Empowering Girls Through Education: Breaking Gender Norms and Achieving Equality
A report in The Age led me to a December 2023 Productivity Commission report written by Kim Nguyen and Jonathon Hambur: Adoption of Emerging Digital General-purpose Technologies: Determinants and Effects. The paper highlighted that Australian companies are adopting new technologies such as cloud computing and GPT- general purpose technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning more slowly, slowing the process of technology diffusion and hence productivity growth. Those companies where Directors have experience with GPT are more likely to adopt, and when there is female representation on the Boards of those companies, they are more likely to adopt GPT. After adoption, companies tend to demand more GPT-skilled workers which highlights the role that having a skilled workforce could play in facilitating technology adoption. The continued low numbers of females who are Directors and are on company Boards is having an impact not only on the adoption of general- purpose technologies, but on the diversity of thinking which is necessary for our Australian economy.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) November 2023 report told us that on average for every $1 men earn in Australia, women earn 78 cents. The average annual pay difference between men and women has narrowed by $1322 but a gap of $26,393 remains. There has been an increase in the proportion of women managers by 1% from 41% in 2022 to 42% in 2023.
There is a good deal of evidence on the benefits of investing in girls’ education, including that it supports improved social, economic and health outcomes. Empowerment refers to one’s ability to have both control and power over the decisions and resources within their life. Gender parity in education outcomes, including learning, does not guarantee empowerment for women and girls.
The Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce which was established by the Australian government noted that while Australian women are highly educated, outdated gender norms and current policy settings assume that women will do the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work, have a disrupted career trajectory, earn less and accumulate fewer assets in their lifetimes. Young women in particular want to benefit from their education, have fulfilling careers and do not want to choose between work and family life.
In their 2023 paper Empowerment, Aspirations and Girls’ Education, Carvahlo and Camerson refer to a study focused on a national girls’ education program in India, Shah (2011) which argues that empowerment and education in developing countries are integrally intertwined and schools have the ability to uniquely operate as a space, for both teachers and students, to facilitate the idea of empowerment. In a report on the missing ingredients in girls’ empowerment, Kumar and Gupta (2008) explain that an “empowered girl” – one who recognizes her own potential and has aspirations—is a product of sustainable and rigorous development in school curriculums and classroom pedagogy.
Researchers have also developed frameworks regarding empowerment for women and girls. Rowland’s (1997) model has three dimensions which situate empowerment on 1) a personal level to develop a sense of self, confidence and capacity; 2) close relationship level to develop negotiation skills and influential decisions; and 3) a collective level to learn the importance of working together in order to achieve a greater impact. Stromquist (2015) includes another dimension in their model to include an economic component which explores financial capacity and independence. Such models highlight that empowerment is a complex and multidimensional concept.
Murphy-Graham and Lloyd (2015) have developed a framework which outlines the necessary conditions that schools must meet in order to provide students, and in particular girls, with the support needed to become empowered. They argue that ‘empowered individuals recognize their inherent worth, the fundamental equality of all human beings and their ability to contribute to personal and social betterment. They develop the capacity to critically examine their lives and broader society and take action toward personal and social transformation.’
Murphy-Graham and Lloyd’s framework has four competencies—1) critical thinking and knowledge acquisition, 2) social competencies, 3) personal competencies, and 4) productive competencies.
For some girls around the world, attending school does not provide a safe environment for them. Similarly, girls may not feel comfortable attending school because they fear sexual harassment, bullying or shaming. In some countries, for a girl to believe in herself and see herself as an equal to boys, there may need to be a significant shift from traditionally embedded gender roles at home, in school and in society.
By way of an example, a decade-long large empowerment program for Bangladeshi adolescent girls by Innovations for Poverty Action included safe spaces, regular meetings for girls, academic and life skills training, an incentive program to delay early marriage, and community sensitization. While evidence from an evaluation of the empowerment communities did not show a significant impact on delaying marriage or childbearing, educational attainment improved with more girls staying in school.
As a girls’ school with a powerful narrative about the education of girls and the significant achievements of our alumnae in their careers and lives, we continue to have conversations about the empowerment of our young people because gender norms persist, and we have not yet achieved gender equality in our country.
Our educators at Lauriston create an environment in which our students can develop their sense of self, confidence and capacity. Our young people are provided with a curriculum which is intellectually stimulating, and they are encouraged to question, critically consider and to be challenged. Through their classroom learning and co-curricular environment, our students learn to collaborate, and they understand the power that comes from working together to achieve their goals and have a positive impact. Our students have future aspirations and through their hard work and the support of their teachers, they can continue their education with their preferred tertiary studies. We want our young people to find careers that are fulfilling and enable them to be financially independent.
Each member of our broader school community is a role model for our young people and we need to envisage, speak about and advocate for an Australian society in which we have gender equality and our girls will have the full benefit of their education.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) November 2023 report told us that on average for every $1 men earn in Australia, women earn 78 cents. The average annual pay difference between men and women has narrowed by $1322 but a gap of $26,393 remains. There has been an increase in the proportion of women managers by 1% from 41% in 2022 to 42% in 2023.
There is a good deal of evidence on the benefits of investing in girls’ education, including that it supports improved social, economic and health outcomes. Empowerment refers to one’s ability to have both control and power over the decisions and resources within their life. Gender parity in education outcomes, including learning, does not guarantee empowerment for women and girls.
The Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce which was established by the Australian government noted that while Australian women are highly educated, outdated gender norms and current policy settings assume that women will do the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work, have a disrupted career trajectory, earn less and accumulate fewer assets in their lifetimes. Young women in particular want to benefit from their education, have fulfilling careers and do not want to choose between work and family life.
