For Pdf 29/1/07 8:08 AM Page 1 A Post-Primary Religious Education Resource exploring gender equality through a global lens For Pdf 29/1/07 8:08 AM Page 2 Introduction Contents Dear teacher… Of the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty throughout our world, 70% are Welcome to Trócaire’s Lenten resource for women and girls. It is for this reason that Page 2: 2007 dedicated to Religious Education. Lent much of this resource is dedicated to the Introduction is a time for reflection in our lives. As the women Trócaire works with even though the winter fades and we wait for spring and the Page 3: issue of gender is one that relates to and hope that Easter brings, the Church What is gender? effects both boys and girls, women and men. encourages us to refocus our lives, consider This year we also include a section on Page 4: where our faith fits into it and turn more Catholic Social Teaching with a particular Gender & towards God. It is within this context that focus on Populorum Progressio, marking its Development Trócaire has developed a Religious 40th anniversary in March. This encyclical Education resource that allows you to Page 5: highlights the role we all can play in creating explore a global theme in a way that The farmer and her a just world and was influential in the promotes faith in action. husband founding of organisations like Trócaire. The theme of our Lenten campaign this year On the back page of this resource, links are Page 6: is Gender Inequality and the adverse effects made to the Religious Education curricula Catholic Social this has on poverty levels and related issues and syllabi both in the Republic and North Teaching in developing countries. of Ireland. The resource has been designed Page 7: Gender is a complex issue and one of which and written to be used as a stand alone Populorum we all have personal experience. As a teacher resource or indeed to complement the Fully Progressio it is important to bear this in mind both in Alive RE programme, particularly year 10, terms of your own experiences and those of GCSE/A level syllabi and both the Junior Page 8/9: your students. With this challenge however, Certificate and Leaving Certificate syllabi. Trócaire at work you are also provided with an opportunity. The content is such that it can be used at Firstly, gender roles and stereotypes are anytime during the academic calendar. Page 10: learned and therefore they can be Agents of change We hope you enjoy working with this challenged and changed! Secondly, the issue material and thank you for your continued Page 11: of gender can first be explored from the interest in and support for the work of A time for prayer personal context of the students. This will Trócaire. allow them to move onto a more meaningful Trócaire’s Education Team Page 12: exploration of the global situation. (Belfast, Cork and Maynooth) Curriculum links CD Section Please also LOG ON to our website @ The CD ROM which accompanies www.trocaire.org/education this resource includes a number of powerpoint presentations relating to each of Our website is packed full of the Lenten resource booklets including this information including - religious education resource. It also includes All of the 2007 Lenten resource booklets an additional folder of general photo images • D =1 D that are available to download directly on Malawi that can be printed out for display A=2, B=3, C=4, B=3, A=2, from our website. purposes and general classroom use. page 10 page The folder can be further used to provide a • Information about our Pamoja programme. tudent Activity on Activity tudent S continuous loop of images for assemblies Click on the link to our dedicated Pamoja 2006: 1,6 2006: and prayer services. website - Pamoja is a Human Rights 1967: 2,4; 1987: 3,5; 1987: 2,4; 1967: programme that we run with Senior There are 6 folders - page 6 page School Students throughout Ireland. tudent Activity on Activity tudent S • Pre-school presentation • Information on our current Campaigns. • Junior/KS1 primary 6.g 7.s 8.g 9.g.10.g 8.g 7.s 6.g Log onto www.trocaire.org/takeaction to 1.s 2.g 3.s 4.g 5.g 5.g 4.g 3.s 2.g 1.s • Senior/KS2 primary learn what you can do to make a page 3 page • Post Primary RE presentation difference. tudent Activity on Activity tudent S • Post Primary CSPE/Citizenship presentation Send us your comments! Click on the link. Answers • Malawi Photo Gallery All feedback is much appreciated. 2 For Pdf 29/1/07 8:08 AM Page 3 What is Gender?... TALKING POINTS Cultural Conditioning…. From the moment we are T AIM– to understand what we mean by gender born we all undergo cultural stereotyping and conditioning. Baby girls for People are born male and female but learn to be boys and girls who grow into men and example, traditionally get women. Gender is something that we learn and this in turn makes up our gender identity dressed in pink and boys in and determines our gender roles. Through these, we are taught what the appropriate blue and as we grow up girls are often given dolls behaviour, attitudes and activities are for men and women. Those who act outside their and prams to play with and gender roles may face disapproval. boys cars and trains. • Can you remember any Basically, when we talk about gender, we are talking about social roles and not ‘sex’ or of your childhood toys? biological characteristics. Gender varies from culture to culture and over time. For example, Were they traditionally in the Republic of Ireland, the bar on married women working in the civil service was only associated with your gender? removed in 1973. Discuss the meaning and Clearly, the current make-up of gender identities causes problems for both men and purpose of the poster women. The overwhelming recruitment of men as fighters by both state and revolutionary below. forces puts them in great danger. Men in the West have a life expectancy consistently several years less than that of women, suggesting the costs of gender-related occupational and consumption patterns. Globally however, women in their social roles and relationships suffer greater inequalities. Society is structured in such a way that often undermines and undervalues the contributions of women around the world. In most countries today, including Ireland, women still earn less than men, are prevented from owning land, face UK equal opportunities commission - numerous obstacles to holding www.eoc.co.uk positions of power and authority and Discuss the cartoon on often face threats of violence and this page. abuse simply because of their gender. • What message is the cartoonist trying to get The consequences of this at personal, across? social, economic and political Currently, the worldwide levels are felt not only by life expectancy for all women but by us all. people is 64.3 years. Women have always had a longer life expectancy than men. The average life CSTUDENT ACTIVITY Sex or Gender expectancy is 62.7yrs for males and 66yrs for females. However, this Teacher: Read out the following statements and ask your students to correctly answer varies greatly throughout ‘Sex or Gender’? the world. Japan has an average life expectancy of 1. Women give birth to babies, men don’t. 80.7 yrs, as compared to 2. In many countries, women earn 70% of what men earn. Malawi’s 37.8 years. 3. Women can breast-feed babies; men need a bottle for feeding babies. • Why do you think 4. Women are usually in charge of raising children. women have a higher life expectancy than 5. Men are decision makers. men? 6. In Ancient Egypt, men stayed at home and did weaving. Women handled family • Suggest reasons for this business. difference. 7. Boys’ voices break at puberty; girls’ do not. Sex or Gender Activity… 8. According to United Nations statistics, women do 67% of the world’s work, yet their • Did any of the earnings amount to only 10% of the world’s income. statements in the 9. In Ireland and the UK there are fewer women politicians than men. activity surprise you? 10. Women are forbidden from working in dangerous jobs such as underground mining; • If so, why? men do so at their own risk. Answers can be found on page 2 3 For Pdf 29/1/07 8:08 AM Page 4 Gender and TALKING POINTS Who does what at home? Development… Teacher – ask students to share information on their T – to understand the relationship between gender and development housework activities at AIM home with each other. •Are housework chores In 1975 the first UN conference on women and development was held in Mexico. It was shared equally between quickly recognised that too little was known or documented about the situation of women the males and females globally. A ‘Decade for Women’ was then declared by the United Nations as an official (including brothers and sisters) in their homes? commitment to improving the situation of women worldwide. The information that • Do boys tend to get emerged from this decade of research was presented at the Nairobi UN conference for different types of chores Women in 1985. “The almost uniform conclusion of the decade’s research is that, with few to the girls? exceptions, women’s relative access to economic resources, incomes and employment has •Are females ‘better’ at worsened.