Commission on the Status of Women

Fifty-fifth Session

4^th & 5^th Meetings (AM & PM)

Barrier, or ‘Glass Ceiling’ to Women’s Goal of Becoming Scientists, Engineers

Is Really ‘Cast Iron’, Commission on Status of Women Told

 

Experts Consider Access to Science, Technology, Education, Training,

Warning of Loss of Qualified Women, or ‘Leaky Pipeline’, in Some Countries

The proverbial glass ceiling not only continued to curtail the aspirations of schoolgirls and women scientists and engineers around the world, but was best described in too many societies as a “cast-iron ceiling”, the Commission on the Status of Women was told today during two expert panels on bolstering the access of women and girls to science, technology, education and training.

Leading off a morning panel that featured presentations by four other experts, Sisai Mpuchane, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Botswana, said the familiar gender gap in the sciences persisted worldwide and was being closed at an anaemic rate.  Tasked with investigating the root causes and primary means of change in her own country, she had found that no institution, from the local classroom to the family, was immune from the kinds of biases that perpetuated that gap.

She said initiatives to close the gender gap should start early, involve a multitude of organizations from the community and the private sector, and include hands-on efforts to directly affect individual schoolgirls.  Moreover, she suggested that the men heading up educational institutions were not always the best people to run affirmative action programmes.  Women, she argued, should be put in charge of those efforts.

Striking a similar note, Hagit Messer, President of Israel’s Open University, described the ceiling facing women researchers as resembling a “scissors diagram”, in which more women participated in lower levels of research — with their hands grasping the scissors — but were far more rare at the higher levels, where the “blade” for men would trend up while women trended down.

While she used to believe that more technical fields would become more attractive to women once a critical mass was achieved, she now believed that the technology had to change.  With surveys showing that women preferred professions that directly benefited societies or individuals, she viewed the ongoing “green revolution”, which would “force technology to take responsibility for society”, as positive, and she felt the number of women in electronics and technology would increase.

The presentation by Bunker Roy, Founder and Director of India’s Barefoot College, threatened to upend the prevailing focus on tertiary education and highly specified scientific research fields.  As the only fully solarised college in India, Barefoot had pioneered what he called a “decentralized, demystified” approach to solar electrification that, since 2004, it had been exporting to Africa.

In almost complete contrast to the practices of elite research universities, he said he had quickly discovered that not only were men “untrainable”, but the ideal choice to train in solar engineering was an illiterate grandmother, between 38 and 50 years old, who had never left her village.  She also had to be willing and allowed to travel to India for six months, where, trained by sight and sound, she would embody Mark Twain’s view that one should never let schooling interfere with education.

He said that Barefoot’s approach to solar electrification was far more cost-effective than other development solutions offered to Africa, singling out the Millennium Development Goals, which he said carried a price tag of $2 million a village, as particularly expensive.  That $2 million from a single village could have a much larger impact, he asserted, if it was used instead to widen Barefoot’s training on the African continent.

During a wide-ranging question-and-answer session following the formal presentations, several African country representatives testified to the success of the Barefoot programme in their countries, while others expressed hope that some of their grandmothers would be able to participate in the near future.   Senegal’s representative urged the Commission to appropriate the Barefoot approach, and also called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to organize a meeting on that initiative.

Representatives from several developed countries — where even Mr. Bunker acknowledged the Barefoot approach would not work — said that despite strong efforts to promote gender-sensitive research, the research sector was still plagued by persistent pay gaps between men and women, a deficit of women in senior decision-making positions, and a phenomenon known as the “leaky pipeline”, whereby the number of women and girl students of technical fields had grown, but the number instructors remained disproportionately small.

The four expert panellists featured during the afternoon panel on education and training, which was moderated by Commission Vice-Chair Tetsuya Kimura (Japan), highlighted a number of relevant innovative approaches — from the adoption of flexible learning and training schemes designed around the women’s lives to the growing trend of innovative financing.  Suggestions were also made to introduce skills-based learning into classical learning models or to further blur the lines between the two learning approaches in cases where they had already been combined.

The Commission on the Status of Women will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 24 February, to continue its plenary debate.

Background

The Commission on the Status of Women met today to hold two round tables under its priority theme “access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work”.  (For background on the session, please see Press Release WOM/1839).

Panel I

The morning panel, which focused on science and technology, was moderated by Commission Vice-Chair María Luz Melon (Argentina).  It featured five expert panellists:  Sisai Mpuchane, Professor, University of Botswana; Hagit Messer, President, Open University, Israel; Londa Schiebinger, Professor, Stanford University, United States; Bunker Roy, Founder and Director, Barefoot College, India; and Anne Miroux, Director, Technology and Trade Logistics Division, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Ms. MPUCHANE said that women had historically participated in scientific activities in the real world from brewing and baking to midwifery and medicine and food production and preservation.  Despite a prevailing hostility to their gender, several women had excelled in professional scientific fields.  Nevertheless, the gender gap persisted worldwide.  It was narrowing in some countries, but the global pace of that change was very slow. Although theories about why were promulgated, no scientific one had been proved.  Most countries had more women than men and were clearly missing out on an important resource because of the gender gap.

She said the problem often stemmed from biases, noting that where those were explicit they were easier to deal with.  Where they were implicit, such as in patriarchal societies, however, they proved much harder to change.  In Botswana, the work to close the gap had started early.  In addition to governmental initiatives, efforts were employed by community and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.  Also necessary was to look at all kinds of institutions from the family to the classroom.  In basic, more hands-on work, girls were taken on field trips, and science clinics exposed them to laboratory equipment.  Botswana’s experience also showed that the men who were heading institutions were not always the best people to run affirmative action programmes.  Women needed to be put in charge.  Clearly, in too many countries and societies, what some people called the glass ceiling was actually a “cast-iron ceiling”.

Speaking next, Ms. MESSER observed that women were underrepresented in research, an almost uniform phenomenon in every country.  Data showed that the proportion of women researchers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries was as low as 13 per cent (in Japan) to as high as about 44 per cent (in Portugal).  More broadly, she said that 40 years ago, in all fields, not more than 13 per cent of doctorates were awarded to women.  Over the years, there had been significant increases; however, the number of doctorates obtained by women had not yet reached 50 per cent.

She said the glass ceiling for women researchers could be seen through a “scissors diagram”, whereby more women participated in lower levels of research — with their hands grasping the scissors — and fewer women were seen in the higher levels of research — where the “blade” for men would trend up, and that for women would trend down.  In electrical engineering, the situation was “quite bad”.  In 2009, of the almost 400,000 members in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, fewer than 10 per cent were women.

As for the future, she said observations suggested some good news, with retention of women scientists and engineers projected to increase.  Referring to the Secretary-General’s report, she said women had expressed a preference for professions that directly benefited societies or individuals.  As such, she viewed the ongoing “green revolution” as a positive influence, which would “force technology to take responsibility for society”.  Thus, technology had transformed into an attractive field for women, and she projected that the number of women in electronics and technology to increase.

Also, it was felt that the numbers of women scientists and engineers would also grow, as business leaders were recognizing that gender diversity yielded a competitive advantage, and that having more women in key industrial positions benefited companies, she said.  Related to that was a recognition that women’s presence in engineering would lead to more innovation.  The bad news:  “the glass ceiling is still there and it is not vanishing,” she said, urging that “we need to do more to deal with it”.

Next, Ms. SCHIEBINGER presented the conclusions of the 2010 United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Gender, Science and Technology, saying first that gender differences were deeply embedded in society; they were deep-seated structural problems that made recruiting girls into science a challenge.  Her first concern was about women’s and girls’ participation in science education and employment.  In that regard, she recommended “fixing the institutions” by, for example, making schools more successful in attracting and retaining girls and women.  The Group also recommended carrying out gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation of all programmes, such as the rewriting of textbooks to remove sexist images, language and scientific theories.

The Group’s second concern related to women’s access to technology, she said, noting that women often were seen as passive consumers of technology.  She recommended adopting a “participatory research” approach to technology in ways that enhanced technologies and ensured that women’s needs were taken into account.  For example, women had knowledge of water yields, which could help engineering teams decide on where to place wells.

The third area of concern was on how to foster gender analysis and innovation in science and technology, or in other words, how to “fix the knowledge”, she said.  It was important to include gender analysis in the content of science and technology because women had as much a right to benefit it as men.  Including women’s views in research could fuel creativity and jobs down the line.  On the flip side, perpetuating a gender bias could be costly to business.  By way of example, she said that 10 drugs that had been withdrawn from United States markets because of life-threatening effects mainly in women had been the result of research done primarily on males.

Indeed, she said, gender analysis promoted excellence in science and technology, notably by making it more responsible to global challenges like poverty reduction and sustainable development.  “This is where the action is today.”  The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gates Foundation were among the actors requiring gender analysis in research to ensure that the best medicine, water pumps and agricultural infrastructure were developed the first time around.

Saying he hoped to turn the world of the audience members upside down in the next eight minutes, Mr. ROY described Barefoot College as the only college in India that was fully solarised.  There, everything worked off the sun according to a decentralized, demystified approach to solar power.  In 2004, the technology was transferred to Africa, where a research trip by representatives of the college showed that the lighting situation was unacceptable.  Households spent roughly $3 to $5 a month on lighting, and family members, usually females, had to travel long distances to acquire kerosene and other materials to burn.

Between 2004 and 2010, 11,000 houses were solarised, he said, stressing that the first lesson of that work was that men were “untrainable”.  He and his colleagues at Barefoot discovered that the best solution was training grandmothers.  Moreover, the ideal grandmother had to be illiterate and between 38 and 50 years old.  She should never have left her village in her life and she had to be able to come to India for six months.  “All the grandmothers had never failed me,” he said. Trained by sight and sound, they embodied Mark Twain holding to the view that one should never let schooling interfere with education.

He stressed that Barefoot’s solar electrification scheme aligned with the Millennium Development Goals to eliminate hunger, achieve family education, and reduce infant mortality, among other benefits.  Its “software” was looked after by the Indian Government, which paid for the African grandmothers’ trip to India.  The hardware was supported by a small grants initiative from General Electric.

Underlining how scalable and cost-effective Barefoot’s solar electrification approach was, he suggested that many solutions offered to Africa were not cost-effective — the Millennium Development Goals, which cost about $2 million a village, among them.  In contrast, he could use that $2 million to make changes in a much larger number of villages through the demystified, decentralized approach employed by Barefoot.

Before concluding, Mr. ROY played a short video on solar electrification of the village of Tindjamban near Timbuktu, Mali.  According to the video, the village had decided to participate in the Barefoot approach, agreeing to rent the solar units and to send two of its illiterate widows to India to be trained.  After their training and the arrival of the solar panels, those women solar electrified their entire village in 10 days.  Women could now cook at night in the open with solar lanterns.  They could increase their income by working on handicrafts at home.  Children could study at home at night without ruining their eyes.  Women no longer had to walk for miles to purchase kerosene, and their overall outlay for lighting was reduced.

Next, Ms. MIROUX underlined the central role gender equality played in poverty reduction and socio-economic development, stressing that science, technology and innovation policies could directly enhance women’s contribution to economic growth.  Referring to a 1995 study from the Gender Working Group of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, she added that the matter was not new.  Indeed, 15 years after that study, it was time to revisit its seven recommendations for action to see what worked and what did not.

While there had been progress, few policies explicitly dealt with gender, she said, stressing the importance for policy-makers to better understand how to use science, technology and innovation to support women’s activities.  That required promoting and leveraging science and technology in support of women’s development; promoting gender equality in those fields, as well as in the workforce and leadership positions; and supporting the role of women in innovation systems at national and grassroots levels, particularly in the science sector.

She noted that UNCTAD had produced a report on women in science that focused on agriculture, energy and water.  Among other things, it was clear that the technologies in question did not have to be complicated; even the simplest know-how could address women’s situation.  The gender-friendly approach merely needed to be supported.  It was also important to ask why science and technology policies did not, as a matter of course, include a focus on women.  To contend with that element of the problem, women should participate in policy formation and decision-making.  At the same time, they should be given the necessary credibility and knowledge.  Overall, gender-affirmative policies should be coherent, experience-based and supported by political will.  Gender mainstreaming in policy meant that each step of the decision-making process applied a gender-impact analysis.

In the vibrant question and answer period that followed, representatives of Government and civil society alike outlined initiatives to promote equality and enhance women’s participation in the scientific and technological fields, underscoring that those professions were vital underpinnings for all countries’ economic development.

Some speakers pointed to persistent problems.  Despite strong efforts to promote gender-sensitive research, the research sector was still characterized by a significant pay gap, the loss of qualified women — a phenomenon known as the “leaky pipeline” — and a deficit of women in senior decision-making positions.  A delegate from the European Union noted the prevalence of that situation as the number of women holding doctorates had almost reached parity with men.  She wondered how public research institutions could ensure a gender balance.  What actions should be taken to ensure a modernization of human resource management?

Another delegate, echoing the concerns of many, lamented that women’s presence in science and technology fields was underdeveloped and that their participation in decision-making was slow to increase, especially as the “male breadwinner” mentality persisted.  Women tended to enter professions in the humanities and social sciences, rather than in science and technology.  How could that be changed?  Another speaker queried panellists about how women could best access and harness opportunities to develop solar energy, while another asked about incentives for female scientists, who were also mothers wishing to re-enter the scientific workforce.

Still other representatives discussed avenues their countries had taken to change the status quo, including by providing opportunities for mothers in scientific fields to work from home.  Pro-poor technologies were important for improving family welfare, Indonesia’s delegate said, and thus, the Government focused on providing technologies that immediately affected vulnerable groups, especially women.  For example, it provided technologies for food crops, as well as for micro- and small-enterprise.

A civil society representative offered various strategies to recognize and harness girls’ potential right from the start, stressing the urgent need to expose girls to successful female role models in math and sciences.  Girls should be taught about the “stereotype threat”, in order to mitigate its negative effects, and be encouraged to develop special skills and assisted in recognizing career-appropriate courses.

To increase women’s representation in the sciences, engineering and applied technologies, South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology had initiated “Techno Girls” projects in five provinces, that country’s representative said.  Girls were exposed to those subjects and participated in company internships to help them understand how best to apply their skills.

Taking that idea a step further, Jordan’s delegate stressed that societies had been taught to understand that men’s brains were “uni-purpose”, while women’s were “multi-purpose”, suggesting that men were a better fit than women in scientific professions.  The idea should be dispelled that such brain differences existed, and evidence should be presented to the contrary.  Further, quotas for admission into scientific universities and the workplace should be implemented.

Responding to the comments, Mr. ROY said the Barefoot approach did not work in the developed world because that world was so hung up on certification.  Unless you had a paper degree, you were not called an expert or even accepted as someone who could do something on the ground.  Thus, the Barefoot approach was applicable only in the least developed countries.  To Gambia’s question, he said five grandmothers from her country had participated in the Barefoot programme.  Meanwhile, seven grandmothers were coming from South Africa in March.

Ms. SCHIEBINGER said she would balance Mr. Roy’s comments by talking about paper degrees, noting that a number of questions addressed how to get more women in engineering and science fields.  She noted that a report entitled “Gendered Innovations” would launch in November.  Comprised of 14 case studies, it demonstrated how gendered analysis actually provided added value to initiatives.  Indeed, bringing in sex and gender analysis to science — which was dominated by a male mindset — created better human knowledge.  In that context, she suggested the value a women’s perspective could add to scientific knowledge.  She stressed, however, that to be successful, everyone — including men — had to be taught gendered analysis.

Ms. MPUCHANE said that one key recommendation made regarding Botswana’s science and technology curriculum addressed teacher-training colleges.  Her initial assumption had been that male teachers were diverting girls from the path of science and math, but her analysis showed that both men and women teachers were in fact doing this.  Thus, the issue of teacher training was a critical component in changing the participation of girls and women in scientific fields.  She agreed that implicit biases had to be addressed through, as some speakers had suggested, the media.  In Botswana, the current media strategy aimed to expose women role models to schoolgirls.

On the problem of getting more women into engineering and other technical fields, Ms. MESSER said she used to believe that once a critical mass was achieved, those fields would be more attractive to women.  But while progress had been made, that did not appear to be the case.  She now believed that the technology had to change.  Fortunately, it was already changing and becoming more women-friendly, particularly as technology was being re-evaluated for its environmental effects.

Ms. MIROUX said that the question of what science could do for women was the other side of the equation at the heart of today’s discussion.  In that context priority setting was important; one had to choose, always bearing in mind the impact of the choice on women.  She supported the comments on analyzing the impact of gender mainstreaming throughout an entire process.  She believed an effective gender policy used local experiences, with the example of the Barefoot College being particularly relevant.  Information technology also played an important role in women’s education and needed considerable attention as Governments set their policies. 

Taking the floor again, delegations continued to outline specific governmental policies, and in some cases, laws that fostered gender balance.  Those initiatives were for the most part described as multi-pronged, fostering the study of gender issues while also encouraging women to join the upper echelons of scientific faculties.  Several speakers spoke of the “leaky pipeline” problem, whereby the number of women and girl students of science, technology, engineering and math had grown, but the number of female teachers, professors and researchers remained disproportionately small.  The representative of Switzerland, where women represented 50 per cent of the student body but only 16 per cent of the teaching faculty, said mentoring programmes had been established to help women plan their career path and to acquire skills by which they could participate more in the scientific community.  Still, she wondered what office or position should be designated in tertiary education to best promote the situation of women.  That question was echoed by others who asked if there was a better stage of schooling during which to target the initiatives being discussed.

Speakers also testified to the continuing mismatch between educational attainment and the starkly different rewards and remuneration between men and women, calling for the entire culture of the scientific fields to change.  One speaker described how in her country some scholarships were extended by a year, with the intention of addressing the woman’s role as mother. 

The representative of Finland said the position of the Nordic countries, where 44 per cent of the scientific faculty were women, mirrored points made by Ms. Messer.  The challenge for them was how to match the content of degrees with the skills needed to manage work-life demands.  He suggested that gender-sensitive planning should be developed to include the entire university, stressing that equality should be approached as good human resource policy.

A number of less developed country representatives highlighted local-level initiatives that harnessed the simple technologies to which Ms. Miroux had referred to earlier.  In Mali, agricultural programmes that promoted income-generating activities had a multiplier effect, that country’s speaker said.  By freeing up mothers, their daughters were able to go to school.

Senegal’s representative urged the Commission to appropriate the kind of experiment undertaken by Barefoot College, and called on Governments to support the work of non-governmental organizations, stressing that that kind of programme should be supported by national budgets. She also proposed that the leadership of her regional association, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organize a meeting on that initiative.

Responding to a question about coherence, Ms. MIROUX said national coherence, in terms of a policy of equality, was reflected in education objectives and measures, including those to help women take care of children and to ensure equal pay for equal work.  Such issues were considered gender mainstreaming measures in labour law.  Another aspect of coherence related to maintaining revenues.  Joint work among various national ministries was needed to develop science, technology and innovation policies.  Also, female chief executive officers must have access to markets and capital, which was a “consistency” issue.

To a query about the right time for encouraging women into technology, Ms. MESSER said “It can be any time”.  Only two ingredients were needed:  motivation and education.  “The rest is easy”.

As for how distance learning could encourage more girls into science, Ms MPUCHANE said challenges included the fact that Governments did not have job market re-entry policies for girls who had become pregnant in school.  Also, Governments should provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS-affected girls who were trying to get into science programmes.

Ms. SCHIEBINGER said “we need to radically expand our focus from girls and women to institutions, cultures and research labs”.  She was pleased to hear that Governments were taking steps to change research organizations.  Citing one example, she said the United States Government’s “Advance” programme focused on changing research universities — notably by evaluating how to achieve a life balance and eliminate the unconscious gender bias, which prevented women from being hired and promoted.  “We don’t need to change the women,” she said.  “We need to change technologies and we need to change our cultures.”

Rounding out the conversation, Mr. ROY said he said had received the “most snobbish” education in India, and afterwards, had returned to the village for another 40 years.  He understood how destructive that type of education could be.  Why had the professors and research organizations not given back to society?  Why were the poor not being consulted?  Responding to Finland’s query, he disagreed that certification should be granted by a university.  Rather, it should be granted by the community.  Mindset could only be changed by women’s example.  He challenged researchers to show in theory what the Barefoot College had achieved in practice.

Also participating in the dialogue were the representatives of China, Zimbabwe, Greece, Gambia, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, France, Niger, Algeria, Canada, Italy, Timor-Leste, Paraguay, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nigeria, Morocco and Mongolia.

Representatives of the following civil society organizations also spoke: American Association of University Women, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, International Trade Union Confederation, and Ecumenical Women, an international coalition of church denominations and ecumenical organizations.

Panel II

The afternoon panel, which focused on education and training, was moderated by Commission Vice-Chair Tetsuya Kimura (Japan).  It featured four expert panellists:  Diana Serafini, Vice Minister for Educational Management in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Paraguay; Subhangi Herath, Senior Lecturer, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Ilze Trapenciere, Advisor, Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA), Latvia; and S. Gülser Corat, Director of the Division for Gender Equality at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ms. SERAFINI said Paraguay had made gender equality in education a priority, and since 1995, had implemented a programme conducted by the Secretariat for Women to achieve results.  Pointing out that the “hidden curriculum” had contributed to a patriarchal system in Paraguay, she said the Government had devised a plan for socio-economic development.  Included among its four axes was quality of life for all.  Under that umbrella, the Secretariat was promoting equal pay for women and their greater control of the resources and benefits of employment.  Other actions sought to create equal opportunities at all levels of education.  That work was premised on three factors:  principles, standards and budget.  On the last point, she said “we are constantly fighting to get greater investment in education”, to achieve true equality between men and women.

Other programmes focused on literacy and teacher training, she said.  Regarding literacy, the “Paraguay for all by 2020” initiative contained 11 programmes, one of which — entitled “Paraguay Reads and Writes” — sought to increase literacy rates.  A component of that programme included a focus on Guarani-Spanish bilingual education for reproductive health.  Another was based on the “Yes I Can” method of reading and writing.  On teacher training, the “Support for Teachers” campaign, which started last year, focused on language and mathematics, and included 62,000 teachers.

Still other proposals addressed the importance of fostering comprehensive sex education, she said.  Over the last three years, emphasis had been placed on creating the pedagogical framework for integrating sex education into curricula.  The proposal, however, was “on stand-by” as churches, parents and organizations had spoken out against such efforts.  In other areas, the national plan for the improvement of technical education would incorporate the gender perspective to promote young women’s access to technical training.

Speaking next, Ms. HERATH said limited access to decent work was a major impediment to women’s advancement and to the possibility of living a dignified life.  To address women’s low participation in the labour force — and high prevalence in low-income generating activities — formal training could be incorporated into primary, secondary and tertiary education, as well as during childhood.  Informal training in the family was essential for helping women develop marketable skills.  Also, the development of as many skills as possible appeared to give a person an advantage when seeking and maintaining decent employment.

Describing the situation in Sri Lanka, she said gender parity in education had been achieved; however, women still faced obstacles to accessing decent employment.  The country had among the highest incidence of female unemployment.  However, those who developed skills through education were less vulnerable to exploitation in the labour market.  As such, non-formal training could be incorporated into formal education.  Obstacles to that included a general lack of social acceptance for community- and family-based training, new and modern technology, and quality and standards that hindered women’s entry in that area.  Barriers to training included deficiencies in incorporating skills into formal education and obstructed entry into science- and technology-based education.

Despite women’s high education levels in Sri Lanka, she said much of it was concentrated in the arts — over 70 per cent.  About 63 per cent of unemployed female graduates were those with arts degrees, and only 12 per cent of them had found employment within three months after graduation, versus 55 per cent in the science and management streams.  Also affecting women’s ability to gain employment were the absence of schools after primary education, a lack of encouragement for schooling, and insufficient information about health, early marriage and pregnancy.  Other barriers included low social acceptance for vocational training, attitudes towards women’s training outside classical education, family duties, a lack of self-confidence and a lack of a safe learning environment. 

To increase women’s employability, she suggested improving women’s entry and continuity in formal education and, at the same time, prioritizing the skills development aspects of education.  Also important in skills development was to make more information available to help women make better choices and to encourage women’s entry into vocational training through more publicity.  “Women’s interest in skills development and training must start early,” she stressed, urging improvement of such training at the secondary and tertiary education levels.

Next, Ms. TRAPENCIERE said vocational education and training were often considered to be “second-class education”.  But it was impossible to speak of achieving real economic development without including high-quality vocational education and training, as that prepared people of all ages for different kinds of work, as well as for life in general.  It needed to be open, flexible and learning-oriented, and increasingly geared towards life-long learning horizons.  As in other educational spheres, women were underrepresented in vocational education and training.  Among other things, their absence meant vocational education and training programmes must become more gender-friendly, as well as more flexible, to make them suitable for different women and girls.

Turning to the transition from school to work, she stressed that it was frequently beset by barriers.  A girl might not have skills that matched the needs of the labour market.  An employer’s expectations about the skills needed for a potential employee might diverge from their training.  Employers might also have a different idea of acceptable working conditions and hours for women and girls, and experience showed they often preferred to choose male over female candidates.

She identified several main risk groups in terms of transitioning from school to work, including teenage mothers; girls leaving education due to conflicts with parents or teachers; and orphaned, abandoned or disabled girls who could not expect any transition period from schooling to work.  Vocational education and training programmes should consider how to better meet the needs of those vulnerable groups.  She urged delegations to consider how to maximize those programmes for lifelong learning opportunities.

Turning to the issue of financing for education, Ms. CORAT said the resources needed were increasingly lacking.  Education was primarily financed by domestic and family budgets, which were squeezed by the current economic climate.  When families were forced to choose which of their children to send to school, daughters lost out.  The question of whether any family should have to make such a choice was answered by the grim statistics on what resources were needed to ensure education for all.

On that point, she said developing countries spent roughly 4 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on education, of which 85 to 90 per cent of the funds went towards teacher’s salaries.  Much of that funding depended on foreign support.  Yet even if donor Governments kept their promises — namely, adding $2 billion to what they were already giving — it would still not be enough to pay for basic primary education, much less education for all.  The 2010 global monitoring report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indicated that once existing funds were taken into account, the funding gap totalled $16 billion.  In contrast, global military spending was $1.5 trillion — or nearly 100 times greater.

Against that backdrop of too-few resources, innovative financing offered some creative options, she said.  While such financing came in too many guises to do it full justice in such a short presentation, it came from a variety of sources and could have similarly wide-ranging benefits.  Further, innovative financing was about innovating far more than just finance; it was also about innovating education itself, along with development and global finance.  It also offered the opportunity to place gender equality and women’s equality at the heart of the debate on global development.  Overall, innovative investments should be made to reach the marginalized, particularly in light of the growing threat that increasing numbers of children would leave school early.  Specific strategies that had already proven successful in fighting that phenomenon included:  scholarships, campaigns to send female teachers to rural areas; and installing separate sanitation facilities for boys and girls.

In the question-and-answer period that followed, representatives of Government and civil society alike stressed the importance of women’s and girls’ access to and participation in education and training, both of which were essential to building successful knowledge-based societies.  Emphasizing that gender equality was a fundamental human right and criterion for democracy, a number of Government speakers outlined their commitment to improving women’s and girls’ access to skills development and education, describing plans to increase literacy rates, create safe learning environments and better prepare young women for entry and re-entry into the formal labour market.  They also stressed the importance of non-discriminatory research systems that promoted prosperity.

“Women are key drivers of change,” said one developed country speaker, adding that closing the gender gap was “a must” if nations wanted to improve their development potential.  Commercial advantages gained by increased gender diversity must be exploited.  Traditional gender roles were being turned upside down in some parts of the world, with women, including in Nordic countries, serving as the primary bread winners.  In that context, she emphasized the importance of encouraging men and women to make non-traditional career choices.

In the area of education, a few Government speakers underscored the need for scholarships for women and girls, and many highlighted the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming as a strategy to achieve gender parity in formal and non-formal education.  To reverse the trend of high dropout rates among girls, efforts had been made in some countries to reach children in minority communities.  Above all, some said, it was important to train teachers without reproducing gender stereotypes.  One civil society representative pointed out that children’s love of science was somehow lost between the early years and secondary school, with many girls learning to fear it.  She recommended appropriate training for science teachers at all levels.

Outside of formal education, women also acquired skills through social and family life, Government and civil societydelegatesobserved.  “Ideas move the world,” said a representative of Mujer para la Mujer, who pressed participants to consider how education quality was being measured and improved.  Girls required a well-rounded development, replete with critical thinking skills to survive and thrive in globalized societies.  A comprehensive view of education must serve their interests.

Punctuating the need for new strategies, the representative of the Central African Republic said women in her country lacked professional qualifications, information about job markets — and jobs themselves.  The absence of women in the socio-economic sector had only exacerbated their predicament.  If women were in the economic cycle, they were a long way from having an important impact.  “Women are marginalized and confined to low-responsibility tasks,” she asserted, adding that women over 25 years-old also had a low level of political participation, making it even more difficult to genuinely change the situation.

Delegates also peppered panellists with questions about how to alleviate gender discrimination in schools and career training, and encourage girls to embrace careers in science and technology.  Some speakers asked about the importance of female role models in vocational training and post-secondary education, especially in isolated or minority communities. Others asked for strategies to incorporate skills training into educational curricula.

Responding to the variety of comments, Ms. SERAFINI said the religious groups opposed proposals for sexual and reproductive teaching in Paraguay on the grounds that it did not respect “male and female as God made them”.  It also removed responsibility for that type of learning from the family, where it rightly belonged, while also imposing a certain construct of gender.  As for encouraging women to choose non-traditional career paths, she underlined the need for equal pay for equal work, as well as removal of stereotypes.  She shared the view that the issue of quality education was complex, adding that it was based on understanding the learning environment, training teachers and the overall approach taken by educational institutions themselves.

Acknowledging that the Millennium Development Goals had paved the way in many countries for access to education, Ms. HERATH nevertheless argued that their focus on quantity was too narrow and should be expanded to include quality.  It should be asked if the schooling in question prepared girls for future employment in the labour sector.  In that context, she suggested that the stratifications between vocational training and classical education should be blurred, whereby skills training included theoretical learning and vice versa.  She added that gender disparities should also be addressed in recruitment processes.

Responding to comments on the need to provide girls with more role models, Ms. TRAPENCIERE highlighted the media as a particularly effective route.  In terms of changing higher education policy, she suggested it should be assessed using a gender-based analysis.  Gender equality should also be emphasized in teacher training.  In-service teacher training was also a fruitful area to address the disparities of boys and girls in science classes using gender-sensitivity lessons.

Echoing that emphasis on the teaching of teachers, Ms. CORATH mentioned studies that showed how teachers brought their own gender biases to the classroom.  She also highlighted the use of public-private partnerships, which were increasingly the source of additional school funding.  Other proposed fundraising ideas included levies on premier European soccer teams of .04 per cent and on teacher-union dues in developed countries.  She agreed that role models could change stereotypes, and cited anecdotes about how the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to Liberia’s presidency had changed the career goals of girl children throughout and how Finnish boys believed that men could not be president.

Also participating in the discussion were the representatives of China, Cameroon, Indonesia, Ghana, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, India, Greece, Denmark, Japan, South Africa, Portugal, Mexico, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan, Uganda, Republic of Korea, Burundi, Morocco, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Colombia, Cape Verde, Thailand, Botswana, Spain and Jordan.

Representatives of the European Union, Council of Europe and the Economic Community of West African States also spoke.

Also contributing to the discussion were representatives of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and UNANIMA International.

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For information media • not an official record