ong with or as part of human rights education. This inclusion will help reduce one more gender gap—that of limiting the reproduction of inequality across generations—by enabling both boys and girls to examine gendered construction of identities and social norms, the underlying structures that perpetuate inequality and how to unlearn negative and harmful ideas about gender.
In order for gender education to be included in national curricula, it is necessary for ministries of education to approve and initiate a process whereby academics, gender experts, practitioners and educationists can work collaboratively to develop a graded curriculum for gender education, along with related teacher training courses. Schools provide an opportunity for intellectual discussions about gender roles, responsibilities and resulting power relations, which could help students gain a clearer perspective about what “equality” means in democratic societies. Making gender education a curricular subject will make the issue “official” and legitimate and create a generation of more egalitarian gender norms. A concerted effort is required by the international education and development community to influence policy at the country level in this direction.
Strategy #3: Include Men in the Conversation
If there is anything to rejoice and feel hopeful about for women on International Women’s Day, it is the support by men for the movement to better ensure women’s safety and opportunity in India. Men’s participation is something that all of us, men and women everywhere, should tenaciously hold on to in the fight for gender equality. We need male champions in every sphere: national politics, business, civil society, in homes and in schools. We all stand to gain from a society where everyone has a voice. Boys are open and willing to think about the issue seriously: The protests in India were led equally by young men and women.
The inclusion of boys and men in the struggle for gender equality is critical, and women and girls need them as allies. Women’s education, health, and safety are not “women’s problems” to be dealt with for and by women alone. Boys must be engaged in serious discussions about the social construction of masculinity and feminity in their contexts with the resulting implications for gender equality.
Strategy #4: Ensure the Next Set of Global Goals Focus on Gender Equality
At the global level, we must all work to ensure that gender continues to play a prominent role in the next set of global development goals. Whether gender is a cross-cutting issue that runs through all goals, or whether there are one or more goals that deal specifically with gender, the commitment to measuring progress for women and girls and funding policies and programs that improve conditions for women is critical and must be increased. Goals, metrics and policies should recognize that progress for girls and women over all often masks the lack of progress for large swaths of the female population. Even when average conditions for women and girls are improving, the situation for those affected by multiple forms of disadvantage, such as extreme poverty, remote location, conflict, disability, domestic abuse, negative gender norms, often remain unchanged.