Gender fair education

LOGARTA

In 2005 the Women in the Literary Arts collaborated with the Women Artists’ Initiatives and produced Babayeng Buhat A Visual/Literary Experience; my favorite from this collection has been Linda Kintanar-Alburo’s “Pen pen de Sarapen, Pildi ang Pabilin”:

Si Dodong Dikoy ug Agaw Pepe
Nangatkat sa camachile mora’g tabili
Kay magpahudyong sila og bakukang
Tingali hangtud ang bulan mosubang
Si Day Marian sad diay ug si Gaw Fely
Maglung-ag-lung-ag kuno sila’g kamote
Kay natuman na ang sugo pagpanilhig
Manghagdaw ron sila’g sugnod sa kamalig
Nganong di man ni Dong Dikoy sulayan
Ang luto-luto kay siya man tay pila’g sud-an
Ug nganong di man pakatkaton si Day Marian
Nga siya may atong kampiyon sa dagandagan?

J9 Arbolario’s assemblage featuring Barbie dolls and cooking toys obviously for female children.

The pair is such a beautiful representation of gender-related upbringing reflected by toys and games.

The boys can play without any thought of work. The girls had work to do before and after play. Clearly, there is the sense of frustration over females being excluded from certain sports activities. It points to the necessity of gender-fair education and upbringing.

Earlier females were taught to do most things in the house — cooking, cleaning, caring for babies. Boys could play all they can, and they could explore all over the place. In school, the girls studied home economics and the boys learned practical arts. The work of women advocates led to changes in the curriculum such as having Technology and Livelihood training with the males and females learning together. Communication teachers have also become careful about using better words than mankind, businessmen, and policemen.

Schools have to be fully aware of the call in the Magna Carta of Women (MCW) that females should be encouraged to participate in sports activities. The MCW also calls for gender-fair distribution of scholarship grants.

MCW also urges gender sensitivity in media.

Perhaps this is the cause of the emergence of more gender-fair advertisements. Several advertisements now show males sharing child-minding, males being involved with laundering. Women have also been shown going up construction sites, revealed as engineers, and firm and strong police personnel. Many
female world leaders encourage the young to exert effort for important posts in a variety of arenas.

For the sake of personal fulfillment as well as continuing community, social development we have to be gender inclusive. Let the young realize the openness of all possibilities. Let our communities move forward with the very constructive contribution of all!

So let us close with: “On Gender Equality” (author unknown):
For every woman
Who is tired of acting dumb
There is a man
Who is burdened with the constant
Expectation of knowing everything

For every woman
Who is denied meaningful
Employment and equal pay
There is a man
Who must bear full
Financial responsibility
For another human being
For every woman
Who was not taught
the intricacies of an automobile
There is a man
who was not taught the
Satisfaction of cooking

For every woman
who takes a step toward
her own liberation
There is a man
who finds that the way
To freedom has been made a little easier