New school of thought- when it comes to education, girls deserve better!

This blog was written for Chat for Change and was first published on March 5, 2016.

At an international scale girls and women have faced many gender-based barriers to being in school and getting an education. In some places there are barriers that affect boys in particular (such as recruitment to fight in war and conflicts) and trans* and non-binary people face extreme barriers to education based on their gender identity. However, it is the month of International Women’s Day and so this blog is going to focus on those which disproportionately affect girls.

A lot of research has been done all over the world to try and identify why there were a lot less girls in school that boys and there were found to be a lot of factors involved. There were cultural norms which parents or girls themselves enforce. Many thought that an education wasn’t needed or a waste of money for girls and there are stereotypes about what are ‘girls-subjects’ and what are ‘boys-subjects’ in most countries. Even in the UK and Australia, where we should have equal access to education regardless of gender, these stereotypes influence what people study, the careers they have access to afterwards and the relative value we place on those different jobs – in pay and in prestige. Work to break down these cultural norms has to be sensitive – it might be scholarships specifically for girls so the parents can see an immediate financial benefit to them being in school rather than at work, or wider campaigns such as those about women in STEM subjects that are now visible across many countries.

Then there are other barriers that girls face. Physical provision of facilities can often be a problem – particularly toilets. These might not be provided at all, or if they are, not have the necessary privacy or resources that girls need once they start getting their period each month. If you can’t go to school when you have your period then you end up missing out on up to a quarter of your education and soon fall behind, many then drop out completely as adolescents. Several organisations have investigated different ways to sort this problem by supporting the creation of toilets at school buildings and finding ways to increase girls access to sanitary products. This story gives one such example from India.

The third barrier I want to talk about is gender based violence and this is a major deterrent to girls getting an education. This might be harassment from other students or even from teachers. A survey Girlguiding did in the UK revealed that 70% of girls aged 13 and over had experience sexual harassment at school – whilst that might not have meant those girls dropped out of school completely, it is going to have a tremendous effect on the education they are able to receive. There are increasingly campaigns highlighting important concepts such as consent, but to really tackle this problem I think every country needs to invest in comprehensive sexuality education programmes that are a compulsory part of the curriculum. Students shouldn’t be able to opt out of learning about how they should respect their fellow human beings. In the UK repeated calls for this to happen have been rejected by the government, but their campaigning continues and many organisations are developing and refining programmes to provide this kind of education to as many young people as possible.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the barriers girls and women face in accessing education, but offers some food for thought. The previous Millennium Development Goals focused on just getting an equal amount of boys and girls through primary school. The new Sustainable Development Goals go much further – wanting everybody, regardless of gender, to have access to high quality education from early years through to tertiary institutions. It also calls on the world to “Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all” – another step that will address some of these barriers faced by girls. By working together to achieve these global goals by 2030 we can help girls and women to get the education they deserve.

That time of year again. A Roundup.

Today, March 8th, is International Women's Day - a day to celebrate the achievements of women worldwide and to raise awareness of the gender inequalities and how we might address them. I'm not heading out to any big event this year, but hearing great things about several from home and wearing my Stop The Violence t-shirt whilst cleaning the house and tidying the garden for solidarity.

This week, and today especially, has seen an explosion of gender equality messages on social media. If you're on Twitter there's plenty of events to track through their hashtags including #IAmVisible, #WOWLDN (including an inspirational and much quoted speech from Malala Yousafzai this morning), and not to mention #IWD2014 itself. Then there's the infographics, quotes and all round Factivism going on to. Take a look at UN Women's #HeForShe campaign, and this great image from DFID.

Some of the WAGGGS delegation to CSW 55!

Monday also sees the start of the 58th UN Commission on The Status of Women in New York City - I an tell because my email inbox is swamped with different organisations promoting their side events and sharing inside knowledge on the negotiations that have already started. There's a fabulous delegation from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to follow - yes I know I'm biased, but these young women do some amazing work every year. The policy coordinator for the delegation is my fellow WAGGGS Post-2015 Ambassador from Australia, Erin Wicking, and you can follow her Tumblr blog here. Also worth following is Amy Graham, a member of the WAGGGS advocacy staff team, who also blogs here.It's also very exciting this year that there are remote delegates who will be contributing to the CSW discussions from their home countries and WAGGGS have produced an engagement document for the national guide and scout organisations to take the key messages forward.

Another Book - Persepolis

For the next book giveaway, due to the date and upcoming events, a fitting book is needed. That book is Persepolis. I first read this book shortly after I came back from my first UN Commission on the Status of Women event, and have since watched the film adaptation.

This graphic novel tells the story of a young woman's childhood in Iran, her travels to Europe to study and her subsequent return. The artwork is simple yet atmospheric and, I think, the graphic novel format helps you feel closer to the characters than in a traditional novel - but that might have something to do with dyslexia and reading images rather than words...

It's an easy to follow introduction to a little bit of the history of that area as the events are explained to the child character as they happen.

Like before, this is free to the first person to comment below, message me or send me an email (pippa@myriadit.net) and I'll update this post once it has been claimed. The only requirement is you pass it forward when you're down with it.

UPDATE - This book is heading to MaLau in Costa Rica!

Happy International Women's Day

This morning I headed over to the Girl Scouts USA headquarters to do a broadcast of our delegation film created to celebrate international women's day. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGue5fiZjQ. This was followed by a question and answer session about my experience at the Commission on the Status of Women and we had viewers from all around the world!

Negotiations of agreed conclusions are in closed session at the moment so there was little we could do at the UN. Instead we took the subway out to Coney Island for a walk along the beach. The paddle in the Atlantic Ocean was extremely brief!