March is gender equality month and we at connect forth have found out through research that over 200 million boys and girls are not in education across the globe. Boys and girls are both unequal in education as they are unequal in different ways for example 2/3 of people who are unable to read and write are women. Also, boys are more likely to repeat years in education? These are all issues that face young people in education but since education has become more accessible over the years newer hidden gaps in equality are starting to show.
One of the major issues for boys in education is their disengagement, as boys are less likely to complete education due to gender-based stereotypes surrounding boys. Boys are obviously seen a tougher than women so they will happen to get punished more harshly than girls. Boys tend to be targeted more often whether it's teachers or students. Boys are more prone to receive physical bullying. This leads to the disengagement in education. Since these things are prominent in education it gives boys the lack of motivation to do well in school.
Now on the other hand we have girls who are more likely to be bullied in general but it's less likely to be physical and more verbal or online such as cyberbullying. Girls have the issue of breaking social norms and subconsciously fall into stereotypes as such they are less likely to pursue subjects such as maths, science, technology and engineering. This is alarming for industries, and they would like to empower women to pursue certain career paths and tackle social norms.
With the disengagement of boys in education, it’s a hard issue to fix but if we raise awareness about it like the other societal issues, we could empower young boys to get through and motivate them to do well at school. If this issue doesn’t get fixed and increases to grow it could damage society.
On that topic girls at Forth valley college have had an increase on the amount girls getting modern apprentices in engineering. Record breaking at the time with a total of 19 women. As time goes on and we encourage young girls to chase a career path they want to do and not let them be discouraged due to it being “too manly”.
Comments