Gender Inequality:

Local, National and

InternationalGráinne Burke, Laura Mulhall

Aoife Wosser, Sarah Louise O’CallaghanJennifer McHugh, Hannah Lyons and Anna Murnaghan

What we have done so far• In Transition year this year we have focused on Development

Education. • As part of our study of Development Education, we were introduced to

the eight Millennium Development Goals, which are a set of aims to transform the lives of millions of people in developing countries and they were established by the UN to be reached by 2015.

• We were put into groups and each group chose a goal we would like to study.

• Following on from this, we were delighted when Darren Irvine gave us an inspirational presentation on the Schools Across Borders initiative.

• We referred to the Schools Across Borders website to answer the questions on the Progress Report Sheets. This research along with our own personal interest led to our decision to choose the topic of Gender Inequality.

What is gender inequality and why did we pick it?

• Gender inequality is the difference between women and men in regard to social, political, economic, or other attainments or attitudes, or the problem perceived to exist because of such difference.

• We picked this topic because it affects us in our local community, nationally and internationally. We found it very interesting because gender inequality is still a huge issue in today’s society even though it may seem both men and women are treated the same

Facts about gender inequality in each continent

• Middle East: In Saudi Arabia, men have the right to twice the inheritance women are allowed, and women are obliged to have a tutor accompany them for many daily tasks in life.

• Africa: Over 22 million people suffer with HIV in Sub Saharan Africa. Women are affected more than men. HIV is most common among young people, 75% of which are women.

• North America: Every minute and a half, a woman is raped in the USA

• South America: The amount of parliamentary seats occupied by women in Colombia is decreasing with currently only 8% in comparison to 11% in 1995.

Facts about gender inequality • Central America and The

Caribbean: Around 5,000 children are involved in human trafficking in Mexico.

• Europe: Women earn only 76% of men's gross hourly pay (EU average) for the same job

• Australia and Pacific: Women continue to suffer sorcery abuse in countries such as Papua New Guinea. About 150 women are killed each year for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

• Asia: Thousands of women in Asia die each year as a result of "honour killings," where a young woman is punished or killed by male family members for putting shame on the family honour.

Government (National)

• An example of gender inequality in government is that there is a higher percentage of men than women in the Dáil and Seanad. • One statistic stated that only 13% of women

were represented in the Dáil.• There hasn’t yet been a female Taoiseach.

Locally• Sports clubs in our areas put the majority of

focus and resources on the boys teams, for example, there are more age groups made available to boys in the local football club.

• In our local secondary schools, choices are different for the boys school and the girls school. Woodwork, Metalwork and Technology drawing are available to boys and not girls, whereas Home economics is available for girls.