Committee: UN Commision on the Status of Women
Issue: How to promote women's access to education and to literacy?
Chair: Manon Tremelot
Introduction
In 2013, 493 million women still cannot read or write and 31 million girls in age of attending primary school are not educated. It is likely that 17 million of them will never go to school.
According to UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report of 2013-2014, the male-female parity will not be achieved before 2086 if governments continue their efforts this way for girl's education. The number of girls enrolled in primary school is 5 million less than boys, and for 100 men who can read and write, there are only 88 women.
Irina Bofova, General Director of UNESCO, once said : “Leave out women and girls, and you exclude 50% of your brain power, 50% of your creative genius, and 50% of your economic support.”
Section 26 of the Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to education. Education should be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education should be compulsory. Technical and professional education should be made generally available and access to higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”
When discussing women in education, it is in fact human rights, gender equality and the global economic and social developments that are at stake : we must act now.
The equation is simple: educated women are generally healthier, more active and better paid; they have fewer children and are able to better educate them. According to UNICEF, educating girls literally saves millions of lives.
Definition of key terms
Feminism: Social movement for the emancipation of women, and elevating women’s rights to the same status of men’s.
The Millennium Declaration: Unanimously adopted by world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, it is a project to improve living conditions for the world’s populations. To reinforce the importance of this declaration and ensure that progress can be measured, the United Nations and various other international organizations created eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with a series of quantifiable targets, specific deadlines and indicators for measuring progress.
GER: Gross Enrolment Ratio
GPI: Gender Parity Index
General Overview
History of women's education in Europe from the 18th to 20th century :
Although historical and cultural differences between European countries are numerous, the common domestic model allows us to generalize certain points.
In the eighteenth century, the aristocracy authorized the education of some women such as princesses and noble ladies, however other social classes were neglected. These women had an access to knowledge which covered everything but politics and business, areas reserved to men. This was accepted to the extent that this select group of women did not disrupt the established order.
Compulsory education for girls was widespread during the nineteenth century. In France, the Falloux law of 1850 made all municipalities with more than 800 inhabitants have a girls' school; in Spain, the Moyano Law of 1857 made sure there was one girls' school for 500 inhabitants and Finnish law in 1866 required all towns to have a school. However, the values taught were those expected of the ideal woman: chastity, modesty, and discretion in discussions were part of the teaching programs in the curriculum. A new educational approach was suggested, where "domestic purpose" and "female work" became the main axis of female school education for many years.
Many pseudo-scientific theories have attempted to prove physical inferiority and thus, intellectual inferiority. These helped justify, in the nineteenth century as well as in the twentieth, distinct social roles for men and women, as well as the persistence of two educational models.
Access to higher levels of education is a difficult quest for women, with similar conditions in different countries: difficulties in accessing university education, graduation and later, professional sectors of "service and care." The roles of teachers, midwives and nurses were the first to be feminized.
The first German universities to open their doors to women were Heidelberg and Freiburg in the Baden state in 1901. In Norway, women are admitted to universities in 1884. In Finland, the rule whereby women had to ask for university access since 1870 was abolished in 1901. In Spain, it was not until 1910 that the 1888 Act, which required a special permit for women to register at university, was ended.
The twentieth century was to be the century of professional opportunities for women, as well as obtaining voting rights, control of their own bodies, and more. Despite the inequality of educational opportunities and job segregation, the evolution of women's education has allowed them, among other things, to assert their professional, cultural and political presence.
The First World War led to a major breakdown in the familial and social order, with the opening of new professions for women. For most women, living alone, going out alone and taking on familial responsibilities alone created a great upheaval. This experience of freedom and the awareness of their capacities and economic independence, gave women individual and collective learning. After the war, in France and Great Britain, a gradual feminization of the tertiary sector took place.
Though there is a growing participation of girls and women at all levels of education, the fact remains that 54% of non-enrolled children are girls and 64% of illiterate adults are women (Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO, January 2010). The right to education is still age-restricted in many countries, for example, in Burkina Faso, only 8% of girls attend secondary school.
History of international actions taken during the last 45 years
Since 1970, the number of girls enrolled in primary education has increased faster than the number of boys, which helped decrease the gender gap in primary education. The GER in primary education has increased by 20% for girls between 1970 and 2008, and only 8% for boys. Accordingly, the world index of gender parity (IPS) has increased, rising from 0.84 to 0.97.
1975: The Commission of the Status of Women requested the organization of a conference on women to mark the International Year of Women, after which the World Conference of the International Year of Women was held in Mexico. One hundred and thirty three governments were represented, and 6 000 NGO representatives attended a parallel forum, the Tribune of the International Women's Year. The conference defined a Global Action Plan for the implementation of the objectives of the International Women's Year, including a set of guidelines for the advance of women up until 1985.
1980: Five years later, 145 Member States gathered in Copenhagen for the World Conference within the framework of the UN Decade for Women. This aimed to assess progress in the implementation of the first conference's goals in the areas of employment, health and education. A Programme of Action called for stronger national measures aiming to ensure women's ownership and control of their assets, improve the safeguard of their rights in inheritance, custody of their children, and nationality.
1985: The World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the UN Decade for Women was held in Nairobi. The mandate of the conference was the development of concrete measures to overcome the obstacles hindering the achievement of the objectives of the Decade. Among the participants, there were 1 900 delegates from 157 Member States. Governments adopted the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, which contained measures to achieve gender equality at the national level and promote the participation of women in peace and development efforts.
1995: The Fourth World Conference for Women held in Beijing in 1995, marked a turning point in the global agenda for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted unanimously by 189 countries, formed a program for the empowerment of women, considered as the most important global policy document in the field of gender equality today. Following this historical conference in Beijing, the international community reached a consensus with the aim of achieving gender equality in education.
UNESCO adopts a strategy which stipulates that women's needs must be taken in account in the activities and projects of all programs.
2000: The Millennium Declaration reaffirms the access to education as a fundamental right. Countries recognize that girls' education and gender parity is an important and necessary first step in achieving that objective.
Millennium Development Goals - Goal 3: Promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. Goal 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 if possible, and at all levels of education by 2015.
The General Assembly decided to hold a 23rd special session to assess the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the last five years and to determine the actions and future initiatives. Entitled "Women in 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", it was held in New York and resulted in a political declaration and further actions and initiatives for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
The World Education Forum, held in Dakar, Senegal under the auspices of UNESCO was the first and most important event in education at the dawn of the new century.
Delegates from 181 countries at the World Education Forum adopted a Framework for Action committing their governments to provide basic quality education for all, especially for girls, and wish that "no country seriously committed in the universalisation of basic education see its efforts thwarted by the lack of resources. "
Goal 5 of the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA): Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring equitable and unrestricted access to quality basic education with the same chances of success for girls. - Dakar Framework for Action.
The Dakar conference resulted in a 7.2% increase in spending on education from 1999 to 2012 in countries with low incomes, a decrease of children in the age of primary school without primary education from 108 million to 61 million worldwide in 2010, and 2/3 of the world's countries reached male/female parity in primary school.
UNGEI, the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative, was launched in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar. Its objective was to reduce gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and ensure that by 2015, all primary children have the same opportunities to access all levels of teaching. UNESCO is part of the Global Advisory Committee providing strategic advice, and aims to facilitate the development and implementation of UNGEI strategies.
2002: GENIA, "the UN Network for educational gender equality in Asia" is set up at the request of Member States. The main purpose of this network aims to promote gender equality in education in terms of access, performance and outreach. To achieve this, the key players want to develop educational policies taking in account, issues related to gender equality and shake up social stereotypes.
2005: A 10-year evaluative review of the Beijing Platform for Action was conducted during the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG) was established in 2005 by the United Nations Foundation and the Nike Foundation, with the International Coalition for Women's Health and the International Center for Research for Women. Since its inception, more than 50 international organizations have joined, bringing new perspectives, diverse resources and concrete solutions to address the challenges of adolescents of the world’s poorest communities.
2010: An evaluation after 15 years of the Beijing Platform for Action was conducted at the 54th session of the Commission in 2010.
2011: UNESCO launched the Global Partnership for the education of girls and women, known as "Better Life, Better Future" in 2011. The partnership aims to expand learning opportunities for girls and teenagers and find solutions to some of the most important challenges and barriers to their education. Special attention is given to the expansion and improvement of the quality of education for girls and women in secondary schools and in the field of literacy.
2015: In 2013, the UN Economic and Social Council asked the Commission on the Status of Women to review and evaluate the implementation of the Programme of Action in 2015, at a meeting called Beijing + 20. To better inform the deliberations, the Council also called on UN Member States to make detailed national examinations and encouraged the regional commissions to undertake assessments.
Countries and organisations involved
Camfed (campaign for female education) is a non-profit international organization fighting against poverty and inequality, by helping girls to go to school and succeed, and to empower themselves as leaders of change. Since 1993, innovative education programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi have helped more than 1 419 000 students attend primary and secondary school, and more than 3.5 million children have benefited from an improved learning environment.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) has committed considerable resources to support equality between men and women. It launched the Global Partnership for Education for girls and women, and handles all UN programs and partnerships such as UNGEI and GENIA.
The Global Partnership for Education supports 65 developing countries to try to guarantee every child a basic education of good quality.
UNICEF, The United Nations Children's Fund is a UN agency dedicated to the improvement and promotion of the status of children. It is particularly active in the children's rights for primary education and gender parity in education.
Distribution of adult illiteracy in the world, 2000-2004
World map showing countries by gender difference in literacy rates
Progress in primary education from 1970 to 2010 in different regions of the world
Three regions have a historically high proportion of countries that have achieved gender parity in primary education: North America and Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. About 90% of countries in these regions have achieved gender parity in primary education at least since 1990.
Two regions, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia and the Pacific, are in the middle, with a percentage of countries achieving parity slightly increasing, from 50% to 60% over the last 40 years.
The most notable increases in terms of gender equality have, however, happened in the regions where the boys were far more likely than girls to get primary education in 1970 (that is to say, South and West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and more particularly, the Arab States). In 1970, 10% or less of the countries in these regions had achieved gender parity in primary education. In 2008, nearly half of the countries of the Arab States, and more than one in three countries in the other two regions had achieved gender parity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the most progress in gender parity in primary education has happened in the past decade, partly due to the focus on universal primary education (UPE) and the enrollment of girls.
In three countries, the number of girls not in school is over 1 million: in Nigeria, there are almost 5 and a half million, Pakistan, over 3 million and Ethiopia, over one million.
Problems and Solutions
> Adopt a program of action to train and quickly recruit well qualified teachers and adequate infrastructure.
Primary school enrollment has increased throughout the developing world. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, where the primary school enrollment rate is the lowest in the world, it has risen from 58% to 74% between 2000 and 2007. But this quantitative progress masks a serious qualitative problem. Indeed, the rapid increase in school attendance in poor countries poses serious supply problems due to lack of school infrastructure and teachers. Thus, given the lack of budgetary resources, many developing countries boost educational statistics at the lowest cost possible, making the maximum of existing infrastructure, reducing training time for teachers and making the parents support a significant portion of school fees. As a result, a number of school children do not complete a full primary course and remain illiterate or unable to read a basic text correctly. For example, half of scholarized children in India cannot read a simple text.
> Recruit and train teachers concerned with gender equality and children's rights and paying them a regular salary for them to lead a decent life.
> Better focus the class on the needs of the child, respecting gender differences
> Eliminate gender bias in textbooks and teaching materials.
> Promote flexible time-tables. In Bangladesh, BRAC schools gave priority to girls and their example has inspired many countries. The school schedule is flexible; classes, which last two hours per day, are held six days a week, but the time when the class is held is chosen by the parents and the school calendar can be adjusted to local needs, for example with crops.
> Promote teaching in the local language. When the language of instruction is not the child’s mother tongue, girls are often disadvantaged because they are generally less exposed to external social environments in their immediate family. In Peru, classes for girls and boys are first taught Quechua, their mother tongue. Children learn Spanish as a second language.
> Collect gender-related statistics on education, including academic achievement at primary, secondary and higher educational levels. All countries now gather statistics on the enrollment of girls and boys. This data is essential to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and to measure progress towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals.
> Allow young mothers to return to school. In many countries, adolescent girls who become pregnant are not allowed to resume their studies. The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) has actively pressured Sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments to pull this prohibition. In Zambia, a text adopted in 1997 allows adolescents to return to school after giving birth, but very few girls do, fearing exposure to stigma and bullying from their peers.
> Adopt special measures to reach the most disadvantaged girls. In some countries and regions where ethnic minorities, rural people and the poor are victims of discrimination and exclusion, girls often are disadvantaged because of their gender. The more a girl is disadvantaged, the more it is important that the education system assist her adopting special measures, rather than assuming she will follow the trend of education for all.
> Provide alternative education for older girls who have left school or started late. One way to help girls who have left school and other groups such as working children and children living in conflict areas is to create educational centers outside the traditional school system.
> Open schools closer to the children's homes, if necessary by creating smaller schools in remote rural areas and grouping children of different ages and levels in the same class. There is little chance that girls go to school if it is far away from home because of potential security issues on the way. Burkina Faso, for example, has created a network of "satellite schools". These are small schools offering only the first three classes, which allows young children (starting school at 7) to acquire their first school experience in their village or nearby. Since their inception in 1995, more than 100,000 girls and boys attended these 229 satellite schools.
> Encourage participation and action of girls for education. In the classroom, it is important to emphasize gender equality and the importance of education for all, so that children and especially girls, later commit themselves to education and gender parity in education.
> Involve the local community. The Community Empowerment Project in Jordan encouraged the village of Al-Rashedieh to organize a community meeting where women protested against the fact that their daughters were forced to stop their studies, due to the region lacking of secondary girls' schools. The women prepared a petition and they went to defend their case to the Director of the Ministry for Education in Aqaba. After six months, three fully equipped secondary classes were created for girls. In Sudan, the community project for children shows how community participation contributes to increase the number of girls and improve the quality of education for girls and boys.
> Bring drinking water and install latrines. Many girls leave school at the beginning of menstruation in part because there are no separate toilets in their school. But to build latrines is not always enough. It is essential that girls help identify the location of latrines and type of latrines they need. UNICEF contributed to the water supply and sanitation in 1400 Pakistani schools and is working to promote sanitation and hygiene education in 46 other countries.
> Make the domestic work lighter. Many girls stay at home to help with household chores. By giving amenities to communities or groups of women such as grain mills, shellers, and jerry cans for water conservation, the work load is lightened and frees the girls allowing them to attend school. It also happens that the girls are not schooled because they have to get water from a remote traditional well or pump. The creation of water spots can relieve them, while supplying clean water throughout the community.
> Ensure the involvement of men and boys. The rights and welfare of children are respected when relations between men and women in the family are based on mutual respect, equal rights and shared responsibilities.
Useful links for figures and statistics
http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/gender-education.aspx
http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/
http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/WEB_GED2010%20FRE.pdf
Bibliography
http://www.unesco.org/bpi/pdf/memobpi26_girlseducation_fr.pdf
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/gender-equality/
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/gender-and-education/
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/fr/ed_for_all/dakfram_fr.shtml
http://www.unwomen.org/fr/how-we-work/intergovernmental-support/world-conferences-on-women
http://www.helsinki.fi/science/xantippa/wef/weftext/wef214.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_For_All
http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/unesco-from-access-to-equality-2012.pdf
http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/WEB_GED2010%20FRE.pdf
http://fr.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/girls-factsheet-fr.pdf
http://www.globalpartnership.org/fr/content/plan-strategique-gpe-2020
http://coalitionforadolescentgirls.org/about-us/our-history/
http://www.endvawnow.org/fr/articles/685-adolescentes.html
https://camfed.org/about/
http://www.unesco.org/new/fr/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/gender-and-education/resources/the-world-atlas-of-gender-equality-in-education/
http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/pdf/EtudeOMDsept2010.pdf
http://www.unicef.org/french/sowc06/pdfs/strategies_girl_ed.pdf