With International Women's Day 2023 approaching, a report by UN agencies on gender equality made a splash. How long will it take to achieve full gender equality? 10 years? 50 years? The best guess is 300 years, according to the report (Link) published by UN Women and UNICEF.
How can we achieve full gender equality the most quickly? The answer is to start with children's education. The report shows that children's educational environment and the system under which they are taught play an important role in promoting gender equality. A child’s mindset is immature, and gender perception is easily affected by his or her surrounding environment. Proper guidance by parents and teachers is conducive to the all-around development of children and will accelerate the realization of gender equality.
We have also received inquiries from some parents about gender equality education, such as: Are there differences in psychology and abilities between boys and girls? Are boys better at math than girls? As a parent or teacher, how should we carry out gender equality education for children and reduce 300 years to 100 years?
Dadi Education has summarized the following five ways to promote gender equality education for children:
1. Parents share housework equally
Parents can cooperate equally to establish a role model for kids. Dad doesn't have to just go out to work but can also undertake housework; Mom doesn't exclusively have to cook and wash dishes but can also work at offices or other jobs. If parents can set a good example and share the multiple tasks of the family, they can make children feel that men and women are equal.
2. Eliminate stereotypes
We often hear, "boys are better at learning math than girls". In fact, this idea lacks scientific evidence. According to a survey released by the International Mathematics and Science Trends Research in 2019, among the 58 countries and regions participating in the evaluation, the average grades of girls in 18 countries were higher than that of boys, 33 countries had no obvious gender differences, and only 7 countries recorded boys’ average grades higher than girls. Therefore, there is no scientific evidence that boys are better at math. Girls can master math and science knowledge just as well as boys.
A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States also pointed out, "In most countries, including the United States, the main reason why women are less outstanding than men in math is gender inequality, not innate ability". Therefore, as a parent or teacher, you should eliminate inappropriate gender stereotypes and encourage children to master knowledge in any field they desire.
3. Use gender-inclusive language
We can use gender-inclusive and non-discriminatory language in daily conversations with children as much as possible. For example, we can change “policeman” to “police officer”, and change “man-made” to “human-made”; instead of saying "boys help with the housework", we can say "boys do housework". By using such language, we can help to reduce gender bias. You can learn more about this from guidelines for gender-inclusive language developed by the United Nations: English (Link) and Chinese (Link).
4. Differences between personality and gender
Personality and gender are two different nouns. Boys can release their emotions through crying, and girls can be brave as team leaders. The personalities of boys and girls are not directly associated with their gender.
5. Parents and schools jointly promote gender equality education
Promoting gender equality education requires the joint efforts of parents and teachers. Children spend most of their time with teachers, so parents should look into and understand the teaching concepts when choosing schools, tutorial centers, and teachers. In the classroom, teachers need to avoid using strongly gender-oriented sentences. In the illustration of children’s books, girls can be seen as police officers, and boys can be used as nurses; in math or tech learning, boys and girls should be equally encouraged to work together.
At present, there are many tech tools to provide scientific education for children, so that girls and boys can master skills easily and equally. For example, we launched iFunNote, the AI smart piano musical literacy course (Link), combining AI with piano teaching. With this course, children can keep pace with the latest tech easily while mastering artistic ability equally. We at Dadi Education will continue to promote gender equality education and work with parents to help children develop more comprehensively, contributing to full gender equality as rapidly as possible.
Developed for Dadi Education and written by Union Communications.
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