CEDAW/C/GC/36
e)
eradicate and/or reform policies, institutional, administrative or
regulatory directives and practices that directly or indirectly discriminate against
girls or women within the education sector;
f)
enact legislation that sets the minimum age for marriage of girls at 18,
and, in compliance with international standards, align the end of compulsory
education with the minimum age for employment;
g)
review and/or abolish laws and policies that allow expulsion of pregnant
girls, other categories of trainees and teachers and ensure there are no restrictions on
their return following childbirth;
h)
recognise rights in education as legally enforceable for which, upon
violation, girls and women have equal and effective access to justice, and the right to
remedies including reparation;
i)
monitor the implementation of national, regional and international
provisions governing girls’ and women’s right to education ensuring the right to
remedy where there are violations;
j)
work with the international community and civil society toward the
enhancement and development of the right of girls and women to education.
F.
Addressing gender stereotyping
25.
Discrimination faced by girls and women in education is both ideological and
structural. The ideological dimension is addressed in articles 5 and 10 (c) of the Convention
which call on States to modify accepted ‘social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and
women which are based on …stereotyped roles for women and men’. This is of paramount
significance in ensuring that women and girls can enjoy rights to, within and through
education. This is essential as these discriminatory practices are not only exercised at the
individual level but are also codified in law, policy and programmes and are therefore
perpetuated and enforced by the State
26.
Article 5(a), addresses the structural dimension of discrimination stating that it is
rooted in ‘prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of
the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and
women’. Here, the Convention requires States parties to adopt measures ‘towards a real
transformation of opportunities, institutions and systems so that they are no longer grounded
in historically determined male paradigms of power and life patterns’. The educational
system is an example of an area for transformation, which once achieved, can accelerate
positive change in other areas.
27.
In keeping with articles 5 and 10 (c) of the Convention, the Committee
recommends that States parties strengthen efforts and take proactive measures to
eliminate gender stereotyping in education that perpetuate direct and indirect
discrimination against girls and women by:
a)
challenging and changing patriarchal ideologies and structures that limit
girls and women from fully exercising their human right and freedom to enjoy their
rights to, within and through education;
b) developing and implementing policies and programmes, including
awareness-raising and educational campaigns about the Convention, gender relations
and gender equality, at all levels of schooling and society at large, directed at ‘modifying
social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women with a view of achieving the
elimination of prejudices and customary practices��� in line with article 5 (a) of the
Convention;
c)
encouraging the media to project positive and non-sexualized images of
women, including ethnic and minority girls and women, elderly women and girls and
women with disabilities as well as promote the value of gender equality for society as a
whole;
6