Ei-iE

G.M.B.Akash
G.M.B.Akash

Advancing gender equality in and through education

Spotlight

Quality education is a human right that is a precondition for the self-realisation of women and girls. We believe that quality education is crucial to ensure equal job opportunities, equal access and equal pay for work of equal value, and competitive advantage for women in the global economy.

This starts with access to education but goes far beyond to include the content of education, which must challenge gender stereotypes through curricula, pedagogy, teaching methods and teaching materials. Through education, women and girls can have improved access to career development, financial independence and autonomy, as well as to full participation in the social and political life of their societies.

A great majority of the 32 million educators we represent are women. We work to ensure that women in education have the opportunities and support to lead throughout the sector, within their schools, educational institutions and their unions.

Our Gender Equality Action Plan highlights three main priorities:

  1. Promoting women’s leadership and participation within education unions;
  2. Taking action to increase intersectional gender equality in and through education;
  3. Promoting and securing women’s economic empowerment.

Our work on gender equality is advanced through a number of global structures and regional networks:

  • The Education International Status of Women Committee comprising all female members of our Executive Board;
  • Regional and Sub-Regional Women’s Networks;
  • A quadrennial Women’s Caucus, ahead of each Education International Congress (EI’s highest decision-making body);
  • Triennial EI World Women’s Conferences.

Our work on gender equality

  1. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 15 March 2024

    Teachers: key in keeping boys engaged in school and learning

    Matthias Eck

    Even though tremendous progress in enrolment has been made over the last 20 years, current estimates indicate that 250 million children and youth are still out of school. And over half of them – approximately 128 million – are boys.

    Read more Teachers: key in keeping boys engaged in school and learning
  2. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 13 March 2024

    Education unionists call for free quality public education to help end poverty for women and girls in all their diversity

    The 68th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women takes place in New York from March 11th to the 22nd. The Commission is the most important global forum that works to advance gender equality and women’s rights and conditions, globally. A delegation of 17 women education...

    Read more Education unionists call for free quality public education to help end poverty for women and girls in all their diversity
  3. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 7 March 2024

    Our fight for education is a fight for women’s rights

    Susan Hopgood

    The right to education means that every child must have access to free quality education, a well-supported, qualified teacher, and a quality learning environment no matter where they live or come from, no matter their gender, ethnicity, or how much their family earns. This is our mission as education unions...

    Read more Our fight for education is a fight for women’s rights
  4. Equity and inclusion

    Gender, education, and a global view on the ‘crisis of care’

    Saba Joshi
    20 December 2023

    This policy brief focuses on the significance of care work in the global economy and the complexities of measuring its value, given its unpaid, invisible facets and the gendered nature of these forms of work. We seek to highlight the challenges educational professionals currently face and emphasize how the dynamics...

    Gender, education, and a global view on the ‘crisis of care’
    1. Download
  5. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 25 November 2023

    Education and schools are key to end gender-based violence

    Isma Benboulerbah

    According to the Violence Against Women & Girls Guide , developed by the World Bank, 818 million women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner. This is almost the total population of sub-Saharan Africa. On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence...

    Read more Education and schools are key to end gender-based violence
more: Our work on gender equality

Ending school related gender based violence

  1. Equity and inclusion

    Strategies to end school-related gender-based violence

    The experience of education unions in Africa
    22 December 2019

    The issue of gender-based violence in and around schools and other educational settings is particularly important to education unions and their members. Since everyone in schools – teachers, students, support personnel - can be perpetrator and victim, SRGBV is a violation of both the right to quality education and the...

    Strategies to end school-related gender-based violence
    1. Download
  2. Equity and inclusion

    Working to end school related gender based violence

    Writings by representatives of education unions from Eastern, West and Southern Africa
    22 December 2019

    The Education International (EI) initiative Education Unions take Action to End School Related Gender Based Violence, is part of more than 30 years of international advocacy to advance gender equality in education and in unions.

    Working to end school related gender based violence
    1. Download
  3. Equity and inclusion 7 December 2022

    #16Days | Using technology to foster meaningful conversations on gender-based violence

    Aayushi Aggarwal

    Over the past two years, the world has undergone massive changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These abrupt and unpredictable changes have required adjustments to how we work and have challenged us to re-think, re-assess and re-formulate our approaches and engagements. Gender at Work’s engagement with Education International on capacity...

    Read more #16Days | Using technology to foster meaningful conversations on gender-based violence
  4. Equity and inclusion

    Building Momentum to End School-Related Gender-Based Violence in the Time of COVID-19

    1 December 2022

    In 2021-22, Education International (EI), with the technical support of Gender at Work (G@W) and financial contribution from the National Education Association (NEA, USA) implemented a nine-month learning cycle to build further momentum among education unions in Africa to take action to end School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV).

    Building Momentum to End School-Related Gender-Based Violence in the Time of COVID-19
    1. Download the report
    2. Baixe o relatório
  5. Equity and inclusion 30 November 2021

    Education unions adapt their approaches to address school-related gender-based violence through the pandemic

    Rex Fyles

    Over the last six years, Gender at Work (G@W) has been collaborating with Education International (EI) to put education unions at the forefront of global efforts to end gender-based violence in and around schools. When we started, I had no idea what ‘SRGBV’ meant, let alone how to pronounce it....

    Read more Education unions adapt their approaches to address school-related gender-based violence through the pandemic
more: Ending school related gender based violence

Our policy on gender equality