Page 398 - Week 02 - Thursday, 8 March 2007
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I believe there is room for strategising on equity within the education system here in the ACT. Questions that I raise here have certainly been tested in the New South Wales education system almost a decade ago, including:
• Are the diverse experiences, interests and aptitudes that girls and boys bring to school considered in the planning, curriculum and assessment procedures?
• Which groups of girls and boys are underachieving, and in which areas of the curriculum?
• Is attention given to the achievements and experiences of women as well as men in all areas of the curriculum?
• Does any school provide both boys and girls with experiences in key areas of skills and knowledge which traverse key learning area boundaries?
• Are groups of girls and boys choosing their subjects along gender-stereotyped lines?
• What subjects incorporate teaching and learning about gender as an educational issue?
• Is educational and career information presented in a way that challenges students’ views of appropriate subject and career choices for females and males?
Fundamentally, these questions should be raised during the formative years of a young person’s education, be they male or female. To follow on from this, I note that last November—and I heard Mr Gentleman encouraging the federal government to do more in this area—the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues, Julie Bishop, funded an action plan to address the under-representation of women in senior roles across our nation’s universities.
It is crucial to have women in senior positions, playing important roles in this part of our education sector. The Australian government has agreed to match the $190,000 contribution by the higher education sector to address the action plan’s priorities, which are to encourage all universities to integrate equity strategies and performance indicators into their institutional plans; to significantly improve the representation of women in senior roles by encouraging equity initiatives in critical areas; and to monitor the entry patterns of women into academia and respond to barriers to sustained entry. I can only hope this will go some way in recognising the need, where merit exists, for women to hold positions of authority and influence and in turn act as good role models.
I assert these points to move towards a platform of seeing us view gender equity as not something that is seen to be an issue solely relating to girls or women. We need to inject this approach into young people’s minds early on in their lives to ensure that equity does not remain just about gender but about tackling disadvantage, marginalisation, isolation and lack of opportunity.
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