Gender stereotypes are one of severe factors which generate inequalities between women and men in social, economical and political life. They prescribe specific roles for women and men determining their participation in public sphere and their access to resources and decision-making. Unequal gender division of power is affected by socialization processes in which boys and girls participate in their schooldays and at their homes. Available schoolbooks are often full of gender biases and stereotypes and they present traditional female and male roles.

The efforts to bring gender perspective into education have been undertaken by grass-root independent organizations. Unfortunately, they are not visible at the governmental level. That is why the starting point for the June 21, 2007, discussion on gender sensitive education, organized by the Warsaw Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, was presentation of alternative models of teaching which include also diversity issues and the question of tolerance and respect for ethnical, religious, sexual differences. The panel discussion gathered representatives of NGOs, as well as academic and didactic circles: dr Agnieszka Graff, Piotr Laskowski, Ewa Rutkowska, Joanna Piotrowska and Jana Cvikova from Slovakia.

The issues which were raised at the panel evoked vivid discussion among pedagogues, teachers and representatives of NGOs, especially organizations involved in educational projects, focusing on broadly understood discrimination, stereotypes, gender inequality etc. What functioned as the debate’s context was controversial ideas of Roman Giertych, Minister of Education, such as a proposition of creating separate schools for girls and boys, which made the shape of Polish educational system an issue of public debate.

More in the invitation.