The students at IES Luís Seoane in Pontevedra, Spain launched a project called "GOAL: EQUALITY" to address sexist and homophobic attitudes in their classroom. They observed problems with sexist behavior disturbing daily interactions. The 21 participating students learned about gender equality issues, analyzed their own behaviors, and campaigned to promote respect among their classmates. They saw positive changes in classroom coexistence and hope to continue sharing their message with others.

1. GOAL: EQUALITY
IES LUÍS SEOANE
PONTEVEDRA
XXVIII NATIONAL MEETING ASPNET-UNESCO

2. Well in the 21st century, many women are still
killed by their partner or ex-partner. The end of
domestic violence still seems far away despite
the individual and collective efforts to end with a
scourge that caused 54 women to be killed in
Spain last year.
In order to do their bit to prevent this from
happening, a party of students at IES Luís
Seoane have launched a project this year to
fight sexist and homophobe attitudes and
behaviours in the class. They called it GOAL:
EQUALITY.

3. The novelty of the project lies in the fact that it was the students of 4º ESO A
themselves who came up with the initiative. As they put it in an interview with La Voz,
something wasn’t going right in the class. They had a problem that disturbed
daily coexistence and unsettled more than one of them. The students having a sexist
behaviour towards their peers were a minority, but a very harmful one, the students
claim. They opted not to turn a blind eye to it and fight these attitudes through
education and constructive dialogue.

4. 21 out of the 30 students who are in this 4º. ESO class took and still take part
in the project Goal: Equality. They are the ones who also chose to participate
in the workshop “Entrepreneurial initiatives”.

5. GOAL
In order to confront an existing sexist situation in the class that was causing great
unrest among the girls and also some of the boys, the students posed the
challenge of talking about equality and committing to live and behave in a
respectful way.

6. PHASES
1st stage:
Learning about the progress
made, laws, recalcitrant sexist
thinking, sexist language, signs of
inequality within a couple, in
sports, in advertising, school and
family.

8. PHASES
2nd stage:
Public presentation of the results
of the project. These were
debated and internalised after
critical analysis.
The students spoke from their
hearts, insisting on the changes in
their own behaviour towards the
others and valuing the qualitative
change in the class coexistence.

9. “If, after critical thinking and knowledge, we are able to change the
way we regard our own behaviour, we will also be able to do so with
the rest of our classmates”
Albert Melón

10. MUNICIPAL BOARD OF THE NEW
WOMAN (CMMN)
On the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, the Council of Pontevedra invited
the party to take part in the main ceremony, held at the Teatro Principal. Our
students participated in several ways:
o They presented a singing performance about girls’ and women’s rights.
o The rock band “Stock y Cía” premiered the song ¿Quién eres tú? (Who are
you?) written by some of our students: Julio Esteban, José Lázaro and Javier Noya.

11. CONSTITUTION OF THE CMMN
In the same ceremony, the “Municipal Board of the New Woman” was presented.
Two of our students, Judith Ortigueira and Natalia Suárez, both highly committed
and active in gender equality issues, participate in the board as elected secretary
and president, respectively.
The CMMN held its first public meeting in this ceremony, in the presence of the
mayor and the city councillor for Equality and Welfare.

12. PHASES
3rd stage:
Launching of a campaign
including banners, badges,
slogans, biographies and the
song ¿Quién eres tú? (Who are
you?), as well as the shooting of a
film portraying the “toxic”
relationship between a boy and a
girl.

15. PHASES
4th stage:
The project will finish in the first term
of 2015/2016 academic year, with
the following activities:
• Public presentation of the film.
• Talks concerning equality with
schoolmates and students of
other educational institutions.
• Participation in fora for youngsters
focused on gender equality in
adolescence.
• Trip to UN Women headquarters
in New York.
• Editing of didactic materials “Goal:
Equality”.

16. SURVEY: WHY DO YOU THINK NEW GENERATIONS
KEEP BEHAVING IN A SEXIST WAY?
 “Because society is sexist” Julio González
 “The young have grown up with sexism because they
see it among adults” Andrés Picallo
 ”Because we hadn’t given enough thought to it”
Natalia Suárez
 “Because it’s easy for the young to go mainstream”
Noelia Rey
 “Because early learnt behaviour is difficult to change”
Daniel Pais
“Because sometimes we girls are unable to tell them:
stop, enough is enough, you’re offending me and the
rest of women” Miriam Garrido

17. “NOW WE’RE MORE TOLERANT.
MANY TIMES, WE DIDN’T EVEN
NOTICE DISRESPECTFUL
BEHAVIOUR” DANIEL
“THIS CLASS HAS CHANGED
THANKS
TO
THIS PROJECT. THEN, WHY CAN’T
THE WORLD? “ LOLI LESTA
“BEFORE THE PROJECT WHATSAPP GROUPS WERE MADE TO MAKE
FUN OF THE GIRLS” JULIO ESTEBAN
SEXISM AMONG BOYS IS DIFFERENT
AND GOES MORE UNNOTICED THAN
AMONG ADULTS” NATALIA SUÁREZ
“I FOUND OUT THAT THIS KIND OF
ATTITUDE IS MORE PRESENT ON A
DAILY BASIS THAN I THOUGHT. NOW
I DON’T PASS OVER IT.” AITOR
AGUDO