1. Introduction:
a finding of persistent inequality between girls and boys
1.1. Unequal treatment
of girls and boys from earliest childhood
1. Every day, all over the world, girls are banned from
attending school, beaten, neglected, coerced into marriage or sexual
intercourse, sold as slaves, forced to fight in wars or to sit silently
by while their fate is decided for them. Each time, their rights
are trampled.
2. What about Europe? This distressing finding applies to Europe
too, although problems are less common than in other continents.
Are girls’ rights still an issue in European societies? Are they
not very often an established fact? Must we still distinguish between
girls’ rights and those of children in general? Today, at first sight,
these questions seem to convey a dated image of times gone by when
girls did not go to school and were treated differently from the
other children in the family.
3. Yet the reality is quite disturbing. The picture that emerges
today is an ambivalent one: girls’ rights have clearly made tremendous
progress over the centuries; yet, on the one hand, a retrograde
trend can generally be observed in this area, and on the other,
a de facto inequality is in any case still deeply embedded in our societies.
Appearances are deceptive, which makes the problem very pernicious.
The gap is still very wide between de jure and de facto equality.
However, girls are entitled to rights that are effective and tangible. Otherwise
their rights are valueless.
4. I was recently appointed rapporteur after Ms Cliveti, the
previous rapporteur, had stepped down. I have drawn on my own experience
and on various studies in order to offer a response to this problem
that is as concise as possible. I will refer in particular to the
high-level experts who were given a hearing by the Committee on
Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Paris on 5 December 2008.
The
main purpose of the hearing was to gather information on the situation
of girls around the world, then focus on teachers’ attitudes towards
girls and boys, and finally consider how girls can be involved in
decision making, particularly in the political field.
5. In Europe today, most girls go to school, most have a high
standard of education and many of them work. However, very few hold
positions that carry professional or political responsibilities,
in all spheres of life. Girls and women are also less well paid
and shoulder most of the unpaid work, such as household and care‑giving responsibilities.
6. So what is the crux of the issue? It is the unequal treatment
of girls and boys from a very early age. Children – both girls and
boys – are affected by stereotypes from the moment they are born,
then throughout their lives.
7. Because the problem of inequality between children of different
sexes is very often hidden by a de jure equality, I felt that it
would be interesting to see how commentators have analysed the changes
in attitudes towards girls and boys over the last few years.
8. Some authors do indeed criticise early stereotyping. I will
refer in particular to the analysis of the evolution of the situation
conducted in 2007 by two French sociologists on the basis of a study
by an Italian sociologist dating back to 1973. These books manage
to be quite enlightening without straying into the very interesting
yet complex and controversial domain of psychoanalysis.
1.2. The situation in
1973
9. As far back as 1973, in a book entitled
Dalla parte delle bambine,
Elena Gianini
Belotti highlighted, by means of an observation survey in families,
child-care centres and schools, the power of the stereotypes rooted in
each of us which assign different properties and qualities to girls
and boys even before they are born and throughout early-years education.
10. She found that all the differences observed pointed to the
inferiority of the female gender, with girls ultimately having a
lower social value than boys after being less wanted than them.
She showed that mothers unknowingly behave differently, especially
in terms of the toys they give to girls and boys, but also in their
verbal interaction with them. The social behaviour of boys receives
more stimulation than that of girls, as does their motor development:
they are handled more vigorously and given more help with sitting
and walking than girls. Fathers and mothers exhibit gender-differentiated
attitudes: an infant’s tears are interpreted as anger in the case
of a boy and as fear in the case of a girl.
11. Who has not said of a boy that he is lively and of a girl
that she is sweet? This starts at birth. Blue, pirates, fighting
and untidiness for boys. Pink, indoor leisure activities and tidy
exercise books for girls.
1.3. The present-day
situation
12. Thirty-five years on, two sociologists examined how
the situation had developed. The earlier essay had had a “huge worldwide
impact” by highlighting an uninterrupted process of “continuous
discrimination” which had ultimately succeeded in forging separate
systems of representations, expectations and attitudes that were quickly
internalised by children.
13. In their book published in 2007,
Christian
Baudelot and Roger Establet emphasise the “natural inequalities”.
They refer to the debate on the sex of the brain and draw conclusions
regarding the prejudices inherent in such concepts. The differences
observed between girls and boys, particularly the differences in academic
achievement, are related to cultural and social factors. After looking
at school, they turned their attention to the workplace: the chapter
entitled “Quel avenir devant soi?” (What future lies ahead?) studies women’s
occupational integration. While the media highlight the spectacular
careers of some women, this enchanted view can be dispelled by taking
a quick look at the rates of feminisation in different occupations.
14. Chapter 4 takes up the concept of gender identity. As the
authors point out, belonging to a gender is a social construct.
This chapter is the one that follows on most directly from Ms Gianini
Belotti’s study by comparing the findings made in 1973 with the
present-day situation. In maternity wards, among children of equal
size and weight, the boys are described by their parents and visitors
as big, while the girls are “sweet” and “little”. The toys given
to girls and boys still differ considerably.
The chapter then goes more
deeply into this issue of the gendering of toys and books and notes
their gender-differentiated uses.
15. The chapter entitled “Les chemins de la liberté” (Paths to
freedom) studies the differences in female and male entry into sexuality
and the different role played by peers according to gender. Feminine
and masculine models are not being abandoned, although we are seeing
a reinterpretation on a more egalitarian basis. Where leisure activities
are concerned, the divisions are still watertight.
16. In conclusion, the authors said that “some far-reaching changes,
some changes on a smaller scale and some significant continuities
can be seen”.
17. I consider this presentation to be convincing and comprehensible
to everyone. Ultimately, the issue of inequalities between girls
and boys is indeed a reality of our time. On the basis of these
findings and the statements made at the hearing, I would like to
emphasise the key factor in the development of societies, namely
education, as provided by teachers, but also in books and pictures
for children. I also consider it very important for girls to abandon
their passive role and take an active part in decisions concerning
not only them, but the population in general.
18. I would also like to focus on the field of sport which, in
my view, is important both for the personal development of individuals
and for their social integration.
I feel it is vital that girls and
boys should enjoy equal access to sports facilities and appropriate
training.
19. I also believe it essential not only for girls and young women
but also for boys and young men to have access to reproductive health
services and to sexual health education and information.
I would therefore like to
emphasise the necessity of reproductive health, not only to avoid
sexually transmitted diseases, but also to ensure that girls and
women are able to plan for motherhood in a way that signals their
independence vis-à-vis men. All measures compatible with women’s
rights must be implemented in order to reduce the number of unwanted
pregnancies and abortions.
2. Education
as a central instrument for implementing the principle of gender
equality
2.1. School’s vital
role as a vehicle for equality
20. Given the importance of early-years education in
adulthood, teachers and parents clearly have a vital role to play.
I would stress that most children begin to spend time outside the
family environment at a very early age. Some are entrusted to child-care
facilities from the age of two months. Schooling begins at around
three years of age and they sometimes also attend after-school child-care
centres. Many children therefore spend an average of ten hours per
day outside the home, in educational or care facilities. Teachers
and educators therefore have a vital place in education, in both
quantitative and qualitative terms. Parents also have a positive role
to play in the education of their children, in terms of gender equality.
21. I note that representations of femininity and masculinity,
as well as models for assigning the social roles which shape our
societies, are replicated at school. This problem therefore needs
to be examined in greater depth because the eradication of formal
discrimination does not seem to be sufficient. It is necessary to
ensure that the school system is a vehicle for de facto equality.
In our societies education is one of the essential preconditions
for economic and social success.
22. As a parliamentarian, I feel it is important that the principle
of equality between women and men should be enshrined in education
laws. Legislation, however, is not the only means of creating a
favourable climate that enables all girls and boys to achieve educational,
personal and social progress in line with their potential, their
interests and their aspirations. In my view, an inclusive society
cannot be built without a sustained effort to change attitudes and
take on board differences. Schools play a decisive role in that
process.
2.2. Teachers’ attitudes
23. As Carrie Paechter pointed out, despite some thirty
years of equal opportunities legislation and considerable research
into gender issues in schools, teachers still treat boys and girls
differently.
24. She stresses that teachers treat boys and girls as separate
and very different groups. Throughout the schooling system, teachers
behave as though girls and boys are very different in behaviour,
aptitude and attitudes. This view of things impacts in various ways
on how pupils are treated, depending on whether they are boys or
girls.
25. Teachers of young children thus tend to refer to gendered
groups when praising or reprimanding, for example by saying “All
the girls are sitting nicely”, or “The boys are being very noisy”.
They also expect boys and girls to want to learn and to socialise
in separate groups. While this does reflect dominant social norms
in early-years classrooms, where children tend naturally to stay
in single-sex groups, it also reinforces young children’s stereotyped
views about appropriate friendships and play companions, by taking
this segregation for granted. Teachers, for their part, reinforce
stereotypes of gender difference by using the threat of being seated with
the other sex as a disciplinary measure. This tendency to treat
boys and girls as different, clearly differentiated groups, reveals
a kind of unconscious discriminatory reflex in teachers.
26. Teachers treat girls and boys very differently from the day
they start school until the day they leave. They do this because
they hold stereotyped assumptions about gender which are self-reinforcing
as they affect their own and the children’s classroom behaviour.
These assumptions lead them to present boys and girls with different
behavioural expectations, different classroom experiences and different
curricular and pedagogic provision. The result is that neither boys
nor girls are given access to the full range of learning experiences
to which they are entitled.
27. Working-class girls are likely to be particularly disadvantaged
in this respect, as the cumulative effect of this differential treatment
leads them to choose vocational courses that prepare them for poorly
paid jobs with little career structure and a focus on women’s work.
28. Studies show that teachers take a very negative view of girls
whose behaviour fails to conform to female stereotypes.
Both
teachers and children have strongly differentiated understandings
of how girls and boys behave. Girls are supposed to be sensible
and selfless, and therefore enable group activity to continue by giving
in to boys’ demands. Girls are expected to take on a sub-teacher
role, in other words support the teacher in keeping the boys in
order and helping them to learn. Being considered sensible, girls
are also supposed to participate in “housekeeping” activities, for
example by helping the teacher to clean school equipment or running
small errands, while at the same time the boys are left to study
or play.
29. One study carried out in 2004
in a Swedish nursery school showed that,
without being aware of this, the teachers treated girls and boys
very differently. For instance, they gave the boys much more attention, letting
them take up, on average, two thirds of all conversation. In discussions
with the children, they readily allowed the boys to interrupt the
girls, but asked the girls to await their turn patiently. They had
two speech registers: short, directive sentences for the boys, and
longer, more detailed instructions for the girls. At meals, the
differences became even more glaring: the films made in 2004 show
3- or 4-year-old girls obediently serving glasses of milk or plates
of potatoes to impatient boys. This division of roles was encouraged
quite involuntarily by the teachers.
30. At the end of the project, the teaching staff decided to introduce
two single-sex periods of one and a half hours every week. According
to the teachers, these periods allow the children to quietly enjoy
games traditionally associated with “the other sex”. The girls can
drive cars or jump on the benches without the boys disturbing them.
In a separate playroom, the boys have fun with toy tea sets, soft
toys and dolls without the girls taking over and giving them lessons
in domestic life. Girls and boys are also occasionally separated
during meals: to prevent the girls from acting as serving staff,
lunch is sometimes taken at separate tables.
31. But the 2004 study led the teachers above all to take a fresh
look at their everyday behaviour.
32. Teachers of vocational subjects have been found to be the
most conservative regarding gender of all teacher groups, which
makes vocational classes particularly important arenas for reinforcing
gender stereotypes. Vocational education remains strongly gender-segregated,
even in the Nordic countries, where principles of gender equality
are otherwise well established, and in the former East Germany,
where gender divisions in vocational choices have been exacerbated
since unification. This has serious implications for the future
occupational choices and opportunities of both sexes, but is particularly
problematic for girls, as the vocational courses they tend to follow
are often shorter and lead to lower-status and frequently much worse paid
employment. Some vocational courses, particularly those for traditionally
female occupations, are highly gender stereotypical in their content.
33. It can therefore be said that the attitudes and expectations
of teachers throughout schooling disadvantage girls on a long-term
basis, since they will suffer from this in adult life.
34. Schools must therefore be helped to implement the principle
of equality between women and men. For most educators it is a new
and complex concept not taken into account in the practices of schools
and other educational or child-care establishments. I feel therefore
that it is essential that the authorities should help the teaching
profession to move towards non-stereotyped attitudes that are consistent
with the realities of 21st century societies.
2.3. Mixed-sex schooling
35. In her statement on the education system, Christiane
Spiel addresses not only the issue of discrimination against girls,
but also that of the appropriateness of single-sex teaching. Numerous
studies have revealed systematic differences between boys and girls
in variables which influence performance.
36. These differences have diminished substantially in recent
years, but they still exist. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find
that girls have better school results than boys. For example, for
some years now women have accounted for a higher proportion than
men among the population with a secondary or higher education qualification.
As a result, some people have come to regard boys as victims of
a feminised education system from which girls benefit more. The
fact is, however, that girls have succeeded in catching boys up
now that some degree of attention has begun to be paid to them.
This does not mean that equality has been achieved between girls
and boys, but that the attention paid to girls is increasing in
some fields.
37. While no gender differences can be shown among young children
concerning interest and motivation for mathematics and the natural
sciences, by the end of elementary school girls have a considerably
more negative self-perception of their performance in maths than
boys. They tend to underestimate their performance and the good
marks they obtain are not sufficient to offset their loss of confidence
in their mathematical competence.
38. Consequently, girls also have lower hopes of success. In addition,
they show detrimental attributional patterns – from the perspective
of motivational psychology – in comparison to boys. Failures are
more frequently attributed to low ability while success is attributed
to luck or teacher preference.
39. The results of the PISA
2006 survey conducted by the OECD
support these findings.
In European countries there is a clear tendency among boys to self-evaluate
their competence in natural sciences at a higher level than girls.
Furthermore, the educational climate favours boys. Learning often
takes place in a competitive climate. Girls are therefore disadvantaged
because they are more co-operation-oriented. The performance of
girls in competitive school classes is shown to be lower, in relation
to boys, than in non-competitive classes. The way they are brought
up – to be well-behaved and shy – does not tie in with the expectations
of society, which prefers risk-taking and creativity.
40. Girls are also disadvantaged by the stereotypes associated
with them, domestic tasks and looking after younger children, for
which they bear the main responsibility, leaving them little or
no time for themselves.
41. Ms Spiel concludes that our education system is undoubtedly
discriminatory towards girls. However, she refuses to accept single-sex
teaching as the solution to this problem.
42. In the last few years, an at least partial return to separate
teaching for girls and boys has been mentioned increasingly in some
countries as a solution to this discrimination.
43. However, I am not in favour of abandoning a principle which
was adopted after in-depth pedagogical reflection. It is too simple
a solution to what is a very complex problem. Moreover, gender-specific
expectations are also generated by parents and other players. Ultimately,
the fact that these gaps are not observed in all mixed-gender classes
and that there are considerable differences from one country to
another, as emerges from the PISA survey, clearly demonstrates the
influence of educational processes and, hence, of teachers.
44. An impoverished curriculum has at any rate been noted in single-sex
classes, affecting both girls and boys. Given the stereotypes about
boys’ and girls’ tastes and their principal modes of learning, boys
have been offered more practical activities, while girls receive
a wider theoretical education, but employing methods geared less
to curiosity and discovery.
45. I therefore believe that the goal of education ensuring equal
opportunities for girls and boys can only be achieved by providing
a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education. Essentially, this means
implementing real co-education, which does not consist solely in
having girls and boys seated side by side in the same room. Indeed,
this type of education calls for in-depth reflection about stereotypes,
differences and individual needs and for explicit involvement in
the learning process. Such an approach would be beneficial for both
girls and boys.
46. This type of mixed-sex education should be based on learning
motivation and self-regulation, focusing on each pupil in order
to foster the development of his or her abilities. For this purpose,
teachers will need to be aware of the causes of gender differences
and of how they themselves may be contributing to them. Marking will
have to be transparent because it has been shown that the best way
to motivate pupils to learn is to adopt a marking system based on
objective criteria while also taking personal factors into account.
47. Role models could be provided for girls and boys to help reduce
gender stereotypes. These role models could be older pupils, specific
teachers or persons from outside the school. In this connection,
it should be borne in mind that the majority of teachers are women.
48. School obviously cannot be the only institution responsible
for a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education, although it is
unquestionably a place where the necessary changes can be systematically introduced.
Co-operation would need to be established at the wider level of
society, and particularly with parents.
49. I am convinced that parents are very often unaware of the
qualities of their children, particularly their daughters, whom
they tend to underrate instead of bringing out their full potential.
I therefore believe that all possible means should be employed to
increase parental awareness of equality and of the intrinsic value
of their children, both girls and boys, within the context of positive
parenting. “Parenting schools”, offering assistance, support, information,
guidance and prevention measures as an optimum means of addressing
the concerns of couples, parents, families and young people are
in my opinion a positive means of improving the link between parents
and children and of ensuring that everyone’s value is fully recognised.
50. Furthermore, I am fully in favour of providing financial support
to non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
which are active in the promotion
of equality and which, through age-specific activities, are encouraging
the participation of girls in decision making to allow them to become
fully-fledged citizens.
3. Conclusion
51. Education is a means of guaranteeing equal opportunities
between girls and boys. It is a necessary tool for reducing poverty
and social inequalities and respecting human rights. Education has
a major impact on the ability of girls and women to claim their
rights and acquire social status, achieve financial independence
or improve their political representation. It also helps to protect
girls and women from exploitation and makes them less vulnerable
to risks such as HIV/Aids.
52. Eliminating the differences of treatment between the sexes
in education should be a priority for our states. Equality of girls
and boys should be a legal obligation and a fundamental goal for
our societies. Mixed-sex education represents a step forward, but
it does not mean a situation of equality between girls and boys. There
are still too many disparities between girls and boys during their
school careers. Education for equality is a necessary precondition
for a change of mentality. All educational institutions must become
places of real learning about equality between girls and boys.
53. In the light of the foregoing, I propose measures to implement
the principle of equality between women and men at school and in
the child’s educational environment by bringing about a change in
attitudes and giving priority to teacher training within co-educational
schools that respect everyone’s differences and gender equality.
54. I submit the draft resolution and recommendation above for
adoption by the Assembly.