GENDER EQUALITY POLICIES: EDUCATION FOR A VIOLENCE-FREE SCHOOL

Abstract

Gender studies began in higher education as a critique to the traditional theoretical stances that had ignored or distorted the life of women and overlooked or had no knowledge of their contribution to the general knowledge. These studies are aimed at correcting the male centered view, transforming the hegemonious approach in order to change them into more inclusive educational proposals, representative of the human reality, based on epistemological theoretical, methodological, interdisciplinary, and participative criticisms; this, besides transforming gender relations to build more equalitarian and non-violent societies. To this regard, although national and international policies have had an important role in the integration of the gender approach in higher education institutions (HEI), many of them remain simply as statements and good intentions. Women have achieved access to education, but representation in positions of power remains in the hands of men, the “crystal ceiling is still there, as are the hidden curriculum and discrimination, both at the individual and at the collective levels.

Keywords

• education
• gender
• inequities