—
Strategic objective B.3.
Improve women’s access to vocational training, science and technology, and continuing education
Actions to be taken
82. By Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and non-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions:
d. Design educational and training programmes for women who are unemployed in order to provide them with new knowledge and skills that will enhance and broaden their employment opportunities, including self-employment, and development of their entrepreneurial skills;
e. Diversify vocational and technical training and improve access for and retention of girls and women in education and vocational training in such fields as science, mathematics, engineering, environmental sciences and technology, information technology and high technology, as well as management training;
f. Promote women’s central role in food and agricultural research, extension and education programmes;
g. Encourage the adaptation of curricula and teaching materials, encourage a supportive training environment and take positive measures to promote training for the full range of occupational choices of non-traditional careers for women and men, including the development of multidisciplinary courses for science and mathematics teachers to sensitize them to the relevance of science and technology to women’s lives;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Most levels of the national and international, and local, systems are emphasized in these portions of the paragraph. Indeed, the first section speaks to the improved education and training regimes for women.
Many women remain unemployed and stuck in financial dependence on either the men in their lives or the government because of the inability to access or even have opportunities in the various educational and training systems on offer in societies; those, more generally and unfairly, present and available for the men.
The self-employment is connected to this. How? Knowledge about a sector of the economy to innovate, be entrepreneurial, and so on, are part and parcel of financial independence, of which most women will never attain; however, the ability to garner an education and use this for effective, long-term employment can improve the probability of a positive life outcome for the women.
For those with a more in-depth interest in the areas of the possibilities of women, as these are introductory level analyses and conversational presentations of the international rights documents and recommendations, you can look into the international communities’ relevant documentation and recommendations for more depth.
But the economies are continually changing and this requires a diversification of the avenues for self-empowerment of women, these include “science, mathematics, engineering, environmental sciences and technology, information technology and high technology.” No doubt about it.
The world is more technologically advanced, more scientifically savvy, and needing the further movement towards the freedom of all through the empowerment of women and girls into the 21st-century economies, which are science and technology-heavy economic systems – globally and nationally.
The focus in this document is also on recognition in less science and technology-heavy industries. But this recognition of women’s contributions can reduce social stigma and improve the possibility of the removal of social and cultural blockades of the pathways available to women.
This includes, as well, the promotion of women into science and mathematics towards the international targeted objectives of gender equality and parity. We do not know what an equal society looks like in full, nor do we have definitive data as to optimal structures for a society.
However, the tendency in international thought is in pro-gender equality with purely nationalistic goals tending towards the pro-gender inequality with men in one role and women in another and never the twain meeting.
Thus, the orientation of a particular ideological perspective can elucidate the orientation of someone, in general as a tendency and in principle with the more nationalistic as unequal in orientation and the more globalistic as more equal in orientation. This may be a fun experiment, intriguing at a minimum, for a self-inventory of true views.
—
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
Got Writer’s Block?
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash