One of the significant ways with which we can create a world free of gender-based discrimination is through teaching children from an early age to respect one another as individuals.
Educators are uniquely positioned to show students they have a choice when it comes to forming their own identity, and to highlight the many illusions and traps society has laid before them that prevent equal opportunity in their personal and professional lives.
It’s time to give gender equality the place it deserves in our curricula, from the fine arts to the hard sciences and from kindergarten to secondary school and beyond.
Below is an outline of ways you can promote gender equality in your school:
- Disassociate character traits from gender. Teach students to judge a person as an individual with a complex makeup of characteristics.
- Don’t distance the boys in gender equality discussions.
- Don’t be harsher on boys than on girls when it comes to behavioural matters.
- Use teaching materials that emphasize gender equality and that represent genders equally.
- Teach students to recognize gender bias in language when they hear or see it.
- Teach students to pay attention to cultural differences and diversity.
- Praise and criticize boys and girls equally.
- Encourage both boys and girls to interact and engage with each other.
- Initiate project-based learning that integrates a mix of boys and girls in a small group.