Outdoor Education And Gender Equality

In the class discussion, we briefly touched upon gender equality and maternity leave in Sweden and Northern Europe in general. However, we didn’t really analyze how outdoor education affects gender policy and also how gender ideas and roles in Sweden or European countries which largely introduce outdoor education affect outdoor education.

Gender Index of countries worldwide in 2019

Sweden is gender-developed country and keeps higher rank in gender index ranking every year. Edwards showed the gender equality survey answered by EU countries and especially how Sweden ranks itself (Swedes Hold Strongest Views on Gender Equality in EU: Study).

According to her, only 11 percent of Swedes responded that a woman’s most important role was to take care of her home and family, and Denmark and the Netherlands followed the next lowest scores by 14 percent and 15 percent. On the other hand, within Europe, 81 percent of Bulgarians were the most likely to say that taking care of her home and family was the most important role for women while Poland and the Czech Republic (77 percent) were the next highest scores. Similarly, only 10 percent of Swedes answered that making money is the most important role for a man. Here again, Denmark and the Netherlands followed the next lowest scores. Bulgaria had the most respondents again (81 percent) saying that the most important role for a man is to make money.

In terms of promoting gender equality, Sweden is again marking highest score aligned with Portugal (98 percent) agreeing that it is important to promote gender equality in order to ensure a fair, domestic society. Also, Swedes agreed that feminism can bring an economic advantage for companies and the national economy. This time Sweden follows Malta (95 percent) with 94 percent.

Within EU countries, people approved of men taking on an equal share of house hold chores. At least six out of ten people in every country agreed with the statement. Malta and Denmark were the highest score and in favor of men pulling their weight at home, with 95 percent of respondents, followed by Sweden (94 percent). Northern European countries, especially Sweden, are famous for generous parental leave policies. They encourage men to take the time of as equal as women, and 96 percent of Sweden respondents approved of men taking paternity leave. On the other hand, one in four respondents answered that they disapproved of men taking time off to care for their children.

Sweden was the second highest for the recognition of the role of men in feminism. 62 percent of Swedish respondents approved of men identifying themselves as feminists. The highest figure was Malta with 71 percent. Edwards also introduced the survey conducted by The barometer asking respondents to rate their level of agreement on a five-point scale, where a score of 5 indicated high agreement. Sweden marked the highest average score, showing that they strongly agreed men should promote gender equality.

Gender pay gap in the European Union

Regarding pay gap between men and women, the highest rate of respondents (94 percent) was Sweden agreed that women were paid less than men per hour of work. The majority of participants in the EU countries responded that it was unacceptable for women to get paid less than men for the same job. The highest was the Netherlands, with 97 percent. Sweden was the third highest portion aligned with Luxembourg and France (all 96%). Edwards also remarked that it is unclear to see the relationship between the pay gap reported by respondents and the reality of their country; for example, Sweden has more pay gap than Romania although the responses of gender equality was remarkably contrasting.

Focusing more about gender issues in Sweden, Hebblethwaite reported on BBC News about Swedish “gender-neutral’ preschool. At the school in Sodermalm, the teachers avoid using the pronouns like “him” and “her” when they communicate with the children. They use alternative ways like “friends”, calling them by their first names, or as “hen” – a genderless pronoun which initially was Finish. One of the teachers answered the interview that, "We want to give the whole spectrum of life, not just half - that's why we are doing this. We want the children to get to know all the things in life, not to just see half of it." Now, gender advisers are common in schools since it is part of the national curriculum to work against any form of discrimination. Sweden is often regarded as one of the most equal and gender-developed country; however, some people still criticize that current gender policies in Sweden have gone too far. Lotta Rajalin, a director of Egalitia shared difficulties of implementing gender neutral in schools saying that “Between the ages of three and about seven, the child is searching for their identity, and part of their identity is their gender, you can't deny that." I don’t know if the nature schools that we are visiting also have implemented this “gender-neutral” system or not, but it seems this is also very important part of education in Sweden.

In the article titled “The ʻOutdoor Industryʼ as Social and Educational Phenomena: Gender and Outdoor Adventure/Education”, Humberstone argued that outdoor adventure/education can be subjected to critical examination just like other issues in the society. She pointed out that several women working in outdoor education had decided not to have children because they felt that “it was incompatible” to do so. Women outdoor educators often consider the significance of pregnancy and childbirth. Since their work style requires physical labor to play around with children, those who have children showed considerable difficulty and complexity of childbirth and pregnancy in the outdoor world (Humberstone p.25). She also discussed that the concept of hegemonic masculinity and ideology of femininity are “the ways in which the differences between the sexes are constructed and gendered by society and in particular through sport and other physical activities such as those constituting outdoor education render invisible the complexities and relations of power that serve the dominant white male interest (Humberstone p.26). At the end of this paper, she builds further questions regarding counter-culture and alternative masculinity in some forms of outdoor education.

Works Cited

Edwards, Catherine. “Swedes Hold Strongest Views on Gender Equality in EU: Study.” The Local, The Local, 22 Nov. 2017, https://www.thelocal.se/20171122/how-swedes-feel-about-gender-equality-study.

Hebblethwaite, Cordelia. “Sweden's 'Gender-Neutral' Pre-School.” BBC News, BBC, 8 July 2011, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-14038419.

Humberstone, Barbara. “The ‘Outdoor Industry’ as Social and Educational Phenomena: Gender and Outdoor Adventure/Education.” Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 2000, pp. 21–35. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=eric&AN=EJ659837&site=ehost-live.