Gender Equality in Education: Beyond Access
The majority of the world's 100 million out-of-school children are girls. The first of the UN Millennium Development Goal targets - to get equal numbers of girls and boys into school by 2005 - was missed. It is therefore urgent that action is taken to get more girls into school. However, as well as ensuring that more girls are able to go to school, there is a need to ensure that once in school, both girls and boys receive a good-quality and gender-equitable education. It should be empowering, and should help them to develop the range of skills that they need to flourish as adults.
One way in which Oxfam is working to promote gender equality in education is through the Beyond Access: Gender Education and Development project. This project was set up in 2003 by Oxfam GB, the Institute of Education, and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government. It seeks to contribute to promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3) - by generating and critically examining knowledge and practice regarding gender equality and education. To do this, it has brought together a wide network of practitioners, policy makers, and academics to explore critical issues that affect the achievement of gender equality in education, and the way in which these issues relate to gender inequalities in society more broadly.
The Beyond Access project has produced a range of resources to share and disseminate learning from the project, and to help practitioners and policy makers understand what they can do to promote gender equality in education.
Working with the Media on Gender and Education: A Guide for Training and Planning
This guide is designed to help education and gender campaigners, and organisations and coalitions, work more effectively with the media to promote gender-equitable education. It explores issues relating to gender equality in education and contains practical advice on working with the media. Throughout the guide suggestions of activities to help groups generate discussion and explore the issues addressed in more depth are given the guide is accompanied by a set of worksheets that correspond to these activities.
Download the guide (PDF, 950KB)
Download the worksheets (PDF, 320K)
Programme Insights: Education and Gender series
This series of nine papers on gender equality in education contributes to improving policy development and practice by presenting new learning and examples of good practice in a clear and straightforward manner, with recommendations for action.
Beyond Access: Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender Equality in Education
This book presents a vision of a transformational education, which would promote social change, enable girls to achieve their full potential, and contribute to the creation of a just and democratic society. Contributors examine the extent and causes of gender-based inequality in education and report on original field-work in a range of local contexts where gender-equality initiatives have flourished.
Equals
Equals, the Beyond Access: Gender, Education and Development newsletter, contains information, discussion, research updates, and personal perspectives on gender equality and education, from a range of contributors drawn from the project’s wide network. These include teachers, NGOs, academics, and policy makers.
Recent editions of Equals can be downloaded here:
Equals Issue 19 January - April 2007 (PDF, 832K)
Equals Issue 18 August - November 2006 (PDF, 1MB)
Equals Issue 17 April - July 2006 (PDF, 1553K) | Bangla (3.4MB) | French (PDF, 753K) | Spanish (PDF, 249K)
Equals Issue 16 January/March 2006 (PDF, 370K) | Bangla (PDF, 6261K) | Spanish (PDF, 144K)
Equals Issue 15, November/December 2005 (PDF, 2567K) | Arabic (PDF, 277K) | Bangla (PDF, 2185KB)| French (PDF, 479K) | Spanish (PDF,100K )
Equals Issue 14, September/October 2005 (PDF, 713K) | Bangla (PDF, 6.9MB) | French (PDF, 694K) | Spanish (PDF, 180K)
Equals Issue 13, July/August 2005 (PDF, 690K) | Arabic (PDF, 199K) | French (PDF, 422K) | Hindi (PDF, 70K) | Spanish (PDF, 122K)
Beyond Access policy papers
These papers bring together key ideas and policy recommendations developed by participants at a series of international seminars organised by the Beyond Access project, which looked at different aspects of achieving gender equality in education.
Download the papers here:
Developing Curricula for Gender Equality and Quality Basic Education (PDF, 223K)
Pedagogic Strategies for Gender Equality (PDF, 235K)
Achieving Gender Equality in Adult Basic Education (PDF, 195K)
Partnerships for Gender Equality in Education (PDF, 238K)
Electronic versions of all past issues of Equals published in several languages, as well as the full set of papers presented at the Beyond Access international seminars are available on the project website.
Information about the Beyond Access Project is also available at the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative website.
Other resources
Oxfam has also produced a range of other resources relating to gender equality in education. These include:
Partnerships for Girls' Education
By documenting and analysing the achievements and challenges of actual partnerships for girls' education, this book aims to suggest strategies for progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
Buy and read in PDF format on the Oxfam Publishing website
Practising Gender Analysis in Education
Aimed at policy makers and planners, academics, researchers and students, development agencies, and practitioners, this book provides accessible tools for carrying out gender-sensitive analyses of current education situations. Buy and read in PDF format on the Oxfam Publishing website
Practising Gender Equality in Education
Drawing on the work of the 'Beyond Access, Gender, Education, and Development' project, contributors discuss some of the key challenges in achieving gender equality in education, give examples of initiatives in a range of contexts, and make recommendations for action.
Buy and read in PDF format on the Oxfam Publishing website
