Balanced View of the World

The Magna Carta of Women ensures equal access and elimination of discrimination in education, scholarships and training. To this end, the state shall remove gender stereotypes and images in educational materials and curricula. Textbooks at all levels of school should be free from gender stereotyping like for instance a father is portrayed as working in an office and a mother staying at home to clean. Or a husband reading newspaper while waiting for his wife to prepare food and fix the table. Or "ate" washes the dishes while "kuya" plays basketball. Pictures in school materials should go beyond traditional gender labels like a nurse represented as a woman while an engineer as man, or a teacher as female while a doctor as male.

School materials and teachers themselves should use gender-sensitive language at all times. Still a big number of teachers would consider the word "man" to encompass men and women. History books, including actual accounts in the Bible, would normally combine women and men as "men," instead of a better term such as "people." Or subject titles such as "Philosophy of Man" rather than "Philosophy of the Human Person." These practices and important accounts of history, if not corrected, would render women invisible not only in the past but at present and in the future as well. When women remain hidden because they are assumed to be the same as their male counterparts, so will be their real issues and interests. This condition of invisibility of women's problems in the education and formation of the youth will create future leaders that are blind of the concerns of half of the population.

Universities are encouraged to guard decisions that unconsciously limit opportunities for girls like prohibiting formation of female basketball teams, imposing uniforms or dress codes that constrict a person's freedom to move comfortably as they attend classes. Advisement of academic heads as to courses and career options for students should be transformative, liberal and empowering so that female students would have a wide range of choices to develop and pursue their interests, skills and talents.

Capability-building on gender and development, peace and human rights, education for teachers and all those involved in the education sector shall be pursued. Partnerships between and among players of the education sector, including the private sector and churches/faith groups, shall be encouraged. Enrollment of women and men in non-traditional skills training in vocational and tertiary levels shall be encouraged.