Gender Inequality

Responding to Ashti's question to consider " Do you think gender inequality can diminish if our education systems begin to teach gender equality in preschool?" - I think that it would be a good starting point to teach gender inequality at a younger age as children develop skills and make meaning of their social roles and understanding of the world from the influence of people around them (family, friends or teachers). But even if gender equality is taught starting from the pre school stage, because children spend the most time around their families rather than at preschool, and they grow up in a household where it may be seen that men may be in a more dominant position with making important decisions while women only nurture and take care of the housework, the belief that men are more dominant as being the head of the household could be ingrained in their minds as they grow up. This question definitely opens up to various interpretations whether gender inequality can completely diminish if our education systems being to teach gender inequality in preschool or it can slowly improve but not entirely.

Celina, thank you for the comment. I agree with what you are saying. It is true that children spend the most time around their families rather than being at preschool. But there are a lot of people that I personally know who do not have the same mindset as their parent or siblings. This is because some students who learn things at school learn to apply it to their daily life rather than just learning something for the mark. Although that household plays a big role for children growing up seeing gender inequality because they mother would be doing the housework while their father be doing outside work but thankfully in our contemporary society we are starting to see mothers doing less housework and attending the work industry. But I believe that teaching young kids about gender inequality, racism and differences between people at preschool can diminish what we are struggling with in our society today. Children also have this ability to learn new things and adapt to it quicker, sometimes inside the household, parents do not talk about the things children learn at school so it is new things to them which will help them to pick up quickly.

It's certainly worth considering all aspects of socialization, but indeed, it is apparently from the ages of 0-6 where socialization is the most important/ingrained into our subconsciousness. As such, factoring in how parents raise and expose their children to different media (since kids spend the majority of their time with/around parents, as mentioned) is important, but the school can potentially be very important from ages 4ish-6, where kids first look get their experience in the real world, with other people that can affect one's perception (either re-ifying or potentially subverting it) quite a bit, so this could have a particularly poignant impact of seeing girls as leaders/equals in crucial socialization stages outside of the home.

Of course it's not to say people aren't socialized after all this time, we're definitely socialized our whole lives. But both the home and school are both arguable crucially important in socialization.

Hi Celina, I definitely believe that education is a key step towards gender equality! Education is one of the most formalized ways of reproducing society, and if we can impose change into that system, then it'll be one of the most effective ways for bringing progressive thought to the ideology of the next generation. On top of that, in your response to concerns about the effects of the family, I'd like to say that I completely understand. However, I'd also like to argue that I think schooling can be more effective. For instance, aren't there any beliefs that you have/hold that your traditional family values may not reflect? Even though you may spend a lot of time with your family, it does not necessarily mean that your own values have to be completely in alignment. So to respond, yes! Education can help to diminish gender inequality.

I agree with Celina. Education helps people to become more open-minded and accepting towards different beliefs. This further helps to reduce the gender gap and work towards gender equality. Family does play a major role in how we think and what are beliefs are, however, education can help change those traditional family values. Beliefs change with social interaction and the older people get, the more their beliefs change through gaining experience.

I agree with your point, Celina, that teaching children about gender equality in preschool isn't the fundamental solution to gender inequality. Considering that most people, despite their age, spend more time outside of school than inside, simply incorporating materials on gender equality to the preschool curriculum is likely to fall short in eliminating gender inequality altogether, However, I think it is very important to closely read and understand the question asked by Ashti. She is asking if incorporating information on gender inequality can "diminish" gender inequality, not completely "annihilate" it. On that note, I definitely do believe that learning about gender equality, and even acknowledging the very existence of gender inequality, from a younger age will help equip the future generations with some resources to fight against gender inequality in their later years.

I agree with you on teaching about gender inequality earlier may have some positive impacts because when children are taught about gender inequalities in their early ages, they will gain a sense of awareness about the issue. Getting awareness of a issue could be a starting point to avoid it. With more awareness of gender inequality, children will have similar expectations on different gender. Therefore, they would avoid gender inequalities naturally.