“How Far Can She Go…class, glass, culture” Speech by Sabina Higgins at the Irish Federation of University Women Annual Conference
Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2, 22nd October 2016
Good morning everyone.
I am delighted to be here this morning to speak at this important event which invites us to reflect on the accessibility of education for girls and young women in our contemporary world. May I thank Nuala Ryan for her kind invitation to join you today, and all of you for your very warm welcome.
For over ninety years, the Irish Federation of University Women has played an important role in the promotion of higher and lifelong education for women and girls. Yours is, thankfully and wisely, an organisation whose advocacy extends to the advancement of the status of women across the globe.
Advocating for greater access to education for women and girls is of course advocating for greater rights for women, an issue that must be fundamental to any discussion on the structures and values of our society.
Today’s conference is an important one examining, as it does, three main barriers to female education throughout the world – those of Class, Glass & Culture.
Class
One of the critical factors in determining early school leaving is social class. The fact that parental social class remains a crucial determinant is a great cause for concern. One of the critical responsibilities of a democracy’s commitment to participation should and must be the seeking of equality of access to education.
Just two years ago, research by the ESRI showed that social mix and class continue to play a significant role in deciding whether or not a student will attend third-level education, stating that:
”The social mix of the school had a particularly strong influence. Young people who attended socially-mixed schools and middle-class schools, were more likely than those from working-class schools to go on to some form of post-school education and training, all else being equal.”
We are all aware of the importance of education, of how profoundly it defines the pathway forward for our citizens, and of its great power to successfully navigate barriers of social exclusion. When a young person is denied the opportunity to reach their potential and realise their possibilities, they have been failed by the very society in which they should be enabled to flourish and grow.
Glass
In Ireland, while we are seeing a welcome increase in high-profile female role models in leadership positions in the public sector, women remain under-represented in most key decision-making roles.
Despite advances in educational attainment, stereotypical career expectations for girls and boys remain.
One of almost 118,000 people working in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) sector in Ireland, just a quarter are women.
This situation is not unique to Ireland. Across Europe women are greatly underrepresented in the fields of science and technology, with an estimated only six to seven percent of technical positions being filled by women.
Science is an important and influential discipline –which has the potential to make the greatest contribution to improving our world.
Culture
The UN has unequivocally stated that:
“Gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence of deep-rooted disparities in society, . . . which prevent millions of girls from enrolling, completing and benefitting from education,”
while Oxfam Ireland has stated that gender inequality lies at the heart of the gap between the richest and poorest people in the world.
In countries across the world, girls are denied the same educational opportunities as boys due to cultural attitudes. Indeed, figures from UNESCO last year, revealed that the global number of children and young adolescents not enrolled in school has been rising in recent years.
While factors influencing the low participation of women in education vary from country to country, a fundamental cultural bias in favour of males is key. The widespread operation of patriarchal systems of social organisation; of early marriage and motherhood, of onerous domestic responsibilities for women and girls of a generally lower value placed on the education of females combine to negatively affect the participation of women and girls in formal education.
We know that education is critical to the well being of girls and women; and is vital in enabling them a voice and the capacity to play an active role in their societies.
Education empowers women enabling them to overcome discrimination; to participate in decision making which will affect their lives and the future of their children. Education is fundamental to the creation of equality between males and females, and to the crafting of a better shared future.
The objectives of the Graduate Women fits well with the efforts promoted by the United Nations to draw the attention of the world to the need to identify the features of poverty, and to work to find solutions, and eliminate poverty.
Today about 800 million people suffer from acute hunger and twice that number suffer malnutrition. Over 60 million people are displaced fleeing conflict, forced to move because of desertification caused by climate change, and because of struggles of various kinds on our earth. Those disasters are caused by acute poverty and intensified by gross inequalities. All of this is a tragedy which stands as the greatest moral challenge that we as global citizens face at this contemporary moment.
In a world that has become more divided and the gap between the rich and the poor has increased to an unsustainable level, the solutions have to be Global.
I think that a much strengthened United Nations can be our best guide. That great goodness in humanity that gave us the United Nations and the Human Rights Charter has had the foresight to work to bring hope, by putting in place an agenda for halting a trajectory of destruction, and formulate a plan of action.
In 2000 the United Nations got agreement from World Leaders for the Millennium Goals – A 15 year programme for the eradication of poverty and the empowerment of women.
Last year two great historic global events took place that put in place one universal agenda for all the countries of the world. In New York at the United Nations, 200 countries of the world came together and signed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, and in November in Paris, at the Climate Change conference, 196 countries adopted the first ever universal, legally binding climate deal.
The survival of the planet depends on the implementation of the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Climate Change Justice agendas.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a set of goals to end hunger, poverty, protect the planet, empower women and ensure education and prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets, 169 in total, to be achieved over the next 15 years - by 2030.
But if we are to achieve any of our global goals, we must seek to define new models of economics that are connected to ethics and are ecologically responsible and create new world institutions that are accountable, transparent, and rooted in democratic participation. As global citizens we must all be enabled, and to be willing, to play our role in becoming informed participants, willing and able to engage in discourse, on the creation and implementation of such models; courageous citizens prepared to challenge, to question and to explore better alternatives.
What I find so exciting and hopeful in this is the solidarity that it invites. For the first time everyone can have the same agenda as their reference point - World bodies, governments, local governments, civil society, the private sector, all educational establishments, each individual in their community, in their home and in their personal daily actions.
I think that this organisation, the University Women Graduates, with such a long history and advocacy of education, can play a crucial role in enabling this agenda to become a success.
Through our educational system it is essential that every man, woman and child is educated in getting to know these Millennium Goals if we are to ensure that actions taken place on one side of the world are not to the detriment of a sister or brother in another part of the world.
We must be mindful always as to how our actions are not just affecting ourselves, but how they are affecting our sisters and brothers worldwide. We must be informed enough ethically and economically to test that our consumption of goods is not causing suffering to other members of our world family.
Much in that overall narrative of transformation pertains to an overwhelming, and sadly persistent global injustice against women. Oxfam Ireland has stated that gender inequality lies at the heart of the gap between the richest and poorest people in the world. The elimination of gender violence and the empowerment of women are absolutely essential if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be realised.
Achieving our Goals can be an exciting and inspiring motivation for everyday living and inform the kind of person one is, in oneself and in interaction with others.
The access to higher education initiative being pursued by the Higher Education Authority is no doubt being influenced and supported by the findings and the agenda.
5 of the 17 goals, most particularly 3 and 5, and many of the 169 objectives depend directly on the emancipation, education and empowerment of women. The elimination of gender and domestic violence and the success of the HeforShe and our own ManUp Campaign are crucial if the goal of equality for women by 2030 is to be achieved. It is indeed a great spur to action by all, on all fronts.
An Cosán experience
Last Saturday, this day week, was the United Nations Eradication of Poverty Day and I spent the morning at An Cosán in Jobstown, Tallaght West, an area of disadvantage. It was celebrating 30 years of its existence as an Educational Community Centre, providing a range of service and services to the community from 0 to 100. It includes Lifestart - the Rainbow Early Learning Centre, Spirals, Parents Plus, Parent Support and lifelong learning and qualifications in sociology courses in Community Development and Community Leadership.
Many of the staff were from severely disadvantaged homes who had eventually found their way to An Cosán, and with the support they found there pursued education, and flourished and evolved to be great community leaders. It had a wonderful ethos of commitment to solidarity and cohesion and to the collective community.
It is now providing further educational opportunities, in its fight to combat disadvantage, through the wonderful initiative of its Virtual Community College. It has successfully completed its start up phase and this year expanded to provide third level part-time degrees to people around the country for those who wish to access higher education but whose circumstances - including cost or geographical location - do not allow them the opportunity.
There is a high level of community support and participation in this project and hopefully like projects will be replicated, with benefit, in all areas of disadvantage.
In conclusion may I thank you, once again, for inviting me to be with you here today. I wish you a very fruitful conference, that no doubt in its discussions, will give rise to new ideas and new initiatives for your aim of furthering higher education opportunity for women in Ireland and across the globe, and help achieve the kind of good society, in which we would all love to live.