Do you acknowledge International Women’s Day at your service? Why? Why not?
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a key date in any anti bias calendar. This year’s theme is Embrace Equity.
What is equity? And how is it different from equality? And why is it important for the young children we provide education and care to?
Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities.
Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities they need to reach an equal outcome.
It is about inclusion. It is about actively recognising that girls are not starting off from the same point in society as boys. We know that women will have a greater chance of being subject to domestic violence, to sexual assault (both as a child and as a women) than men. We know that women will have lower wages than men. We know that girls and women are particularly constrained by gender stereotypes which lead to a range of consequences as they grow older.
So, what might you do to acknowledge International Women’s Day at your service?
You could start with families and educators by sharing information relating to the inequities women face with both.
You could also critically reflect on how your service is seeking to undo gender inequity.
Or you could change your programming for the day to embrace women and girl’s equity.
How? There are so many good children’s books now that deal with issues of gender stereotypes. Talk about International Women’s Day and its history. Ask your children to do an audit of your books to find the ones that have strong female characters. Get parents who have gender non typical careers to come and talk to older children.
Or read this wonderful blog post by early childhood teacher Felicity Barclay which has lots more ideas.
Reflective Questions
§ If you do celebrate International Women’s Day at your service, why do you? If you don’t, why don’t you?
§ How does your own personal experience of gender inequity impact your role as a teacher or educator?
§ How do you understand the connection between the wage levels in the education and care sector and gender inequity?
§ How do you work with children in a way to promote gender equity? What more could you do?
Help make the world a more equitable one for all!
Visit The Inclusion Room:
https://learning.theinclusionroom.com.au/
The Anti-Bias Approach In Early Childhood 4th Edition: