically, other key sectors such as labour, migration and urban planning,
among others. Unlike stand-alone sectors, there is no ‘natural’ government entity
to take charge of coordination for ending violence against women. In many cases
it is the Ministry of Women’s Affairs or its equivalent, which are often under-
resource and lacking the institutional and political influence within government.

7. Insufficient data and
research
Though an area receiving increased attention and investments, statistical data on
the scale, nature and consequences of violence against women and girls remains
limited. Surveys usually do not capture all forms of violence, nor reflect
variations among different groups of women within a given country or other
disaggregated information that is useful for planning.

8. Limited attention to neglected
groups and issues
Insufficient attention has been paid to certain groups of women or to particular contexts (i.e. other
gender), and their costs and consequences. These will vary by region, but include: Feticide,
Violence against marginalized or excluded groups; Sexual violence, Political violence directed at
women during elections, These issues and contexts are often missing, neglected or low-profile in
advocacy, policy and programming

9. Lack of Evaluations and
Evidence to Guided programmes
Related to the neglect and underfunding for many years in addressing violence against women,
the field is characterized by few evaluations and therefore by a lack of knowledge on proven
approaches that can guide policies and programmes. While a great deal of know-how has been
accumulated, from an evidence-based approach, it is challenging to identify promising or good
practices and effective strategies for prevention and response in the absence of a more robust body
of evaluation findings. To date, initiatives have rarely included adequate resources for conducting
baseline assessments, or putting in place appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks and
activities.

10. Limited Scope and Coverage of
Services and Interventions
In India especially considering the magnitude of the numbers affected, services
for survivors are very limited in scope and reach. This is linked to the low priority
and insufficient investments made in addressing the problem. Where services do
exist, they are often concentrated in urban centers or larger cities, and are unlikely
to be comprehensive, perhaps focused in one or a few sectors and lacking the
coordination and referral capacities required.

11. Low Demand for Services by
Survivors
There are many reasons why women ,girls and transgender may not seek
services, some personal and some a result of the systematic discrimination that
they face from the institutions and communities that surround them. Some of
these factors include: The fear of stigma and judgment they may face from
service providers, community members and their families and friends; The
negative attitudes and poor quality of care provided by service providers (in
particular, those that are the first point of contact - health and police).

12. Fragmentation of efforts
Without a strong national multisectoral plan, coordinating body and formal
mechanisms of collaboration and information-sharing, most interventions are
planned and implemented in isolation from one another. As a result, there are severe
gaps in the overall approach to ending violence against women and girls, including
incomplete and unevenly distributed services; ad-hoc prevention efforts that are
independent from response efforts; and law and policy that is disconnected from the
realities on the ground.

13. THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS
Schools are major contexts for gender socialization, in part because children spend
large amounts of time engaged with peers in such settings. For nearly all
psychological traits on which young boys and girls differ (e.g., reading ability, play
preferences), the distribution of the two groups is overlapping.
Schools can magnify or diminish gender differences by providing environments
that promote within-gender similarity and between-gender differences, or the
inverse (within-gender variability and between group similarity).

14. Continued….
Teachers present curricular materials that contain gender stereotypic behaviour, and
peers exhibit gender stereotypic attitudes and behaviour. Children internalize gender
stereotypes and prejudices, which in turn guide their own preferences and behaviors.
Schools are important contexts for the socialization of young children’s gender
attitudes and behaviour. Teachers and classmates shape children’s gender attitudes and,
in turn, gender differences in cognition and behaviour.

15. Research Context
Psychologists have documented the ways in which schooling contributes to
gender differences via (a) interviews with school staff and students, (b)
naturalistic observations of teachers and students, and (c) experimental studies of
classroom conditions. Observational studies allow researchers to examine gender
differences, attitudes, and behaviors across a range of school types.
Experimental studies allow for the identification of school-related causes of
gender differences.

16. Continued..
Ensure equal pay and fair representation of men and women at all levels across the school
(male teaching assistants, female head teachers and other senior managers).

Develop initiatives that promote young women to follow post-compulsory education.
Challenge stereotypical, either/or understandings of what it means to be male and female
across the whole school community (parents/carers, staff, students).

Have clear and consistently followed procedures for identifying / reporting sexual bullying
and violence against women and girls incidents.

17. THE ROLE OF TEACHER IN GENDER
CHALLENGES
Critically analyze the teaching content and identify gender bias, if any. While teaching break
gender stereotypes by providing examples of both sexes. For example, while discussing about the
contribution of scientists, include examples of mean a well as women while teaching about the
freedom struggle of India, include examples of the contribution of women.
Children often bring stereotyped notions due to what they see and hear at home or in the society
around them. Help students to analyze these notions and discern for themselves what is right and
wrong.

18. Continued…
 Ensure equal participation of both boys and girls in all teaching –learning activities such as
discussions, brainstorming or answering of questions.
Have common set of rules for both boys and girls while disciplining in case of misbehavior.
Be mindful of sexist bullying and labeling.
 Assessments of teachers for the duties of girls and boys differ, boys are valued for skills, and
intellectual levels while girls for the form and presentation.
The teachers connect the progress of girls with their great efforts, while the progress of boys with the
fact that they are naturally smarter.

19. Continued…
 In case of failure for boys they think that they have not used the maximum of intellectual skills
that they possess. Girls are expected to be polite while boys to be oblivious.
 Schools can magnify or diminish gender differences by providing environments that promote
within-gender similarity and between-gender European Journal of Educational Sciences.
 It is important to look at all school curricula and to be prioritized the gender education.
 In our country, the female students constitute the largest number of students in social sciences,
incentive policies should be taken to change this ratio.

20. Continued…

Placing knowledge in a social context helps to show students how their learning connects to the world around
them and how such ideas are actually practiced in the outside world related to gender.
Promoting equity in the classroom does not necessarily mean treating all students equally. That is, though it
does mean giving all students equal opportunities to succeed, it may also mean giving some students more
encouragement to perform in class or structuring your class in ways that promote greater participation from a
wider number of students.
Paying closer attention to gender dynamics in the classroom leads both to better teaching and to better
learning for male and female students.

21. Continued…
 Give all students equal attention in advising and mentoring.
 Don’t overlook capable but quiet students.
Give each student equal attention and equally specific feedback.
Monitor classroom dynamics to ensure that discussion does not become dominated by verbally
aggressive students.
Vary the structure of the classroom to include more than just competitive modes of learning.

22. ROLE OF PEERS
Peers also contribute to gender differentiation by teaching their classmates stereotypes (e.g.,
“Short hair is for boys not girls”) and punishing them for failing to conform to stereotypes via
verbal harassment and physical aggression. Importantly, intervention programs can teach young
children to recognize and challenge their peers’ sexist remarks (e.g., “You can’t say girls can’t
play.)

23. CONTINUED…
•Compliance, where one may disagree to what the peer group does or thinks and
yet goes along with the group opinion.
•Conversion where the person changes his /her opinion to agree with the opinion
of the group
Congruence, which means agreeing with the opinion of the group right from the
onset.

24. CONTINUED…
Very often peer groups display behavior that its portrayed through media.
Some peer groups may be influences by some other groups. care must be taken to
ensure that appropriate role models are present.
Non conformity, which means not succumbing to the group views and maintaining
one’s opinion or anti conformity, where one expresses one’s opinions which are
contrary to what the peer group thinks.