Engaging Schools in Addressing Gender Equality and Preventing Gender-Based Violence through a Feminist Perspective
Gender issues have proved particularly divisive and controversial in many Western societies, including the Italian one. For feminist activists, addressing gender as a social construct and proposing gender and sexual education in schools provides for the construction of a pluralistic and democratic space. On the contrary, for the so-called anti-gender movements, gender has to be understood as rooted in biological differences and any view of gender identity as socially constructed is seen as threating the child or adolescent as well as the core foundations of human society. As a consequence, schools often become the battleground of this division at the expenses of students.
This paper examines the results of two European funded projects (“Carmia – Caring masculinities in action” and “Engaged in equality”), that were aimed at promoting gender equality and preventing gender based violence in schools through a feminist perspective. The projects also used an approach based on critical studies on men and masculinities (Connell 1995, Connell and Messerschidmt 2005, Hern 2005 ) as they aimed at challenging traditional and hegemonic concepts of masculinity in order to involve boys as agents of change. The projects included various European countries: Germany, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta and Italy.
The research examines how secondary schools students and teachers (in the listed countries with a special focus on Italy) engaged with the training and awareness raising activities promoted by the projects that were based on innovatory pedagogical methodologies including the use of pop culture (Benson, Chik, 2014) and the theatre of the oppressed (Freire, 1972). The paper also provides an analysis of the legislations aimed at promoting gender education in schools in the countries involved examining how this is framed, the terminology used and its limitations.