Searching for sexual revolutions in India: non-governmental organisation-designed sex education programmes as a means towards gender equality and sexual empowerment in New Delhi,India

At the foundation of most inequalities in expression of sexuality lie social constructions of gender. In this paper, sex education is considered as a possibility to challenge sexism and promote healthy and self-affirmative sex lives. In the past decade, the discourse of sex education in India has become a ‘battle of morality’ where concerned citizens condemn sex education on the grounds it may encourage sexual activity and immoral conduct (e.g. promiscuity or infidelity). The work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is an alternative to the governmental national curriculum plan. This paper discusses NGO potential in terms of sexual empowerment by examining beliefs and understanding, choices of information, strategies and methods, and approaches apparent in sex education programmes and projects. Through qualitative data, findings were analysed by constructing a sexual empowerment model that divides components of sex education into four parts and utilises theories of empowerment. The main findings include that all four components of sex education – foundation, content, strategies and approaches – show great potential to challenge gender inequalities in regard to sexuality. Sexual health programmes and projects are seen to be highly participatory, deliberative and encouraging of critical thinking. Some concerns are highlighted: the strong focus on girls as the main actors of change, and external limitations such as parents and institutions.     

Gender equality in education: Definitions and measurements

International consensus on education priorities accords an important place to achieving gender justice in the educational sphere. Both the Dakar ‘Education for All’ goals and the Millennium Development goals emphasise two goals, in this regard. These two goals are distinguished as gender parity goals [achieving equal participation of girls and boys in all forms of education based on their proportion in the relevant age-groups in the population] and gender equality goals [ensuring educational equality between boys and girls]. In turn these have been characterised as quantitative/numerical and qualitative goals respectively. In order to consider progress towards both types of goal, both quantitative and qualitative assessments need to be made of the nature of progress towards gender equality. Achieving gender parity is just one step towards gender equality in and through education. An education system with equal numbers of boys and girls participating, who may progress evenly through the system, may not in fact be based on gender equality. Following Wilson (Human Rights: Promoting gender equality in and through education. Background paper for EFA GMR 2003/4, 2003) a consideration of gender equality in education therefore needs to be understood as the right to education [access and participation], as well as rights within education [gender-aware educational environments, processes, and outcomes], and rights through education [meaningful education outcomes that link education equality with wider processes of gender justice].     

A question of gender justice: Exploring the linkages between women's unpaid care work,education, and gender equality

ActionAid International implemented an action-research programme on women's unpaid care work in rural Nepal from March 2011 to December 2012. This social empowerment methodology, Reflect, enabled 106 women to gain recognition for their unpaid care work through their own collection of time-use data. The literacy skills women acquired facilitated greater representation in community meetings calling for a reduction in their unpaid care work rather than shifting this work to girls. The article draws on Fraser's model of gender justice to explore how women's literacy, girls’ education and a more equitable balance of care work are needed to improve women's status.     

Gender discourses in an NGO education project: Openings for transformation toward gender equality in Bangladesh

This article seeks to illustrate how various actors participating in a non-governmental organization (NGO) education project in two Bangladeshi communities represent different framings of gender. Teachers, as critical actors in this education project, utilize multiple discourses of gender equality and when viewed in relation to community members’, parents’ and students’ ideas of gender equality, we argue their discursive practices can create spaces for transformation. The use of multiple discourses suggests that specific local adaptations of women in development (WID), gender and development (GAD), post-structural and rights and capabilities approaches may all be useful in the work toward gender justice as these approaches inform the different meanings of gender equality in the communities. We conclude that NGOs play a critical role in making micro-level changes in schools as well as have a broader impact on communities and national agendas by engaging different actors’ uses of gender equality discourses.     

Community mobilisation,gender equality and resource mobilisation in adult education

Despite an overall improvement in the educational situation of girls and women in India, there are considerable gender inequalities in education. In the last decade, the Government of India introduced the campaign approach to tackle the problem of widespread illiteracy among women and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups in collaboration with the wider support of civil society. This paper attempts to understand the efforts of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), a voluntary organisation supported by the People's Science Movement, for women's empowerment through its innovative approach to large-scale community mobilisation and organisation at the grassroots. It shows both the potential and limitations of the BGVS in sustaining the process of empowerment among poor and vulnerable women in the state-sponsored literacy campaigns, and challenges in linking literacy with livelihoods issues, development and democracy in the context of limited state support and resources.     

Adult education and indigenous people: Addressing gender in policy and practice

Adult education programmes developed for or by indigenous communities rarely seem to have addressed gender inequalities. Yet, compared to mainstream adult educational interventions promoting instrumental approaches to ‘functional literacy’, such programmes often appear highly politicised, starting from a standpoint of promoting indigenous peoples’ rights. We look at the reasons for the absence of gender analysis from policy and research on indigenous adult education and highlight key issues within indigenous adult education, when viewed from a gendered perspective, particularly language, assessment, learning structures and programme objectives. Drawing on case studies of indigenous adult education programmes in South and South-East Asia, we emphasise the need for participatory, non-hierarchical processes in adult education that can provide legitimate space for multiple voices within indigenous groups, without enhancing the sense of marginalisation. The principles underlying indigenous adult education programmes can help planners to challenge and respond to gender inequalities.     

Academic careers and the valuation of academics. A discursive perspective on status categories and academic salaries in France as compared to the U.S., Germany and Great Britain

This article explores the changing dynamics between gender, cultural capital and the state in the context of higher education expansion in contemporary China. With a particular focus on the one-child generation and women’s opportunities and aspirations, I draw upon empirical evidence from a first-hand survey study and in-depth semi-structured interviews with female undergraduates from one-child families in 2007. The findings from the survey study suggest that singleton status might mediate the impact of socioeconomic status and cultural capital on students’ academic performance and elite opportunities. The qualitative interview data provide further evidence on how singleton women’s aspirations are related to their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. The most significant finding is concerned with singleton girls’ strategy of applying for Chinese Communist Party membership as a way to minimize their social and gender disadvantages. I argue that there emerges a bottom-up approach of women empowerment through qualifications and political selection during China’s transition. Political selection is dressed up in seemingly meritocratic selection, thus becoming more appealing to female undergraduates who, in turn, take advantage of party membership to add a silver lining of political loyalty to higher education qualifications.     

Equality or equity: Gender awareness issues in secondary schools in Pakistan

This paper focuses on gender awareness issues as a dimension of addressing the wider issue of the quality of education in Pakistan from the perspective of social justice. In Pakistan classrooms, boys and girls learn separately and therefore teachers and others tend to think that there are no gender issues once access is achieved and the learners are in the classroom. However, beyond access there are several factors that compromise quality of education and raise issues for gender equity as an element of social justice. These issues are examined in the context of a professional development intervention on promoting gender awareness among secondary mathematics teachers in disadvantaged schools in rural Pakistan.     

“Girls are not free”—In and out of the South African school

Interviews conducted with township girls in South Africa show enduring experiences of sexual violence both in and out of the school. Fear of boys and men were articulated in relation to boyfriends, male teachers, men in the township neighbourhood and men in the home. While the girls attempted to exercise agency in arresting their fears, these appeared to be too limited in the context of great structural and social inequalities and the pervasiveness of gender norms through which male sexual violence is asserted. The implication for increasing girls’ exercise of agency is raised as a human rights issue.     

Supporting minority students through a reflexive approach to empowerment

Referring to the experiences of three Muslim refugee girls recently settled in Australia, this paper examines issues of schooling and empowerment. The paper draws on teacher and student interview data from a study that investigated inclusive approaches to addressing issues of cultural diversity in a secondary state high school in Queensland. The paper foregrounds the girls’ highly positive views of their experiences at the school; views that reflect the girls’ access to spaces of empowerment but belie the complexity and tensions involved in how empowerment was understood and approached by educators at the school. Theorising empowerment through poststructural understandings of agency, the paper examines conditions and ways of understanding that make possible spaces of empowerment for the girls. In particular, the paper argues for a reflexive approach to empowerment that is informed by an understanding of the framing discourses shaping minority student identity and a critical reflection on educator and school positionality.     

Supporting minority women and girls: Key frames of reference and understanding for educators

Recent high‐profile rape cases in Australia involving Muslim and Indigenous minority groups have heightened contention around issues of culture, gender and justice. The article critically examines the culturalising of rape as an ethnic minority issue in the public and legal discourse associated with these cases. This examination problematises the western‐driven narratives about minority women that undergird and make possible this culturalising and foregrounds Muslim and Indigenous feminist priorities concerning issues of gender equity and justice. Against this backdrop, the article draws parallels between the inferiorising of ethnic minority culture in dominant legal and public discourse and the reductionism of culture in education discourse. Towards realising the equity mandates of national schooling policy, the article outlines key frames of reference and understanding about culture, gender and justice necessary for enhancing educators’ support for ethnic minority women and girls.     

Educational and indigenous justice in Africa

This article examines the way in which some of the most discriminated against, disadvantaged and marginalised groups on the African continent, are re-defining education through strategies aimed at recognition of rights and social justice. It uses Fraser's analysis of social justice – distribution, recognition and participation – to examine the demands of the indigenous movement in Africa for rights to education. Over the past 10 years the concept of ‘indigenous’ has become embedded in African regional resolutions and reports while communities self-identifying as indigenous have been shaping new political and educational spaces for their participation and decision making about their development and their education. Taking the example of the East African pastoralists and the Maasai of Ngorongoro District in Tanzania, it looks at indigenous communities’ initiatives to define and achieve a qualitative education which is relevant and meaningful for their lives today. It concludes with a discussion of the potential for the indigenous movement in Africa to ‘reframe’ education for the benefit of not only indigenous communities but for all learners.     

Negotiating meanings of gender justice: Critical reflections on dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO)

In this paper, we reflect upon how dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO) – CARE India in the context of a girls’ education project shaped staff members’ understandings of gender justice. As CARE India staff shared their experiences in the field, in the organization, and in domestic spaces during gender training sessions and other forums, their different politics in these spaces shaped how they translated global discourses of gender justice to produce fluid, contested, and contextual understandings. While these dialogs included the voices of diverse social actors in identifying the capabilities needed for gender justice in education, they were often reframed by local NGO actors.     

Higher education and the economic and social empowerment of women -- the Asian experience

This paper examined the degree of socioeconomic empowerment of Asian women due to higher education (HE). Examples illustrate different cultural contexts and stages in development. Colonial administrations established the first modern educational institutions. These schools trained Western-oriented elites in Western and gender values. Uneven development led to increased socioeconomic differences and disparities by region, ethnicity, religion, and gender. The international focus on women's rights has helped with promotion of education for gender equity. But, the international economic climate has led to adverse outcomes for education. Educational mobility is restricted by exclusion or lack of access to HE. Most of the 15 countries with strong educational systems have minimal gender disparities in primary and secondary education, but even Japan has gender disparities in HE. In 9 South Asian countries, most girls are disadvantaged from birth through the school years. Women are not a homogenous group. Socioeconomic factors affect access to HE. Women are channeled into gender appropriate jobs. Gender division of labor and gender tracking in education limit course and occupational choices. Changes in labor market structures further affect the economic empowerment of female graduates. Demand for female labor migrants siphons off females. Access of women to positions of authority is limited. Women who do reach the top are viewed as role models. Gender based division of labor in the household has changed little. Only India and the Philippines have explicit, conscious policies to promote gender equity.     

Educational inequality and social justice: Challenges for career guidance

The article provides a multiperspective approach to educational careers. It first discusses social justice issues in the distribution of the crucial individual and social good of education. It then summarizes core findings of recent international research on processes and factors generating social disparities in the acquisition of education. Based on both it finally provides suggestions how especially professional guidance can contribute to reducing inequalities and increasing social justice.     

Sexuality and relationships education: toward a social studies approach

Globally, gender norms and power differentials profoundly affect both girls' and boys' sexual attitudes, practices and health. One avenue for enabling young people to reflect on traditional gender arrangements that endanger their health—and to lay the groundwork for satisfying sexual lives—is sexuality and relationships education (SRE). Unfortunately, many SRE programmes address gender norms and critical thinking skills either superficially or not at all. Moreover, in some developing countries, SRE programmes do not reach the majority of girls aged 15–19, a high proportion of whom are simply not in school. This paper argues for grounding SRE within a social studies framework, emphasizing gender and social context. Such an approach can foster critical thinking skills, can provide a foundation for subsequent lessons on explicitly sexual topics, can illuminate the links between gender inequality and other social issues, can allow for a human‐rights emphasis that may prove politically less controversial than technical sexuality topics, and may ultimately prove vital to achieving better sexual health outcomes. The experience of community‐based programmes provides lessons for designing and evaluating such approaches in schools.     

Lifelong Learning: Ideas and achievements at the threshold of the twenty-first century

Taking a historical perspective and focusing on Low and Medium Human Development countries, the paper starts with a quotation from a nineteenth-century Scot proposing universal empowerment through education for all citizens and ends with the recognition that at the end of the twentieth century his social justice challenge has not yet been met. The concept of lifelong learning and associated ideas are unpacked and particular applications highlighted, including human rights, literacy and gender. New arenas for lifelong learning are noted, but the general imbalance between the High Human Development countries and the rest of the world is under scored. At the same time, lessons in learning from the majority world for the High Development countries are suggested, including development-related learning and popular participation.     

Education for women: whose values count?

This article looks at how far educational approaches to gender equity can be packaged and exported to developing countries. I analyze current discourses on women's education at international, national and local levels. Drawing on detailed ethnographic data from Nepal, I argue that issues around gender and education need to be addressed as ideological in nature, rather than a technical matter of tackling ‘drop out’ from women's literacy classes or getting more girls into school. From talking about ‘change’, ‘transformation’ and ‘access’, we need to think more about what is being changed to what and whose values underlie specific educational approaches.     

‘Should you turn this into a complete gender matter?’ Gender mainstreaming in medical education

The incorporation of a gender perspective in medical education aims toward better health, gender equity, and a better health care for both men and women. In this article, participants’ responses to a Dutch gender awareness‐raising project in medical education are discussed. Eighteen semi‐structured interviews were held with education directors and change agents. Resistance towards and obstacles for gender mainstreaming in medical education were implicit in four themes: (1) biomedical knowledge was perceived to be gender neutral, to which knowledge about women could be added to the body of knowledge either with or without framing them as gender issues; (2) the relevance of gender was unofficially denied by downplaying it, particularly in comparison with culture/ethnicity; (3) medical education’s social accountability was hardly mentioned and gender inequalities in health were framed as feminist political issues and not medical issues; and (4) we were urged to communicate carefully to increase acceptance and avoid overt resistance which situated gender inequalities outside the medical domain. Recommendations to change educational material were widely discussed; but specific features of gender were easily lost. This was especially true for power differences between men and women. Nevertheless, dominant systems of thought were challenged.     

Gender,Education and Women's Power: Indian state and civil society intersections in DPEP (District Primary Education Programme) and Mahila Samakhya

This paper examines different understandings of gender equity and women's empowerment in two linked organisations, working in India to expand access and improve quality in primary education. Drawing on case study material from Bihar, the workings of two different, but linked programmes-the District Primary Education Programme and Mahila Samakhya (Women's Empowerment) are examined. The complementary achievements of the two organisations, representing different kinds of NGO, are highlighted. The paper concludes that social justice and educational transformation cannot be taken forward with only a single form of organisation, but the powerful interconnections of the two approaches are necessary.