Hello Friends,
Only a month left for entering into the new millenium while we are
discussing
on 'women in science'. I am very happy to be a member of the panel for
this
dialogue on the EDEQUITY listserv. Let me introduce myself .
I am a scientist (Physicist) in India and extremely interested in Gender
Science and Technology (GST) issues. Currently I am a chair of
International
Gender & Science & Technology (GASAT) Association and President of Once &
Future Action Network (OFAN). Both the organizations work for gender
equity in
science and technology education as well as in employment (profession). We
have
set up SATWAC Foundation (Science and Technology for Women and Children)
in
India which promotes no. of innovative research, action and training
programs
for girls and women in science and technology. SATWAC works both in rural
as
well as urban areas. We had organized International GASAT 8 conference in
Ahmedabad, India with a theme 'Achieving 4E's: Education, Employment,
Equality
and Empowerment'.
We have recognized that education is the key to empowerment and helps in
improving the quality of life. Education builds capacity among people to
participate actively in decision making and be self reliant. The girls
education has been considered a very important area of a development by
all the
nations. There is still a big gap in girls access and enrollment in
schools at
primary as well as high school level compare to boys. Their continuation
at the
upper levels depend upon many social, economical and cultural factors.
Many
studies show that the factors which affect negatively to the girls
participation in Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM ) are: lack of
family
and peers support, lack of role models, teachers attitudes (not sensitive
to
gender issues), organization of science and technology curricula and
contents,
Irrelevant and uninteresting teaching methods and lack of connection to
daily
lives. These are just the few points contributing to the drop out of girls
at
school level.
The FEMSA project has identify factors which are home, community and
school
based which continue to create gender disparity in education. The family
size,
household income, parents education, traditional beliefs, sexual harassment
also
contribute to lower participation of girls in schools.
Many studies have shown the importance of reforming SMT education to meet
the
needs of girls. The partnership of girls, teachers and parents as well as
policy and decision makers and NGO's are important for the improvement of
girls
participation and performance in SMT subjects. The attitudes of girls
themselves to SMT subjects and their low self esteems some times become
the
hindering factors.
Some of the challenges we face are:
1. How to make SMT education interesting to girls and relevant to their
needs?
2. How to gender sensitize large no. of teachers at primary, secondary and
under graduate level?
3. How to include indigenous knowledge systems in the classrooms of which
women
are the custodians?
4. What kind of SMT training modules to be developed which can be used in
nonformal education for reaching women in rural areas? How to create basic
SMT
literacy?
I will be happy to hear more from you. Please feel free to raise
questions.
Thanking you.
With warm regards,
Jayshree A. Mehta
President, OFAN
Chair, GASAT
<satwac@wilnetonline.net>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:14:50 EDT