Gender education starts from a very early age

I felt like my last entry on women and education didn’t cover everything. There was one vital part missing: how do women themselves feel about the opportunities they have in Argentina?

In reading Emmy’s entry, I decided to take the question further: what is the role of women in society and why is it important that they get an education? I am convinced that societies should give free access to education to everyone in an equal way. However, I found that I struggled in justifying why – and I’m not the only one.

I asked Mariana and Estefanía from German class, my sister Pilar and a colleague, Isabel, to tell me why they thought women should have an education. This is what they said.

For the younger girls – the first three of the lot – it was difficult to nail down their ideas. I believe this has something to do with how accepted the concept of women being inferior to men is in the professional world. The problem with sexist thinking in Argentina is that more often than not it comes from women themselves, and this attitude is passed on to the children. Also, some of the things they said applied not only to women, but to people in general. For instance, Mariana emphasized education as a key factor in knowing and using your civil rights. This is true for any human being. Pilar brought up independence, which, in the context of women’s history in Argentina, is especially relevant. But, generally speaking, it is something desirable for anyone.

(Click here to hear what my friends had to say.)

I believe (and I had trouble putting this idea into words myself) that living in a masculine-oriented society has deprived us citizens to think of a system that can organize itself around both masculine and feminine ways of thinking. Because, yes, we are equal in our right and obligations towards the other, but we are first and foremost different. And that difference is a source of richness.

There are hundreds of studies that describe the differences in how men and women think. The masculine mind may be more result-oriented and practical. A feminine mind is more sensitive to personal relationships and worried about building a harmonious social environment. Educated women, inasmuch as they are given the power and place in society they have earned, can help to construct a more inclusive and tolerant society.

I think the real change could take hold when women have not only secured equal opportunities to study and develop professionally, but when womanhood and manhood are both appreciated for their unique contributions to the establishment of a society. The way I see it, it takes years of work, a dedication that starts at home, continues inside the classroom and in the school, and has to be backed up by corresponding legislation.

This traffic sign has a message: It's women who look after kids

María commented on my blog from May 14, saying she was surprised about what I had written about the situation of women in the German job market. Actually, when I learned about those numbers the first time, I was surprised, too − particularly because I personally have never felt discriminated against due to my gender. My parents, for instance, have treated my brother and me equally. Gender differences are only apparent during family parties: Most of the work is done by women, and men, particularly those over thirty, become a rare species in the kitchen. But I don’t care too much about that. After all, you won’t see me helping during construction work − then again, you won’t see my brother either.

María is right about the fact that German law offers a lot of parental leave options for parents. And there are also more and more fathers who make use of them. A mother or father who takes parental leave has the right to come back to his or her job up to three years after the birth of his or her child. Parents can also split up this time. Many also use another option: They work part-time.

But there is a difference between the theoretical options and practical consequences people face. Some job positions are just too demanding to be filled by a person working part time. Moreover, people taking parental leave for several years have difficulty keeping track of changes in their companies and their industries more generally.

On the other hand, there are cultural difficulties. Women are often afraid of being regarded as bad mothers who don’t love their families enough if they decide to work full-time. Fathers sometimes have to cope with prejudices going in the opposite direction: They are not regarded as “manly” enough if they use parental leave options. Some people see them as fulfilling the traditional female job of staying at home and caring for children – thus neglecting their masculine duty to earn money.

"Men are not regarded as 'manly' enough if they use parental leave options."

Sometimes differences in wages make it hard to justify why a man should stay at home. Besides the fact that men often work in sectors that pay better, in Germany, men still earn eight percent more than equally-qualified women doing the same job. Looking at the general gender pay gap in Germany, women are even worse off: They earn 23 percent less than men − but still they can feel lucky compared to Argentineans. María wrote of a gender pay gap of up to 35 percent in her home country.

When thinking about this in Germany, it’s interesting to compare the situation under communism in former East Germany (GDR) with the western part of Germany. In East Germany, it was common that women worked full-time. East Germany had an expansive child care system that allowed women to work. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the western educational system was introduced in the former GDR, too. Cultural attitudes, however, don’t seem to have changed as quickly. And today, there are still more women working in the East than in the West.

Equal rights for girls - and boys!

We often make the mistake of equating the definition of gender with women. ‘Gender equality,’ ‘gender and education,’ ‘gender and…’ almost always mean women and fighting for the rights of women. From the higher authorities such as the UN to the basic family level, war has been waged almost literally to protect the rights of the female gender – and rightfully so. I am certain that the strides that have been made even in the western world with regards to the emancipation of women would not have been possible had there been no sacrifices made before.

Nevertheless, I tend to think that male children have been forgotten! The emphasis on girls and their education has shifted the focus away from boys. Organizations troop in from the West and thousands more mushroom locally to protect girls and to promote the empowerment of women. But what about the boys? I feel like it may get to the point that the education of boys will need the same support from others in society beyond the family!

I think we’ve come a long way. I know that modern day parents – especially in urban areas and in my generation – do not discriminate between boys and girls. Schools and even the government have made deliberate decisions to make it easier for girls to attend schools. Just recently, Prime Minister Raila Odinga was raising money for sanitary towels and undergarments for girls in disadvantaged homes so that they would go to school. Also, the government has lowered the pass-mark for girls so that they can get into university with lower marks.

I think that from the outset, girls and boys do not have the same playing field. That lowers expectations for girls and women, but not when it comes to employment. Those who have gotten used to these kinds of favors may have difficulties in the job market.

Same schools, but different standards for girls and boys

Despite these measures taken by the government and other organizations, the challenges and the difference still exist in what Maria refers to as ‘social contracts’ in her blog. Hellgurd also mentions something very interesting. He notes that it becomes more difficult for boys and girls to be friends as they grow older. I find that true as well. As women enter adulthood, society (mostly the men) expects the woman to fit ‘into her shoes’ and ‘not break the rules’ set by society. The situation may not be as bad as in Iraq, but there are still career areas in Kenya and that are the preserve of men. For instance, civil engineering, jobs where heavy machines are used along with other jobs are considered the male turf.

I believe the onus is on women to set an agenda for themselves and the other girls around them. In my opinion, girls should not be awarded any special favors – especially when it does not help in removing barriers to a girls’ education. Additionally, there needs to be an equal emphasis on boys’ education. After all, we do not live in a world with only women!

Gender equality - a lot has changed, but more needs to be done

I wanted to write about women in Iraq this weekend, so I decided to meet with some from different walks of life. That way I could have a better sense of what females are feeling and thinking about in life and how much freedom they feel like they have. Now I want to describe some of the highlights.

First, I met a friend who teaches at a primary school. She’s married and has a kid. She is quite pleased with the freedom women have in this century.

“This freedom is still not enough – though much better than what we had in past decades,” she said.

“I think it’s better for girls to get married to someone whose occupation is the same as hers or at least similar – that way they understand each other better. I have a child, though, so working can be a problem because I have to send him to a nursery, and I’m not sure whether he will be as well behaved as I want. But I have no choice,” my friend added.

Me, conducting interviews

Next I talked with an unemployed young woman who graduated from a media college three years ago. She got a government job at one point but is very upset with what happened.

“The work depended sometimes on whether they were in the mood to employ you. Other times it just depended on what they thought about your specialty and whether it was popular,” she said angrily.

The third one was an old woman who never got to go to school when she was young. She had tears in her eyes when she talked to me.

“Son,” she started to say very sweetly, “When I was young, I lived in a village with my family. We had no school in the village – we didn’t even know exactly what school was. It was just the mosques that would teach our men and boys how to learn to write and read. Sometimes they had to leave their villages to do so. Back then, very few women were allowed to study, and that was only in the big cities,” she said.

A brighter future for the next generation?

“I feel very sad that I can’t enjoy this life because I feel like a blind person: I can’t read or write or join in modern life. But, fortunately, I can see my kids and future generations living full lives now. I remember sometimes that a letter would come for someone in the village, and there was no one to read it. Instead, we had to wait until the men came back. In those days, that was very normal, but when I compare it with now, I feel like it was such a disaster,” she continued with a heavy heart.

I think these three examples showcase the status of women in general in my country. They also show that change has been made over time. I hope we can have a better life among these changes, but we still have to try to do more. As the young generation, we should work on changing how the people in government think.

My classmates Estafanía, Mariana and Clara

Last Saturday morning, during a break from German class, my classmates and I started discussing how some professions that used to be mostly male are now mostly pursued by women. That causes some tension, and it brings about the need for cultural change, as I described in my last entry.

This subtle antipathy can surface unexpectedly in day-to-day life. For instance, my classmate Mariana is studying biology. She told me that once, in a physics class, she and the other students had to make a circuit. The male teacher, after communicating the task, said: “Let’s see how women can manage this one,” clearly assuming electronics was totally a “guy thing.”

Men of all ages seem to share this conception of women. Estefanía, another classmate, is studying food engineering. She had the same experience working in a group to build a circuit during a class on electricity and magnetism. Her male classmates usually left her out, not believing that she was able to handle that.

“One of them even told me he didn’t know why women go after careers, if their husbands can support them,” she said.

These attitudes are part of women’s everyday lives. It is an individual problem as much as it is a structural one. The School for Pharmacy and Biochemistry, in the public University of Buenos Aires, for instance, has only one toilet for women in the entire building. Large queues form during the breaks because of this, and there is no interest building proper facilities for women.

Career choice is also affected by salary and opportunities. In Argentina, some three to four decades ago, doctors were well paid, but no longer.

“And that is why there are a lot of women and very few men in Medicine School,” my father said during lunch on Saturday.

My sister Pilar and her classmates in Neonatology class

“What is that supposed to mean?” I said.

“Well, obviously, men tend to chose a career that is well paid,” my sister replied.

What shocked me the most was to see how natural this is to others: men are supposed to bring home the money; it’s ok for women to study, but it’s not ok for them to be wealthier?

These are the struggles women face in education in my country. For one thing, I believe we need new laws that value contributions from both men and women in shaping families. Consider maternity leave: right now, pregnant women only get a very short period of time off. How different would it be if the partner could also be included? A change in legislation, the way I see it, does not only change things in a practical way, it also introduces a new set of values into communities. It’s a long path, but I believe some steps have been taken. For a start, women are going to college and fighting their place in the professional ground.