World Family Summit +6- Paris 2010 Panel III Theme The role of the Family in achieving gender parity and equality in education

Elisabetta Donati, University of Turin, Italy “Educate a Man, You educate a Person, educate a Woman, You Educate a Nation” (African Proverb)

Key issues:  Families play a big role in supporting girls’ education  Families are not natural aggregations or private matters  Families are social actors  Families are contexts where differences exist  Families are central in promoting care and wellbeing but families could create the conditions for maintaining discriminations  Families have to be supported by laws and policies

In times past…. Christine de Pizan wrote: “If girls attended schools they could learn as well as boys did, and could be able to understand all the details of Arts and Sciences, exactly as male did”. La cité des dames, 1418

UNESCO main findings:  Being a girl still remains a powerful cause for exclusion: 60% of countries have not reached gender parity in primary and secondary education  gender equality in education is not only access but challenging gender ideologies in both education and society

The Global Education Digest (GED)

Family role, not in one way only Families work assigning resources and power in different ways in accordance with gender and generation roles and relationships, shaped by traditions as well by social changes

Self reliance for women is not often a recognized right Education for women as well as their labour market participation is related to many social considerations: in many countries it is not still recognized as an individual right and freedom

Unequal processes Social destinies of the children are still strongly correlated to familial and educational contexts in which they are born and in which they are growing up (P. Bourdieu). So, children inherit wealth and poverty from their families if social policies don’t aid in breaking these unequal processes

a very challenging task TO Gender Equality: the right to access and participate in education, as well as to benefit from gender sensitive educational environments, processes and achievements From Gender Parity: equal participation for girls and boys in education.

Gender roles and stereotypes are the main concern Both in rich and poor countries, traditional stereotypes are the biggest challenge for gender equality in education What boys and girls could and should do in their professional (and personal) lives is still very much shaped by traditional concepts of gender roles

In my country (Italy) Equal opportunities Committee have worked to give evidence to the ambivalence of educational models  ambivalence at school  ambivalence at home

But brilliant outcomes:

Mum cooking …. dad napping…..

Mum caretaking…dad enjoying…

More women are in paid work… ( Ocse findings in Gender Brief 2010)

But still many gender gaps prevail

women earn less than men

women spend more time on unpaid work than men

less leisure time for women

Findings:  Families are placed in a point of intersection between public matters and private life  Without equal opportunities policies, families can distribute what they have, their less or more economic resources and cultural templates  Only collective changes can provide genuine resolutions, in both rich and poor countries

Suggestion: Schools and education for All could be a keystone to help families to find out new solutions to the obstacles along their ways and to help individuals to implement their aspirations

Unicef Learning: 1. Good quality schools help personal experiences to develop into capabilities and talents 2. Only free and compulsory schools are schools for All 3. Schools are truly for All if learning enviroments are safe 4. Education needs female positive-influential models 5. Gender-sensitive Data are necessary to measure education equality

Women’s freedom is a severe test of the degrees of democracy in our countries……

From rights to capabilities: Not assuring women the capabilities for acting as individuals, as free citizens means that we are committing an injustice. And this is no concern only of families.