Main challenges and issues of gender equality in education

Main challenges and issues of gender equality in education
There is no doubt that poverty is one of the main reasons for illiteracy. Millions of women and girls in the world are still forced to spend hours doing household chores and caring for other family members. The lack of sanitation facilities and security in school are other major issues for education.
It can be illustrated by the example of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school for addressing the education rights. This also demonstrates another problem that young girls face: the unsafe roads leading to their school, sexual violence and discrimination against young girls.
Many girls are not allowed to continue their education because they are forced into child marriage.
Among the numerous obstacles that stand in the way of young girls and women to benefit from education are:
  • poverty
  • minority status
  • disability
  • geographical isolation
  • gender-based violence
  • early marriage
  • pregnancy
  • traditional attitudes towards the status and role of women.
What is the result of gender inequality in education?
One of the major issues that gender inequality in education brings to the surface is unemployment. Even to these days, women enter the job market on an unequal basis compared to men. They have fewer rights to land ownership and opportunities outside the agricultural sector.
Globally, just one quarter of senior officials or managers are women and they have less financial and social security. Despite that fact that women produce 50% of food and perform 66% of the world’s work, they typically are paid less than men.
Whey own only 1% of the property and earn 10% of the income. It has been shown that women invest a higher proportion of their earnings in their families and communities compared to men.
What are the benefits of educating girls?
There are numerous benefits of educating girls. Educated women are more likely to take care of themselves and their family independently. Moreover, in rural regions educated women are more likely to take part in decision-making processes.
Above all, education empowers, gives women better economic opportunities and encourages them to control their lives themselves. In this way, women are inspired to impact society positively.
The good news is that women’s political participation has increased and now they make up 18.6 percent of parliamentarians.
Teaching as Women’s Domain and Leading as Men’s
In spite of the progress, more girls remain out of school than boys. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 16 million girls will never have the opportunity to be educated. By the way, women account approximately two-thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy skills.
Even though teaching is traditionally considered female profession, school leaders are more likely to be men in some countries.
To illustrate, 68% of Korean teachers are women, whereas, only 13% of Korean principals are female. But why don’t women occupy the position of a school leader more often, given the fact that they dominate the majority of the teaching force?
Some of the main factors that determine the number of female principals in a country are the individual willingness to take the role of principal, the education level of candidates and gender-bias in perceptions of leadership skills.
The fact that most school teachers in many countries are women often brings forward the stereotypes that caring for children is women’s task. Equally, having mainly male principals shows that men are more likely to become managers than women. These factors have implications for the aspirations and expectations of children.
It is noteworthy that gender discrimination in career choice results in talent loss not just in education, but also in all spheres. Researchers suggest that gender-diverse business teams have greater success in terms of profits than male-dominated companies.
What initiatives can be taken to fight gender inequality in education?
Gender equality should not necessarily mean that men and women should become the same. It rather means that people’s opportunities should not depend on their gender.
Just imagine the world with more male teachers and healthcare workers and more female computer scientists. Doesn’t that sound good? After all, education should play an important role in shaping attitudes and behaviors to develop gender equity.
Educating girls results in many socio-economic benefits that help entire societies. These are higher family incomes, increased economic productivity and improved health rates for children.
The history of women’s subordination and injustice noted in every corner of the world proves that it is important that the voices and perspectives of women are considered.
The concept of gender equality includes the right of women to articulate, review and comment on social arrangements. The role of evaluating gender equality in education is to promote progress towards reducing all forms of gender-based discrimination and assuring women are empowered to exercise their rights.