Gender Mind Bender

June 18, 2013

What a thought provoking day. Today I attended a training for teachers at the local university in Robe, talking about gender. I was invited as the token ferengi who, as a woman could offer a different perspective. In total there were about 50 teachers, 2 being female. We worked in groups of about 8 teachers talking about a variety of gender issues. Gender inequality is a huge issue here and it becomes very obvious at the university level. Only about 10% of the students are female and 70% drop out in the first year. Of those that remain many receive poor grades.  The reasons are varied and complex, but NOT because women are simply slow learners as many of the male teachers were telling me. (WTF!)

The cultural view of women is that their role is to stay home, cook, clean and make and raise babies. This is taught to the young girls who are made to do chores at night rather than doing their homework like their brothers. And so the pattern of doing poorly in school begins. That combined with being told you are dumb, facing sexual harassment at every angle (especially from your 20 year old male professor who will exchange sex for grades), and being the suppressed minority in the class room all lead to where we are today- an extremely male dominated society. Yikes! But the facilitator of the training was a very gobez, uniquely motivated teacher who had us discuss everything from the impacts of having nasty shint bets without doors (females get urinary infections, or harassed), to the need to highlight more female role models.

For me this was a very eye opening day to really think about the impact of gender inequality, something that I have not really paid much attention to. I found myself pondering how I could help and how I can help teach confidence to the young women in my town. Good food for thought. It also made me excited for our girls summer camp coming up in 3 weeks. The camp is all about inspiring young girls to become leaders and to help build self esteem. It is titled camp GLOW- Girls Leading Our World which is an international program in the Peace Corps. I will be teaching a class on meditation and the use of positive affirmations- right up my alley. But in the meantime I have to put together a proposal for a composting toilet for the nature club. So ishi baka (ok, enough) for now! Chao!