Forum: Issue: ECOSOC The Hague International Model United Nations Qatar 2017 24 th 27 th of January 2017 Promoting Equal Access to Education for Girls to Enhance their Economic Standing Student Officer: Antonio Alec B. Gemarino Position: Deputy Introduction To this day, equal access to education for girls is a modern issue. Yet it s not addressed to a point that globally, men and women have equal access to education. According to the Right to Education Project, Despite progress, girls and women continue to be discriminated against in accessing education and within education systems. Supporting this statement, it followed with 57 million children worldwide, including 31 million girls, are out of school and two thirds of illiterate adults are women. Continuing on, there is a high probability of adolescent girls dropping out of secondary school compared to boys in developing countries. This issue is very prominent in developing countries worldwide. Girls having equal access to education continues to become an issue due to factors such as socioeconomic limitations, social and cultural expectations of countries, rural locations, policies and finance for education, practice of gender stereotyping, violence, support in the lack of non-formal education programmes. All the factors have in common is that it s roots is deep within the countries current status. However, the issue on equal access to education for girls does not only concern developing countries. According to OECD's Doing Better for Families, globally, women are responsible for 60 to 80 per cent of household chores and childcare, and account for 58 of unpaid work. Adding on with, in high income countries, women s roles as child carers influence the amount of time in spent in employment later. The issue may not be as prominent as in developing countries but the issue still undeniably exist and it affects the whole world. Definition of Key Terms Research Report Page 1 of 10
Equality The Hague International Model United Nations Qatar 2017 24 th 27 th of January 2017 Equality, in this case, refers to gender equality which means men and women should have equal responsibilities, opportunities, and rights; one s gender does and should not determine the application of those rights. In the issue of promoting equal access to education for girls to enhance their economic standing, equality is specifically targeting the equal rights and access to education since it s one of our basic rights as humans. Yet, comparing both genders in a global scale, men have a higher percentage than women. Equal Access Equal Access means internationally that all children, regardless their race and gender, should have access to equal opportunities in any education systems. In this issue, girls should have the same opportunities as boys including but not limited to extracurricular activities. Economic Standing Economic standing means women s status in the economy and their ability to make a change which is a major factor in accomplishing equality between men and women. This is significant especially when education is involved because both genders were born with equal rights to access education. Empowerment Empowerment concerns women's empowerment which according to United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN), there is five parts which are women's sense of self-worth, right to have and to determine choices, right to have access to opportunities and resources, right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally. In this issue, education is the key to women's empowerment and women s empowerment is key to an improved future. Background Information Research Report Page 2 of 10
The relationship between women and education has a very long history. Women in the past were made to believe that they were less capable than men. It was not too long ago that women were not part of the educational system. There was an unequal number of women and men college students until about 1980. To this day, women are still hindered from access of education. Factors that contribute to this issue are such as, but not limited to, discrimination of gender, child marriage, violence in schools, pregnancy, poverty and high school fees. Furthermore, a study suggests that there is a link between women s education and politics which a paper was written on called Women s education and political participation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO). The UNESCO s From Access to Equality: Empowering Girls and Women through LIteracy and Secondary Education (2012) This noteworthy document does not only acknowledge but also analyse the factors that hinder girls from accessing education. In the section of socio-economic barriers to access to education, it recognizes that the root of the issue is from the fact that poor family households tend to prioritize their sons rather than their daughters; viewing their daughters as care provider for sibling, income contributor and potential bride. In the section of social norms and cultural economic expectations, it started with girls are being viewed as having household and reproductive roles. Supporting the main point of the fear of the daughters being influenced by schools that would lead them astray from their traditional values and eventually not making them good wives. Culture is one of the major factor in the issue of equal access to education. Society's view on girls need to change and cease to view them as an inferior gender that are similar to slaves. In the section of rural dwelling, it reaffirms that living in rural locations limits both genders access to education but it affects girls drastically compared to boys. This further encourages girls to take on household and again, income contributors responsibilities. Location is a problem that is difficult to find a solution because the physical location can even lack the basic necessities such as infrastructure. In the section of education policies and financing, it strongly states that the policies in education are most of the roots of the problem, including the lack of recognition of supporting girls from minority population groups which is due to the lack of diversity and mother tongue education in schools. Another factor is the lack of flexibility of education systems that doesn t allow girls to enroll after dropping out of school due to reasons such as, but not limited to family Research Report Page 3 of 10
obligations and pregnancy. Countries still continues to practice such policies that discriminate girls and young mothers to pursue education. Also, another factor is that governments has unequally distributed resources which affects maintaining facilities, such as toilettes, and education resources. Education systems are also a factor which should be addressed which ties back to culture of countries. The culture and values of a country influences the educational system thus to solve the education systems, the culture and values of the countries should be resolved first. In the section of gender stereotyping through teaching practices and instructional materials, it acknowledges the contents in learning environment puts girl in a disadvantage due to express of traditional values of teachers that enforces gender stereotypes which leads to gender bias. Thus, resulting to girls losing motivation. The environment girls are in influences them significantly due to forcing them to believe that they have no rights or power whatsoever. In the section of violence, it recognizes that girls experience violence that are mostly gender-based harassments, which some go unreported. This discourages girls to continue pursuing education, which can be seen by their attendance. Fear is also a significant factor that prevent girls from equal access to education. Major Countries and Organizations Involved India Girls in India, due to the country's economy, are forced to work to aid their families which eventually perceive education as not a necessity. Culture and value also factor in significantly and fear of families sending their daughters to school due violence and unsafe conditions towards girls. Cambodia In 1970, Cambodia had a drastic decrease in education people when a new power came which it s aftermath remained to this day. 15 percent of women are seeking education while others are halted. Majority of women in Cambodia is believed to suffer from domestic violence or marital rape and work in the rice fields or as prostitutes. Pakistan Research Report Page 4 of 10
Pakistan has the lowest rate of education in the world which over half of the girls are not educated, according to the World Economic Forum Gender Parity Report. Also, Pakistan has the world s second lowest rate of female employment. However recently, Malala Fund has come into existence which endorses the education and empowerment of girls in Pakistan and around the world. Nepal Nepal has only 7 percent of students that complete tenth grade which usually has ratio of boys to girls, 2:1. Girls education is not as important to Nepal, which similar to India, also Nepal view girls as household workers or sold into bonded servitude. Afghanistan. About 9 out of 10 women in Afghanistan are illiterate and about 40 percent of girls attend primary which 1 out of 20 has completed until 6th grade. Girls in Afghanistan faces violence and death threats and also are prohibited to learn with boys. Afghanistan also view girls as family income by forcing them into child marriages. United Nations of Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) UNESCO was formed at 1945 to address international affairs concerning education, intercultural agreement, scientific cooperation and freedom of expression. It is regarded by the United Nations also as the intellectual agency. UNESCO established, on May 25, 2011, a Global Partnership for Girls and Women s Education along with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Secretary of State of the United States, which allowed the United States to support the partnership and its study on educating girls. Thus, creating the 2012 report called From Access to Equality: Empowering Girls and Women through Literacy and Secondary Education which presents ways to solve the issue supported by statistics. This was not the only paper published by UNESCO concerning equal gender rights. Gender and EFA 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges is another noteworthy paper which reviews the issue and like the 2012 report, the paper also contains ways to solve the issue. United Nations (UN) Women's Watch UN Women s Watch was established by the United Nations General Assembly at July of 2010. One of its main roles is to support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms. This branch of the United Nations addresses economic empowerment and strongly believes in the benefits of economic empowerment, the world of work, essential to agriculture and green economy, sustainable development involving women. Resulting to many of their works such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Research Report Page 5 of 10
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and many conventions on the topic of gender equality. United Nations Girls Education Initiative UNGEI was founded at 2000 in Dakar by the United Nation World Education Forum and their goal is to address girls education issues and turn gender equality into reality. Their partnership s aim is to support countries to achieve change to an extent on girls education and gender equality and global and national development concerning girls education and gender equality. Recently, UNGEI published a report, Gender and EFA 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges, that contains a more up to date report on global progress on address girls equal access to education, challenges that hinder the world to progress and recommendations. Timeline of Events Date Description of Event 1787 The first all-female school, The Young Ladies Academy, was opened in America, which has enrolled about a hundred girls. This inspired many to establish schools in the 1800s. 1815 Catharine Beecher, Mary Lyon and Emma Willard led the Female Seminary Movement to establish schools that offer an education equal to men to women. 1833 The first college to enroll women which was established by abolitionists; it was called Oberli. However, the courses for women were limited to what was known as Ladies Courses, this was where women were taught careers related to motherhood. 1836 Georgia Female College was the first school to established use the term college for women. 1861 Vassar College, founded by Matthew Vassar, was the first college to have a curriculum similar to those for men. 1941 The end of marriage bars. Several state Supreme Court ended the barred the hiring of married women and authorized the firing of women who got married during their term. Research Report Page 6 of 10
Relevant UN Treaties and Events Sustainable development: implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, 14 December 2015 (A/70/472/Add.1) Political declaration on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, 5 March 2015 (E/CN.6/2015/L.1) Review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, 15 December 2014 (E/CN.6/2015/3) Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting, 31 October 2000 (S/RES/1325) Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - The Fourth World Conference on Women, 15 September 1995 United Nations Literacy Decade: education for all, 19 December 2001(A/RES/56/116) Women's education and political participation, 2003/4 (2004/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/23) Draft outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, 12 August 2015, (A/69/L.85) System Wide Coherence (establishment of UN Women) General Assembly, July 2010 (A/RES/64/289) Strengthening the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations, 2012 and 2013, (E/RES/2012/3) and (E/RES/2013/6) Previous Attempts to solve the Issue United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, a United Nations branch, has a current solution called the Humanitarian Strategy which is a great platform that contains its purpose, the strategic plan, the vision and desired outcome and other details. The details include such as strategic objective for example ensure equal access to education. The strategy includes coordination and leadership, technical expertise, capacity building, and evidence based response and advocacy. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is a similar attempt to solve the issue due to addressing the issue in formal written document with a level of detail. The paper addresses women and Research Report Page 7 of 10
poverty, and other issues, recommending action. Actions recommended include governments should create a gender-sensitive educational system, eliminate gender disparities in access to all areas of tertiary education and advance the goal of equal access to education by taking measures to eliminate discrimination. Another similar report, The Gender and EFA 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges includes the global progress which stated gender parity has nearly been achieved in pre-primary education and major progress in primary education. These documents contained similar recommendations of action to address the issue which still lack enforcement and action. The organizations who wrote the documents also published actions which they have done to solve the issue. However, the current issue now is how fast the issue can be solved. Possible Solutions A possible solution to this issue is to enforce the recommendation of actions that should be taken to solve this issue. The Humanitarian Strategy and the Beijing Declaration Platform for Action and other documents hold great potential in terms of suggested action that target mostly the government which includes the following action should be taken by government, improve the quality of education and equal opportunities for women and men in terms of access in order to ensure that women of all ages can acquire the knowledge. It only lacks support at this stage. There were actions taken such as conference to education women about their power in society. However, the strategy is not reaching an international scale which is the issue demands. The reason for why actions aren t is that some governments and even ministries of education fail to recognize girls education as an issue. To solve this issue, UN should further encourage other countries to address this issue through awareness campaignlike. Also organization and governments around the world targeting this issue should set in motion the recommendations given, and begin to address them. Bibliography Girls education and gender equality, UNICEF, updated on 23 july 2015<http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html> Research Report Page 8 of 10
Promoting Equal Access of Girls/Women to Technical and Vocational Education, UNESCO <http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/tve/nseoul/docse/rpeagwe.html> From access to equality - Empowering Girls and Women through Literacy and Secondary Education, UNIS UNESCO, pdf, 2012, place de Fontenoy, France <http://www.uis.unesco.org/education/documents/unesco-from-access-to-equality-2012.pdf> Gender Equality: Why Gender Matters, UNIS UNESCO, pdf <http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/5_why-it- Matters_GenderEquality_2p.pdf> Key Dates in International Women s History, UN FOUNDATION, pdf<http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/key-dates-in-international-womens-history.pdf> Economic Empowerment of Women, UN Women's Watch, pdf <http://www2.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2013 /12/un%20women_ee-thematic-brief_us-web%20pdf.pdf?v=3&d=20160930T153216> Ingrid Vanderveldt, Resolutions: Female entrepreneurs are key to sustainable global development, UN FOUNDATION, January 6, 2014, blog <http://www.unfoundation.org/blog/female-entrepreneurs.html> The History Women and Education, National Women s History Museum, 2007, website <https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/education/introduction.html> Anne Marie Goetz, Women's education and political participation, 2003/4, pdf <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001467/146770e.pdf> Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship: Final Report to the MCM 2012, OECD, 23-24 May 2012, Paris <http://www.oecd.org/employment/50423364.pdf> Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, UN Women, 1995<http://beijing20.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/pfa_e_final_ web.pdf> Research Report Page 9 of 10
OECD, Doing Better for Families. Paris. OECD <www.oecd.org/social/family/doingbetter > UNGEI, United Nations Girls Education Initiative, website, 2000 <www.ungei.org > Great School Partnership, The Glossary of Educational Reform, website, 2014 <http://edglossary.org/access/> Laura Argintar, You Won t Believe How Many Countries Still Won t Allow Women The Right To Education, Elite Daily, Article, Dec. 18, 2013 <http://elitedaily.com/women/separate-unequalcountries-worst-gender-inequality-education/> Research Report Page 10 of 10