SEPIA III – Meeting on Gender and Education 

Washington, D.C.,  December 9-10, 2003 

I.          Declaration of the Third Meeting of Ministers of Education

 The Ministers of Education of member states of the Organization of American States, meeting on the occasion of the Third Meeting of Ministers of Education in Mexico City from August 11-13, 2003, committed themselves  to “promoting the principles of equity, quality, relevance, and efficiency at all levels of the education system, ensuring, by 2001, universal access to and completion of quality primary education for all children and to quality secondary education for a t least 75 per cent of young people, with increasing graduation rates and lifelong learning opportunities for the general population; and eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005.” 

These aims are consistent with the recognition that education is one of the tools that make it possible to achieve greater social justice and overcome poverty, as well as facilitate the creation of a workforce (human capital) that meets the demands of a globalized world. In addition, the declaration refers to the commitment that must be made by all educational systems to democracy, social justice, and “individual dignity and avoiding all discrimination and intolerance.” 

The declaration points to the need to prioritize expenditure and investment in education, including scientific research, technological development, and the dissemination and preservation of cultural diversity, while also calling on governments to develop strategies to improve the financing of education in such a way as to involve political organizations, legislative bodies, and the media.  The declaration highlights how important it is for different sectors, particularly in civil society, to cooperate in order to achieve the objectives proposed. 

The declaration urges all countries to incorporate in each of their educational programs the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, especially those that have to do with “education as key to strengthening democratic institutions, promoting the development of human potential, and alleviating poverty and fostering greater understanding among our peoples .” 

The declaration emphasizes the role of information in the process of improving education, particularly by extending the reach and scope of educational quality indicators, at the same time creating the necessary skills within the ministries for this tool to be fully used. 

Special emphasis is laid on the effort to focus on the most deprived groups in society in order to ensure equal opportunity for all sectors. The declaration also restates the commitment to apply various mechanisms to extend educational coverage, retain children longer in education, and reduce school drop-out rates. 

Technical education is accorded an important position because it is a way to prepare young people for working life and enhance their innovative skills and initiative. 

Ministers called on the CIE to continue projects in the areas of equity and quality, education training, evaluation, and teacher training, in combination with new communication and information technologies. 

The Mexico Declaration highlights throughout that equity and quality of education are basic principles that are essential for an improvement in the general standard of living, particularly in the poorest sectors of society. It describes how it has been possible to eliminate gender disparities in relation to equal opportunity for both men and women in terms of access to primary and secondary education. It also emphasizes how important it is to avoid all discrimination and intolerance in educational systems. 

From the gender point of view, equity in education is apparent – in addition to equality of opportunities in coverage for men and women at all levels of education – in other aspects which should be borne in mind when proposing the incorporation of a gender approach throughout the educational process. 

One of these is the elimination of factors that have an impact on the drop-out rate of boys and girls from schools and which reflect traditional gender relations: girls drop out of school in order to help at home; the incidence of early pregnancy also has a significant impact. Likewise, the main motive for boys to drop out of school is the need to enter the work force, to assume a role as secondary provider of goods needed by the family. 

Another factor to note is that gender orientation influences the different ways boys and girls choose activities or careers. Generally boys are steered towards activities that have to do with science or technology; girls are usually steered towards service-related activities and, in particular, towards those that have to do with caring for other people - tasks that are perceived as feminine. This fact reproduces and exacerbates the sexual division of the labor market and translates into one of the main discriminatory factors in the labor market. 

Teacher training is one of the areas in which the greatest change can be effected from a gender perspective. If teachers can pass on to their pupils values based on gender equity as expressed in the principles of gender equity and recognition of diversity, and behave in a non-discriminatory way in classrooms, they will be promoting fundamental changes in the way boys and girls learn to live together. 

The declaration highlights the importance of continuing and extending the Summit Project based on indicators. (Regional Project on Indicators in Education). This initiative should be enhanced by introducing indicators that make it possible to measure over time the comparative progress made amongst men and women in those issues that are particularly relevant to gender equity. 

II.        The framework for incorporating a gender perspective in education 

The Priority Action Areas of CIM’s Strategic Plan of Action state that gender-sensitive education is the way to shape new values and change attitudes. It is a essential for guaranteeing women’s full exercise of their rights to enable them to participate in political activities at all levels, enter and remain in the labor market and improve their quality of life. In education, the CIM proposes working towards producing and inducing socio-cultural change, and breaking down stereotypes in domestic and labor roles in order to create an awareness that men and women should share both public and private responsibilities. It will concern itself in general with the education of women at all stages of life and give special attention to training programs for social groups who have habitually been ignored by the educational system, such as minority groups, rural populations, marginalized urban populations, indigenous peoples, and other ethnic groups.[1] 

The Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality in its specific objective no. 5 urges the member states of the OAS to promote gender equity and equality and women’s human rights, among others, by achieving full and equal access to “education at all levels and to the various fields of study.” This appeal is reaffirmed (specific objective no. 8) with the “elimination of cultural patterns or stereotypes that denigrate the image of women, particularly in educational materials…”[2] The same program calls for the adoption of measures needed to encourage the agencies of the inter-American system to incorporate a gender perspective in their work, along with other actions to be taken by the General Secretariat of the OAS. 

CIM’s proposal to incorporate the gender perspective in education is based on the premise that, in addition to being a mechanism for social mobility and integration, and a means of overcoming poverty, it is an exceptionally good arena in which to promote cultural changes that may facilitate the achievement of gender equity.  Although equal access by women to all levels of education represents a fundamental step forward, there are other factors related to the potential gains from educating boys and girls in the values of equity, tolerance, respect for diversity, and a civic spirit.  

Education with a gender dimension is conceived as the molding of boys and girls from their earliest years in the principles of equity between the sexes. This makes it possible to overcome major barriers based on gender inequity, including equal access to the labor market; it sets in motion a process of cultural change both for men and for women such as responsible fatherhood and equal distribution of domestic chores, and furthermore creates the conditions for the empowerment of women and finally the construction of a more just and equitable society. 

The incorporation of the gender perspective requires an overall approach to ensure that initiatives in different areas are mutually reinforcing. Complementary proposals arise from each specific area which act in parallel to narrow the gender equality gaps and reduce sexual discrimination in education. 

To ensure the practical application of proposals aimed at achieving gender equity in education, spheres of action have been established based on the guidelines of the Third Meeting of Ministers of Education and targets for meeting these requirements have been identified, along with the actions needed to achieve them. 

1.      Ensuring equal opportunity for men and women in access to all levels of the educational system. 

Women and girls are referred to as vulnerable groups eligible to receive priority attention. However, this prevents them from receiving specific treatment. In particular this applies to women in the rural sectors who, in various countries in the Hemisphere, still lag behind in terms of literacy and general level of education. The need to overcome this is even more urgent when the multiplier effect of the education of mothers is taken into account both in relation to children attending and staying in the education system and in improvements to family health and, in particular, in combating poverty among the poorest households in the region. It also has a major impact on other aspects of social development, such as maternal and child mortality, the health, nutrition, and education of new generations, population and environmental control, social integration, and the development of a sense of civic pride and spirit. 

On the other hand, the school drop-out rate has been identified as one of the most serious problems affecting education systems. If this phenomenon is analyzed by sex, one finds that the sexist patterns in society are reproduced. Household surveys carried out periodically in the countries of the region investigating the causes of failure to complete the secondary cycle show that the causes differ significantly between the sexes. Males leave primarily to work or to look for work, while females leave because of family problems, which include pregnancy and motherhood, and domestic responsibilities. 

Objective 1.1. To increase the educational level of women, in particular, those who are in situations of greater vulnerability.

 Actions:

 To carry out programs directed at: 

• Literacy for adult women --especially indigenous women-- in accordance with their requirements (timetables, child care), language and culture, as well as the particular characteristics of the communities in which they live, creating extra support for functional illiterates (through lack of use of the reading and writing skills acquired.)

• Focused reinforcement of education for groups of women in disadvantageous circumstances: the poor, heads of household, teenage mothers, etc., taking advantage of existing complementarity and linkage with other related institutional programs or services, (in particular those directed to vocational training).

• Continuing education, aimed particularly at mature adult women.

Objective 1.2.  Promoting equal access and continued attendance of boys and girls in primary and secondary education.

 Actions: 

• Making the necessary changes in legislation with a view to removing any legal barriers to equal opportunities for access to education for men and women (compulsory basic education for boys and girls). 

• Implementing programs to raise awareness of mothers and fathers, particularly those belonging to the least privileged groups above all in the rural sector, with regard to the importance of boys and girls attending school and staying in the educational system.

• Carrying out studies into the causes of school drop-outs, by sex, with a view to designing actions and policies to deal with this problem.

2.      Promoting non-sexist education

 A high percentage of young people pursue careers that reproduce feminine roles, such as careers in education and health, which are precisely those that carry lower status and pay less. The signals sent by teachers to boys and girls alike from the primary level upwards are reflected in the choices made by the young. In general, more attention is given to educating boys, rather than girls, in the sciences. At secondary school, vocational guidance directs boys and girls towards interests pre-established according to their sex. In this way, the hidden curriculum, which distinguishes between the treatment and guidance of boys and girls, defines the preferences of each group. 

The images that appear in school texts also play an important role in this respect. Although some countries have now started to revise school texts from a gender perspective, in the framework of the educational reforms being implemented, many stereotypical images of men and women according to their gender roles persist. In some cases, women are depicted as less important than men. 

A sexist vocational direction starting in the school system excludes a large population of women from the science and technology labor market.  They are thereby marginalized in terms of productive state-of-the-art activities, which are those in most supply now that markets are being transformed as a result of economic integration and globalization. 

In higher education, the segmentation of university careers is still visible and results in some courses attracting a high percentage of women while in others they are in the minority. Proposals for redirecting higher education must aim at expanding career choices for men and women by encouraging both groups to explore careers in which they have not been represented. 

Another aspect to take into account relates to the rapid changes and innovations arising from technology, connectivity, and communication, which must be made to serve the cause of education, and especially, put an end to the poor quality of education in the most isolated and vulnerable sectors. Traditionally, fewer women have been found in areas linked to the use of technology because of sex-based role attribution. The use of technology in education must aim especially at attracting young and adolescent girls towards innovations and avoid sexist orientation. 

The challenge to create educational environments conceived as learning communities naturally falls also to teachers, who in this scenario are responsible for promoting democratic values, equity, and tolerance as opposed to authoritarianism and rigid hierarchies.  Thus it is necessary to incorporate principles that promote these values in teacher training, particularly the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of gender at all levels of the educational system.

Actions: 

• Eliminate differences in the educational curriculum based on differentiation between the sexes, stimulating apprenticeships for boys and girls in tasks attributable to both sexes.

• Remove the requirements that prevent the participation of students in complementary but differentiated courses on grounds of sex.

• Eradicate messages from school texts that promote sexist stereotypes or that do not present a balanced picture of the capabilities and functions of men and women as well as eradicating discriminatory language.

• Introduce sex education in the regular curriculum at all levels.

Objective 2.2. Promote egalitarian vocational guidance for men and women.

Actions:

• Eliminate sexist stereotypes in teaching practices such as the transmission of messages that promote gender inequity, the differential use of space by men and women, or that overlook or ignore the needs and interests of female students.

• Carry out awareness programs directed towards:

• Teaching personnel with regard to the importance of stimulating the interest of girls in science and technology.

• Professionals providing vocational guidance on how important it is that young and teenage girls should choose more diverse careers and jobs and avoid continuing the tendency to opt for traditionally female activities.

3.      Use of the education system to encourage greater participation of women in the labor force  

The increase in basic education coverage and in the number of students enrolled in secondary education has not yielded the expected results in terms of the entry of young people –men and women- into the labor market.  Given that only a small percentage of young men and women reach higher education, any redefinition of the direction of education from the basic level should be geared towards appropriate training- for the labor market and, consequently, increasing the human capital of the countries of the region. For women, this education requires particular attention insofar as their work options are limited by prevailing stereotypes in relation to male and female jobs, the latter being more restricted and less valued in the labor market. In many instances, the choices available to women are limited to low productivity, informal employment or domestic employment because inadequate trainingfor other better paid occupations that would give them the necessary financial autonomy to allow them to maintain themselves and their families.

• Strengthen coordination between the educational system and the productive sector to determine needs, update job profiles, build a system of information on labor supply and demand, and define existing possibilities for the employment of women.

• Design and carry out complementary programs at the different levels of the educational system, directed towards:

• Developing capacity to achieve key skills to enhance employment potential and enable women, especially the poorest, to project themselves, adapt, and change their environment.

·        Professional and technical training to direct women towards dynamic activities with development potential as well as to improve their access to management and supervisory functions, especially in areas where they are underrepresented. 

4.      Contribute to the strengthening of education ministries from a gender perspective. 

The modernization and strengthening process advocated by the ministers of education is an opportunity to include the principles of equality of opportunities. In this context, coordination through national mechanisms for the equality of women in the respective countries is fundamental, both with respect to drawing up joint programs and monitoring advances in education from a gender perspective.

 Objective 4.1. Promote inter-institutional coordination for achieving gender objectives in education

 Actions: 

·        Design and implement programs in coordination with national mechanisms for the equality of women in the respective countries, aimed at: 

o       Sensitizing and training those charged with the formulation of educational policies and programs in gender issues and securing the budgetary commitments to implement the policies. 

o       Sensitizing and training teachers in the gender perspective, sex education, equity, development, and overall continuing education to ensure their application in the classroom. To the extent possible, these programs should be installed within ministries of education and form part of their institutional structure. 

Objective 4.2. Evaluate on an ongoing basis gender gaps in education

Actions: 

·        Draw up a set of indicators to monitor the inclusion of the gender perspective in education policies, in coordination with the national statistics offices in the respective countries. 

·        Incorporate gender indicators in education in the Regional Education Indicators Project.