Gender Equality as a Tool of Social Change
Accredited Educational Course

The project ruzovyamodrysvet.sk (pinkandblueworld.sk) focuses on various educational activities for elementary and secondary school teachers and for students of schools of education. Gender Equality as a Tool of Social Change is an educational course accredited by the Ministry of Education SR that was elaborated on the basis of three-year-long experiences of the project with education and learning.

Its authors are experts from the organizations Občan a demokracia and ASPEKT. In the project ruzovyamodrysvet.sk (pinkandblueworld.sk) they jointly developed the main modules of the course, their content and methodical approaches.

The course contains eight modules and each of them consists of 10 training hours. Participants can take either individual modules or their combination or they can take the whole course. The course consists of lectures, discussions, model situations, analyses of documents and learning by experience.

1. Gender Stereotypes
This module focuses on the definition of fundamental concepts, identification of structures of gender stereotypes, causes and mechanisms of accepting and perpetuation of these stereotypes and their consequences for women and men at various level of social life.

2. Introduction into Gender Sensitive Pedagogy
The module concentrates on identification of gender stereotypes in the school setting – in textbooks and other materials. The objective is to increase gender sensitivity to the presence and perpetuation of gender stereotypes in the everyday teaching and learning practice.

3. Division of Labor between Women and Men
The main theme of this module is the gender specific division of labor. Participants will learn about economic and political implications of division of labor between women and men. Special attention is paid to horizontal and vertical gender-based labor market segregation.

4. Parenthood, Fatherhood, Motherhood
This module focuses on understanding of linkages between gender stereotypes and models of parenting – motherhood and fatherhood, on stereotypes of masculinity creating barriers to the development of emotional ties of fathers to their children. It also pays attention to the issues of reconciliation of work and family life.

5. Discrimination in the Work Place
The dominant theme of this module is the principle of equal treatment and the prohibition of sex and gender discrimination highlighting the domestic, international and European legal contexts of the issue. Participants will gain knowledge on the issue of equal pay and on multiple discrimination of women in the workplace.

6. The Beauty Myth
This module focuses on the beauty myth: beauty as an indivisible part of female identity. The objective is to identify the forms in which the beauty myth influences women and girls. Participants will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills that can help them to look critically on the role of the beauty myth in our culture and society.

7. Violence against Women
The theme covers the gender dimension of violence against women, as well as linkages between violence, gender stereotypes and unequal status of women in society and the family. It emphasizes the need for creation of the kind of environment that tolerates no violence and is violence-free.

8. Women in Politics
This module creates a space for discussing the theme of equal participation of women in the public sector and barriers that hinder it. Participants will gain insight into institutional and structural preconditions for equal participation of women in politics.

The thematic modules will be led by expert from the organizations ASPEKT and Občan a demokracia (Jana Cviková, Janka Debreceniová, Jana Juráňová, Šarlota Pufflerová, Silvia Ondrisová), and other experts on gender issues cooperating with these organizations.