Is Your Program Helping Women?

Ensuring that Adult Education programs are improving the lives of women it takes conscious effort on the part of organizers, learners and tutors. NAME encourage each program to acknowledge International Women's Day by examining how you are serving the needs of women. The following questions may be useful as points for discussion and as suggestions for actions you can take:

1. How many women learners are in the program? Why do you think there are more or less than men? What problem do they face in coming to the program? Have you considered trying to organize childcare during classes?

2. What percentage of the tutors are women? If there are few women tutors, why do you think this is so? Have you considered recruiting more women? Are the male tutor sensitive to the needs of women learners?

3. Are women learners taking classes like carpentry? Are they encouraged to?

4. Are women always expected to cook and clean when you hold special events? Could they play a more active role in leadership and as organizers? Could they learn to operate Public Address systems, tape recorders, etc?

5. Are women encouraged to participate in sports and recreational activities?

6. Do women in your community face problems (poor health, violence, unemployment, etc.) that your program work to overcome?

7. Do you ever discuss the contributions of women when studying St. Vincent & the Grenadines and its history?

8. Have you considered inviting a speaker to discuss the situation of women within St. Vincent and the Grenadines or world-wide?

Women Speak on Importance of Education

NAME asked several women involved in Adult Education what they consider the greatest obstacle women in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and how they believe Adult Education could advance the cause. Here are their responses:

It comes down to attitude, not just of men towards women but also of women towards themselves. For example, if men said you can do anything you want - that 50% of the police force and mechanics will be women - women won't take advantage if they don't feel they are able. Women have to feel that the sky is the limit and men must be able to accept a women's capabilities. There is also the assumption that the man is the breadwinner, so he gets more pay. That's ridiculous when the fact is that most families are headed by women in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

We need to change attitudes and that comes down to education - actually believing that you can do something. In an Adult Education Program, you have taken the first step when you step through the door. Ideally there is the opportunity for speaking out, for decision-making, for taking risks and for developing leadership skills. There should be equality for learners in the groups. The groups should give the confidence so that if the electricity goes off, for example, you don't sit and wait for a man, you take care of it yourself. Secondly, Adult Education Programs are the ideal opportunity to provide women with training in non-traditional skills. The programs also provide a chance to express feelings and gain an awareness of each other and respect. When men and women share and express their feelings, then they can recognize their sameness as well as their difference.

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Two things are responsible. One is work, the kind of work women do as well as the salary. They are paid less than men even if they do the same things. Secondly, a societal impression of women being the weaker sex, the subordinate person who can't perform as well as men can. Even if they do better, it still accepted on par with what the man does. It has to do with woman's place in the home. Perhaps it comes from the sex role that a woman plays. Men can do as they like and women can't.

Adult Education gives women more skills so that they can do more things - perhaps even as many men can do. Right now women's skills are limited to things in the home and office. Not many women are managers. But when women are trained they can do what men do. The more education and skills she has the more the woman can become the breadwinner along with man. It becomes a partnership.

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I would say that teen-age pregnancy is caused most of the time by many young women not having anything to do. Most girls reached up to senior school and then dropped out. When you are at home, it's easy to get around the wrong people, get into trouble and get pregnant. When you have a job, you meet more people and experience a lot.

The Adult Education Program really helps a lot. I am meeting different people, going places I'd never been before, learning things I'd never heard about. I've learned to address a crowd, I've learned a lot in English like how to make sentences, form letter and make a composition. In math I've been doing percentages and long division. We also had a six-week course in Family Life Education and Teen-Age Pregnancy. We really learned a lot. More courses like that would help.