Gender Equality: A Toolkit for Education Staff

The Scottish Government has published on its website a Gender Equality Toolkit.

Under the new Equality Act (2006) and the Gender Equality Duty which arises from it, schools are required to show that they are eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment and promoting equality between women and men. This toolkit has been produced to help education staff to reflect on and develop that process throughout all aspects of their work in schools.

The format of the toolkit has been taken from the Race Equality Audit for Schools: A Self-evaluation Resource already in use by many schools across the country. It is structured around the quality indicators of How good is our school? (2007) and is designed so that primary and secondary schools can look at the whole pack or only one section at a time. It is expected that most schools will already be implementing some or many of the suggestions and can therefore look for ways to improve the impact of strategies already in place or investigate some new ideas. The eventual aim would be for every school to be able to evidence good practice at level 5 or 6 across each of the key areas.

This toolkit has been written as Curriculum for Excellence becomes the key focus for developments in Scottish schools. Gender equality, positive attitudes towards both girls and boys, and teaching about gender issues, are essential if all pupils are to become confident individuals, successful learners, responsible citizens and effective contributors.