EDUCATION OF GIRLS AND WOMEN

1946
A Commission on the Status of Women set up by the United Nations

1949
First Conference of Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations, Paris

1952
Recommendation on Access of Women to Education, International Conference on Public Education, IBE, Geneva

1954
An International Convention on the Political Rights of Women comes into force, initially ratified by twenty countries

1960
Convention Against Discrimination in Education, General Conference of UNESCO, Paris

DOWN WITH DISCRIMINATION

In accordance with its mandate, UNESCO is striving to improve the status of women throughout the world. As issues pertaining to women have consequences for all aspects of life in society, the Organization has integrated the theme of women into each of its programmes and activities. In all Conferences organized at the ministerial level, as in the implementation of the various major projects, the preparation of standard-setting instruments, the launching of literacy campaigns, widening access to education and the improvement of its content, the use it has made of the mass media, or by means of studies and research it has undertaken, and through its publications, the Organization remains unremitting in its commitment to promoting equality between women and men, the participation of women in development and in building a culture of peace. Action to emancipate women is pursued in various aspects of education: literacy education, community development, scientific and technical training, population education, co-operative programmes, studies and research. This is how the education of women and girls came to be chosen as the main theme of the 1995 World Education Report.

EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION

In 1947 UNESCO contributed to the work of the Commission on the Status of Women by preparing a detailed report and convening a meeting of sixteen representative women’s associations to prepare a report on the status of women worldwide. (1) Co-operation with this United Nations Commission was subsequently strengthened to embrace the issues of the access of women to different types and levels of education. (2) The 1952 IBE International Conference on Public Education addressed a recommendation to ministers of education in all countries requesting them to promote the access of women to education at all levels. Regional ministerial conferences during the 1950s on the extension of free and compulsory primary education called for an end to any distinction between schooling for boys and schooling for girls, urging governments to provide more schools for girls, and make parents aware of the need to send their daughters to school. Education of women and girls was accorded a prominent place in the literacy and basic education programmes which followed, just as it had been in those devoted to extending primary and secondary education. (3)

1949
‘The Declaration of Women’s Right to Education and Culture becomes a Rallying Cry’
‘I cannot over-emphasize the truly fundamental importance of women’s education. The man who said that a child’s education begins with the education of his mother was not being funny. At the present day, this problem is becoming extremely serious both for adults and for children. It is one of the fundamental problems of our age. We need only reflect that more than half the population of the world is female and that the child’s constant association with his mother in his early years gives women a decisive part in the upbringing of the entire human race.

Now when, if it is to survive, humanity must make use of all its heritage, without overlooking the smallest item, now when mankind must have a reason for wishing to survive and know why life is worth the living, no particle of spiritual force should be neglected. The Declaration of Women’s Right to Education and Culture becomes a rallying cry. It is more than a statement of the theoretical equality between the sexes, in which a process of intellectual development has culminated: it makes a demand upon us, calling us to take part, as responsible citizens, in the campaign to secure educational opportunities for women, an advance that preconditions every human effort to establish a just and lasting peace.’

Jaime Torres Bodet, Director-General of UNESCO Address to the inaugural meeting of the Conference on Obstacles to Equality of Educational Opportunities for Women, December 1949.

STANDARD-SETTING ACTIVITIES AND
THE INTERDEPARTMENTAL PROGRAMME

In 1960, the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the Convention against Discrimination in Education, a standard-setting instrument which was to prove to be of crucial importance for future action, especially concerning women, which has been ratified by 85 Member States to date. This Convention served as a basis for the relevant provisions in other UNESCO texts which set standards in respect of the recognition of higher education degrees and diplomas, technical and vocational training, adult education, and the status of teachers. A series of UNESCO studies (4) in the 1950s and 1960s drew attention to the deciding historical, economic and social factors which are the root cause of discrimination against women, not only in education, but also in public life. As of 1968, activities to promote equal access to education and the participation of women in development was intensified within the framework of an interdepartmental programme. Besides new studies and publications, (5) this programme also included experimental literacy projects (Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso), primary schooling and training of women teachers (Nepal), and access to technical training (Chile).
Chase Going Woodhouse
Champion of women’s rights
To the question ‘You are so definite about what you want, are you even certain what you want on your tombstone?’, she replied immediately: ‘She was born a woman. She died a person’. A memorable phrase, signalizing an evolution which is the responsibility of all educationists.

Quoted by Jaime Torres Bodet in his opening speech to the Fifteenth Session of the International Conference on Public Education, IBE, Geneva, 7-12 July 1952

Jaime Torres Bodet
(Mexico)
Director-General of UNESCO from 1948 to 1952
In a humorous parody of the Preamble to UNESCO’s Constitution, a delegate once remarked: ‘Wars begin in the minds of men; it is in the minds of women that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ No doubt we cannot afford to neglect either. We are therefore making it our business to obtain for women as well as for men universal recognition and effective enjoyment of this right to education.

Opening speech to the Fifteenth session of the International Conference on Public Education, IBE, Geneva, 7-12 July 1952

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FOOTNOTES:

(1) The Commission on the Status of Women requested UNESCO to pay particular attention in its educational programme to those areas where women do not presently have equal rights. UNESCO is vitally interested in this question and recommendations in this field will be considered by the 1947 UNESCO General Conference. A detailed report of UNESCO’s conclusions about this work and projected activities in this field will be presented to the Commission on the Status of Women at its 1948 session.
The UNESCO Monitor, October 1947 From the Director General’s Interim report.
Support to women’s NGOs remains one of the Organization’s priority spheres of action.

(2) UNESCO conducted annual surveys amongst Member States, and provided this Commission with statistical data and reports on specific areas, such as access of women to higher education, to the teaching profession, to vocational training, etc.

(3) Access of girls and women to education in rural areas (4) For example, on education as a factor influencing the participation of women in public life.

(5) Studies on co-education in 1969, publication by IBE of a selected bibliography on the education and advancement of women published on the occasion of International Education Year, etc.