300+ Women Unionists to Advance Gender Equality in Brazil

Over 300 women education unionists from 57 nations will meet in Bahia, Brazil, for the fifth Education International World Women’s Conference from September 15 to 17.  The conference is organized jointly by the Education International affiliate organizations in Brazil - CNTE, CONTEE and PROIFES.

The platform will serve as an opportunity for women education unionists to discuss crucial aspects related to teaching and education workforce. The discussions will revolve around finding ways to enhance women’s leadership in educational institutions and education unions, and improving the work environment ensuring the rights of education workers.

This year’s Conference will be centred on the theme ‘Rising united for gender justice: Educating the world, leading change, fighting for democracy.’ It addresses the issues raised by women education trade unionists in regard to promoting gender justice through education, union activism, women leadership, and democracy.

Key Highlights:

• Over 300 women unionists from 57 countries to gather in Brazil
• Conference focuses on gender justice, women’s leadership and democracy
• Education unions to strengthen equality, workers’ rights and representation

The programme will consist of various sessions and activities allowing participants to communicate with each other and exchange views. These sessions and activities will include plenary sessions, breakout discussion sessions, capacity building sessions and networking sessions, enabling women education unionists from various countries to learn from one another. This major conference is expected to create an important forum on issues of gender equality in education, women’s leadership, and challenges that women face in the field of education.

The conference aims at being a supportive international forum in which participants share ideas, experience, and strategies for tackling gender injustice.

For Marième Sakho Dansokho, Vice President of Education International, collective strength is vital for making sustainable gains toward gender equality. She urged for increased action towards enhancing women’s leadership roles in education unions and society as a whole, with the Conference positioned as a worldwide call for gender justice and democracy.

Women educators form the backbone of the global education system and the education trade union movement forming the majority of the teaching workforce and outnumbering men in many education unions. In spite of their prominence, women remain underrepresented in positions of leadership and decision making in the institutions of education and in their trade unions.

However, the current situation in the field of global education faces various problems, such as low salaries, poor working conditions, overload of duties, high level of stress, and large emotional burden. All these factors make the work harder and contribute to the teacher shortage on the global scale. Solving this problem will not only improve the state of educators, but will also preserve the right of the students to have quality education.

Mugwena Maluleke, Education International President stressed that gender justice is a priority for the entire global education union movement, noting: “When women rise, unions grow stronger. When women lead, education advances. When women are empowered, democracy flourishes. When we rise united for gender justice, we change the world.”