Lifelong Learning Platform | LLLP - European Civil Society for Education

Gender equality

Gender equality is one of the common values and founding principles of the European Union, and yet, on average a woman earns 16% less than a man in Europe. Women have limited access to lifelong learning and have more fragmented careers, and are still often victims of gender-based discrimination and violence.

Gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence of broader forms of gender inequality in society. Even though girls and boys perform equally in schools and at universities in these areas, only a third of European scientists and engineers are women. OECD research confirmed that career choices are more linked to attitude and confidence and that is why we need to support women to follow these paths. On the other hand, it is crucial to tackle the worrying number of male early-school leavers in the EU (13.2% compared to 10.6% girls). Only when traditional gender roles and stereotypes start to be challenged inside the classroom will girls and boys have chances of living fulfilled lives of their free choice.

The LLLPlatform calls for mainstreaming gender equality in lifelong learning strategies. We need awareness-raising campaigns and initiatives that will support young women to attend post-compulsory education and career paths which will ensure higher earnings later on. It is about developing gender-sensitive curricula and teaching materials free of discrimination, which are influencing children’s educational and career paths alike later on. This includes fostering tolerance as regards sexual orientation and identity and fighting gender bullying and homophobia. Partnerships between civil society organisations and educational institutions can make this dialogue happen and should be supported all levels.

Resources

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    OECD Gender Portal

    Gender equality is inextricably linked to education. However, gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence of broader forms of gender inequality in society. The new OECD website monitors the progress made by governments to promote gender equality in both OECD and non-OECD countries and provides good practices based on analytical tools and data. The OECD Gender Data Portal includes selected indicators shedding light on gender inequalities in education, employment, entrepreneurship, health and development, showing how far we are from achieving gender equality and […]

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    WARM – A tool for Gender Equality

    The WARM platform is meant to be a dynamic and open tool on which teachers, facilitators, learners or animators can find learning/teaching material on various gender issues such as key figures and dates; interviews given by women in each country and methodological guidelines for pedagogic activities. Although the tool was created with the purpose of empowering women by equipping them with means to promote gender equality at local, national and international levels it also aims to help learners, men and […]

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    The ABC of gender equality in education

    The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence tries to determine why 15-year-old boys are more likely than girls, on average, to be overall low achievers, and why high-performing 15-year-old girls underachieve in mathematics, science and problem solving compared to high-achieving boys. As the evidence in the report makes clear, gender disparities in school performance stem from students’ attitudes towards learning and their behaviour in school, from how they choose to spend their leisure time, and from the confidence they have – or do not […]

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    EU Gender Equality Framework for External Relations

    On 22 September 2015 the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) adopted the 2016-2020 framework for the EU’s actions in terms of gender equality and women’s emancipation in the context of the Union’s external relations. It aims to help partner countries to achieve real results along the path to gender equality as well as to set new sustainable development goals (SDGs). It is subdivided into four pillars: the fight to counter all forms of violence done to […]

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    LGBTI Equality

    This publication provides a list of actions by the Commission to advance Lesbian, Gays, Bi-sexual, Transsexuals and Inter-sex (LGBTI) equality. The actions listed cover in a comprehensive way all policy areas that are relevant for LGBTI people: non-discrimination,
    education, employment, health, free movement, asylum, hate speech/hate crime, enlargement and foreign policy. The Commission’s objectives are to support progress in all EU and accession countries in all these policy areas, improve the social acceptance of LGBTI people and enforce EU legislation.

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