Education inequalities 'changing slowly’

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 30

Education inequalities 'changing slowly’

PA Hamilton Education supposedly based on principles of equal opportunity merely reinforced inequality between the sexes and was changing only slowly, according to the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Hercus. At a dinner for Waikato Women in Education in Hamilton, Mrs Hercus said her schooling divided subjects by gender - cooking and sewing for girls, woodwork and metalwork for boys.

These reinforced attitudes that girls were destined to be wives and mothers, and boys to be workers.

“Of course, these attitudes are changing, but only slowly,” she said.

“If we are serious about our commitment to equality we must continue to challenge these assumptions, with vigour. Real equality means increasing the options open to this year’s school-leavers, girls and boys. “It is not enough to tell girls that they can do anything. We must actu-

ally make it possible for them,” she said. To do that would mean educating parents and employers, as well as children. “Education is not confined within the school gates,” she said. Mrs Hercus said she was concerned about women’s employment statistics showing the vast majority in a narrow range of lower-paid occupations. “I see the patterns of the past cemented in concrete. To break the concrete we must broaden the career horizons of girls.

“We must make sure that all of our children, and not just the boys, receive an education which will prepare them for the society in which they are going to live,” she said. Mrs Hercus outlined initiatives the Labour Government had made to achieve this goal, including the establishment of the women’s advisory committee on education to improve the status of

women and girls in the education system. To improve the position of women teachers, the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, had created part-time jobs with permanent status for teachers in secondary schools, technical institutes, and teachers’ colleges. It was also being negotiated for kindergartens, she said.

Job-sharing was to be introduced into primary schools, with permanent part-time work to be negotiated. The concept of job-sharing would be extended to other levels of the education system, she said.

In an effort to improve the career prospects of women teaching in primary schools, a change allowing teachers with junior responsibilities to become assistant principals had been introduced.

As well, each coeducational secondary school would set up a review committee to look at the position of women in that school, she said.