Gender - Useful Links

General Advice/help/support

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is the statutory body with responsibility to protect, enforce and promote equality across the seven "protected" grounds - age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. You can find information on the law and practical guidance on addressing equality issues in education. Click on advice and guidance information EHRC.

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the department responsible for equalities legislation and policy in the UK. Visit their site for up-to-date information on the Equality Act 2010.

The National Association of Schoolteachers and Union of Women Teachers, (NASWT) provides an overview of definitions and legislation in simple, understandable language (see Information and Advice section).

The Equality Challenge Unit, (ECU)  is the lead equality body for the Higher Education sector and their site contains guidance and general advice on good practice. 
 

The Department for Education (DfE) is committed to developing policies that raise attainment for all children and close the gap between those facing disadvantage and their peers.

The DfE Single Equality Scheme 2010 sets out how the department plans to tackle inequality and promote equality. Information is included about the actions being taken to consider and address the needs of children and families that may be facing disadvantage related to their ethnicity, gender, disability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or religion and beliefs.

New positive action provisions allow schools to meet the needs of pupils with particular characteristics.

Search the Department for Education Publications site for publications and research reports relating to gender in education.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has equality and diversity pages covering issues for pupils and teachers - click on Education and Equalities.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) : Young People Know Your Rights contains a section called ‘Young people have asked us these questions’ which includes questions about a range of issues including transgender issues in relation to bullying, harassment and hate crimes. 

 

Guidance for those advising young people on STEM careers

Prospects is aimed at Higher Education students and graduates but offers advice which could also be applied to young people and has useful pages on handling discrimination, equality and diversity. Click here to view the 'Handling Discrimination' section, and choose the appropriate equality strand.

'STEM Choices' published as part of the STEM Subject Choice and Careers project has specific, detailed information about careers and has an Equality and Diversity section with STEM Careers. To gain access to a copy email stemcareers@shu.ac.uk.

Sector skills councils are increasingly developing materials and information to encourage girls and women into STEM careers. Examples include:

  •  SummitSkills is the Sector Skills Council for the building services engineering sector.
  •  e-skills UK is the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology,
  •  CC4G is designed for students aged 10-14 and the gender neutral materials are suitable for both girls and boys.

A number of the STEM-specific career sites have good representation of females in their resources, for example futuremorph,  mathscareers and tomorrow's engineers.

The DfE have created a separate site, scienceandmaths.net, to promote STEM to young people which has representation of role models from different backgrounds and in different sectors of STEM.

The Institute of Physics website has reports and guidance on 'Girls in the Physics Classroom' aimed at addressing the shortage of females in Physics For a Teachers' Guide

 

Specific link related to Gender issues: 

Women In Science and Engineering, (WISE)  - The WISE Campaign encourages young women to stick with studying Maths and Physics and to consider careers in Science, Engineering and the Built Environment. The site has pages for girls, teachers, parents and employers, and details of activities the project promotes to increase participation of girls into STEM-related areas.
 
Platform 51 (formerly YWCA) works with the most disadvantaged young women in England and Wales. The YWCA has programmes and activites for teenage girls and young women. They can provide resources and reports and support young women into education, employment and training.
 
The GERI Project has a range of interactive learning resources that challenge gender and ethnic stereotyping to help learning providers, teachers, guidance practitioners and employers in the promotion of equality of opportunity, diversity, intercultural understanding and respect.
 
Guidance for schools on implementing the gender equality duty, with specific information on tackling gender stereotyping can be found at EHRC Public Sector duties; information for public authorities; sectoral guidance.

EOC ‘Action for Change’ practical guides aimed at careers advisers, employers, vocational training providers about how to address occupational segregation.

 
EHRC - Sex and Power 2011 for statistics on women in UK

 

The Fawcett Society for useful information and statistics about women's equality.