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How did this day come about?
In 1989, the Popular Education Network of Women from Latin America and the Caribbean (REPEM) met in Paraguay and decided to declare June 21 as the Non-Sexist Education Day. Since then, women’s right to a democratic education, free of stereotypes, that does not reinforce discrimination against women in the world of work, the family and in public spaces of power, has been promoted in several countries from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The importance of non-sexist education lies in the need of all people, women and men, individually and collectively, to recognize and exercise their citizenship rights, their sexual and reproductive rights, that is to say, their human rights.
This need has become a democratic requirement, which is necessary to prepare girls to live in an autonomous way, being aware of and exercising their rights to become social subjects, with economic, political and sexual independence. And it is also necessary to prepare boys, so that they can share and develop an active presence in the care economy, taking care of the house, the children and administrating the household budget, respecting the right to decide of girls and women, so that egalitarian attitudes are found among men and women.
On the other hand, it is important that the education system identifies racist and sexist stereotypes that are socialized in the materials, books, and content used for learning and be aware of how these mechanisms reinforce the inequality between women and men.
The differences between being a woman or a man should not deny the principle of equality that must reign among human beings. Everyone should be involved in achieving equality between women and men. Only in this way, we will be able to live in a more just society. Everyone should be co-responsible, which implies participation of, both, men and women, at home and in society.
If boys and girls, since childhood, learn to live in solidarity, respect others and participate equally in the tasks they perform, we will be able to enjoy a better society in the future, built on everyone’s efforts.
Non-sexist education is education that does not discriminate because you are a woman or a man, it is a vital step in the elimination of gender stereotypes from collective thinking, to denounce and combat sexist practices and ideology inside home, in the media, culture, religion and the state.
The implementation of activities to inform and raise awareness so that education is based on the recognition of the value of girls and women in society, is an indispensable and complementary step, as is the research to provide disaggregated data by gender, ethnicity, religion, etc.. to establish accurate diagnoses and to build monitoring and impact indicators that will help to change this situation.
The type of education that varies according to sex does not allow the development of all human potentialities of women and men. Within the family, education is sexist when the girls are asked to do the household chores or when boys are not allowed to cry or express their emotions.
Through socialization, attitudes, beliefs, ideas, roles and stereotypes based on sex are transmitted to boys and girls as if they were natural and instinctive, but they are not, because they are transmitted from the culture, through the family, school, mass media, advertising and other social institutions.
The Non-Sexist Education Day seeks to show that an education based on the recognition of differences and the equal treatment of people, changes the power relations between women and men for the present and future.
The Non-Sexist Education aims to promote women’s right to a democratic education, free of sexist stereotypes, so as to develop and promote new attitudes and skills for a more just, humane, egalitarian and equitable life.
For more information, please contact: laredva@repem.org.uy / www.repem.org.uy
