Gender Wire

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Welcome to Gender Wire! It’s a newsletter highlighting current gender trends and issues, for people pushing forward gender equality in education in Asia and the Pacific.

Global Action Week (GAW) is an annual awareness-raising campaign on Education for All. It aims to mobilize additional political and financial support for the achievement of the EFA goals. GAW was held from 23 to 29 April 2012, focussing on early childhood care and education (ECCE). 

ECCE touches on the most critical period in human development. It is when children’s brain develops the most rapidly and where strong socio-emotional support from caregivers, adequate nutrition, good health care and a safe and stimulating environment can help them achieve their fullest potential. Challenges remain in the region, including malnutrition continuing to be detrimental to child development in the region. 47% of South Asian children were moderately or severely stunted in 2006-2010 (UNICEF 2012). Education improves child and maternal health because it equips women to process information about nutrition and illness, and to make choices and take greater control over their lives. 

Education opportunities are shaped long before children enter classrooms. The linguistic, cognitive and social skills they develop in early childhood are the real foundations for lifelong learning. Early childhood programmes prepare children for school, mitigate the effects of household deprivation, halt the transfer of educational disadvantage from parents to children and strengthen prospects for economic growth. 

Read about UNESCO’s ECCE work here 

In recognition of the value of investing in ECCE, such programmes are growing rapidly. Since 1999, total enrolment in pre-primary enrolment has more than doubled in South and West Asia, increasing by 26 million (UIS data 2009). UNESCO continues to advocate ECCE to Ministers of Education in the region, within the framework of the follow-up to the World Conference on ECCE held in Moscow in 2010. 

This month’s Gender Wire helps you to discover regional GAW 2012 activities under the What’s Going On section, and read messages demonstrating the relationship between ECCE and gender from UNGEI in What’s New. 

Most importantly, we encourage you beyond this week to get involved and do what you can for improved, gender sensitive early childhood education programmes. 

Until our next issue: farewell, au revoir and hanggan sa muli...
Fuchsia, Adrien and Ayin

WHAT'S NEW?

Asia-Pacific: Start Right with Early Childhood Care and Development
Global Action Week Regional Joint Statement by UNESCO Bangkok, the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), Save the children and UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) Joint Statement.

Asia-Pacific: UN Girls Education Initiative Joint Statement on Gender and Early Childhood Care and Education for Global Action Week
Affordable and widespread early childhood care programmes can help to ease the burden of girls from sibling care responsibilities and allow them to regularly attend and be engaged in school activities.

India: Responding to Gender and Cultural Issues in “Communications4Development” Education Tools 
59% of Indian internet users access the internet and the wealth of information that it provides through their mobile phones. Being cheap and widely used, new technologies offer a useful means to empower women particularly through blogs and social media to create a valuable platform for women to express their opinions and let their voices be heard.

Afghanistan: Has Enough Progress Been Made for Women? 
Investigating whether Afghan women are better off since the fall of the Taliban, Human Rights Watch researcher Heather Barr notes that while education is more accessible, more than half of girls still don't go to school. Every two hours an Afghan woman dies of pregnancy-related causes. 

East Asia: “Region has Made Progress on Gender Equality”, World Bank 
In working towards gender equality globally, the World Development Report (WDR) 2012 and the new East Asia Pacific companion study call for action in five areas to promote gender equality in the region:
• addressing human capital issues, including excess deaths of girls and women and gender gaps in education; 
• closing earning and productivity gaps between women and men; 
• giving women greater voice within households and societies; 
• limiting the perpetuation of gender inequality across generations; 
• and the East Asia Pacific companion study also highlights the importance of managing risks associated with rising trends in the region related to globalization, technology, migration, urbanization, and population aging.

Australia: New Bill for Gender Equality in the Workplace
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill 2012 was introduced on 1 March. If the Bill is passed, new obligations are set to be phased in that will enforce more rigorous reporting requirements on gender equality in the workplace and establish the new Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Global: Gender Stereotypes and Female Leadership
Lack of experience, primary caregiver responsibilities, bargaining style and plain old discrimination all help to explain the gender gap in women leaders. Traditional career paths and the cultural norms that constructed and reinforced them, simply have not enabled women to gain the skills required for top leadership positions in many organisational contexts.

Sweden: Preschool Takes Aim at Gender Stereotypes
Staff at progressive preschool “Egalia” avoid using words like “him” or “her” and address the 33 kids as “friends” rather than girls and boys. From the colour and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don’t fall into gender stereotypes.