平等机会委员会

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International Symposium to Explore How Women Create Change International Perspectives: Global Voices for Gender Equity - Jointly organized by the American Association of University Women Education Foundation and the Educational Testing Service
Co-organized by the American Association of University Women Education Foundation and the Educational Testing Service

“Effecting Change and Creating Impact: Who Sets the Agenda and the Norms?”(只備英文版)— Speech by Ms Anna Wu, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission

15/11/2002

INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, education has proven to be the most powerful equaliser and an agent of change. It can make all the difference to an individual's life.

Yet, education is not always accessible to all. Indeed, the older ideologies of education imposed a gender and disability bias that benefited mainly men and excluded women and persons with disabilities; and women with disabilities get a double whammy.

Some of you may have heard of the Chinese opera "Butterfly Lovers" (梁山伯與祝英台). It is a well-known love story in China between Liang and Zhu, who fell in love while studying together. One of them, Zhu, was in fact a girl disguised as a boy. Under the feudal system, schools were exclusively male territory. To receive an education, the aspiring Zhu, took matters into her own hands and begged her parents to allow her to attend school as a boy. While this story remains a fiction, it reflected the status quo in China then. A more contemporary version can be found in Dr. Ellen Li who today is more than 90 years old.

Dr. Li is the first woman appointed to the Legislative Council in 1965: an awe-inspiring crusader for women's rights. She grew up at a time when it was still acceptable for her grandmother to buy young maids. She lived in Saigon for a while where her father did business. In order for her to receive a proper education, her father sent her to Mainland China to attend a boys' school. She was fortunate that her father founded the school and was enlightened. She even learned to ride a bicycle. These were very rare privileges for women then.

One of the most touching stories that I have read recently is the story of a young man on Mainland China, Mr. He Shimin. He was born to a farming family in Hebei. At the age of four while playing he touched a high voltage transformer. Both of his hands were burnt to the bone and amputated. Without his hands, he would not be able to labour in the fields. His parents decided that he should become mentally productive relying on his brain cells and not manual labour. His mother took him to school and fetched him everyday. His father taught him how to write with his toes. It took him a month to finally write the Chinese character "man" (人) with his toes. It took him a year for his toes to come to grips with chopsticks. Now he works with his toes on the computer. He is now one of the best students in China and has been accepted by the Beijing Normal University for teacher training.

ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION: HONG KONG EXPERIENCE

Secondary School Places Allocation System

In Sept 1998, the EOC launched a formal investigation of the Secondary School Places Allocation System (the SSPA) under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO).

In August 1999, the EOC issued its findings, which showed that the SSPA led to systematic scaling down of our best girls' scores and scaling up of our best boys' scores, and applied gender queuing and gender quota against girls. The combination of these resulted in unfair restriction of access rights to the best schools for girls. The system also produced adverse impact on the lower 70% boys though less exaggerated.

This allocation system had been in use in Hong Kong for over 20 years. It was found that girls had consistently performed better than boys in school exams. As the Education Department refused to change the system, litigation became the only choice and we secured a judgment against the Department in 2001. The system was declared in violation of the SDO by the court and the discriminatory elements in the allocation system have now been removed.

Most people believe that boys are late developers. In fact the differences in maturity in the same gender is probably just as wide. The system that was used by the Education Department only favoured the top 30% boys. In other words, the lateness of maturity argument was not applied in favour of the lower 70%, the great majority of boys. In essence, the system was in favour of male elites. It was also suggested by the Education Department that the gap should close as students approach senior high school and university. This gap never closed.

THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS

The SSPA case has been a huge learning experience for many people in Hong Kong whether they are within or outside the education field. Our court case against the education system has become a catalyst in widening the areas of enquiry into very fundamental issues. These are:

First, gender neutrality in content and method.

Second, equitable distribution of public resources.

Third, education must cater for diverse needs and must be effective for all, with or without disabilities.

Fourth, education must provide a level playing field for individual development. This is about fair access and fair opportunity to expand one's capabilities.

Code of Practice on Education under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance

Since 1997, a very important change has taken place in Hong Kong's education system: children with disabilities have been accepted into ordinary primary schools.

Last year, the EOC issued the Code of Practice on Education (the Code) under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO) to provide practical guidance for educators on making provisions for students with disabilities.

Despite the efforts to promote integrated education, many students with disabilities are still educated in segregated environments. No choice is available to them. They still face discrimination and harassment in school and many schools are unwilling to admit them.

Experience has shown that when children with and without disabilities learn together, they also learn from each other. They learn to respect each other, how to socialize with each other and help each other. The well-known integrated schools often pair a child with a disability to another without a disability. The peer support has produced positive mutual learning environment. Apart from the educational values, this is a crucial step towards integration in the community. Teachers also learn to teach better when they learn to identify the individual disability and go from there.

During the process of consultation on the Code, many in the education sector were concerned about the physical accessibility problems faced by schools, the availability of equipment and assistive devices, the lack of experience and training for teachers, the lack of appropriate curriculum and assessment for students. All these are very important questions. The law requires reasonable accommodation to be provided in each case, and for integrated schools to operate well, there must be an environment of support and resources for them.

Sometimes, reasonable accommodation requires that a student be provided with a tailored curriculum and a different teaching method. Assessment methods may also need to be tailored to meet the student's individual need.

The Challenge of Specific Learning Disability (SLD)

One issue which I want to mention today is Specific Learning Disability (SLD). The kind of discrimination that people with SLD face is not ill treatment after other people have learnt about their disability, but mistreatment when people do not know of or understand their disability. SLD makes an individual learn differently from others and hence has particularly serious impacts on children who are in their learning age. If the school or the teacher does not understand it, children with the disability will not be identified and their poor performance in class or in study will likely be considered a result of their laziness or a lack of discipline, or inadequate supervision by their parents. Yet given the right diagnosis and teaching methods, the child can perform equally well or better than others.

We know of many great scientists, musicians and politicians who had or have a SLD. I was told that the brains of children with SLD are wired differently. This world would be a far lesser place if we end up suppressing the Einstein or Spielberg like intelligence because we cannot see or understand.

Disability under DDO is defined to include specifically a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently. Under our law, SLD is a disability and we need clinical support for it. This is an important point to bear in mind because it is this law which makes education with reasonable accommodation a right, and not a matter of discretion.

To treat SLD, particularly those with mild intensity, as a maturity, discipline or learning issue, would be like Mosses leading us into the wilderness. These cases would be classified out of the law with the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation undermined.

THE MINDSET

Starting with this year, we actually have more girls going to the best schools than boys. The ratio of boys : girls in the best schools before and after the change has been reversed. The new phenomenon has been described as a gender imbalance with girls described as "over-achievers".

This year we also have far greater demand for accommodation and integrated education for children with disabilities. Increase in awareness has a lot to do with this. The estimate of children with SLD is 10%. There is now a stream of thought in Hong Kong that SLD is unsettled territory and should be classified as a learning difference and not as a disability. Much as I would like to avoid stigmatisation, calling SLD by a different label in Hong Kong may end up minimising the issue.

The controversies surrounding these issues are still continuing and we have to ask who sets the norms and why. In setting these norms, there are two mindset issues that trouble me.

First, the gender factor-
Social norms and values continue to be defined according to male perspectives. Policy makers who are often males seldom considered or incorporated female perspectives in their decision making process. Hence, the "over achieving" women weren't suppose to be there, they were against the norm. I am afraid that the pendulum is going to swing right to the other side. Everybody is asking, "what's going to happen to our boys?"

Second, the statistical majority-
Public administrators and bureaucrats plan for the majority, never the minority, let alone the individual. To plan for those with special needs is generally regarded as inefficient. Hence segregation, not integration, and reclassification leading to camouflage, of persons with disabilities may result.

It is extraordinary how strong and pervasive certain mindsets can be. Two surveys we carried out on student perceptions and textbooks are very telling.

Gender has a profound influence on the way students think. Notably, young men surveyed were more rigid and inflexible in their definition of masculinity, restricting themselves to far fewer options in behaviour and career choices. The notions that sons should share housework, men could have women bosses, husbands could be "househusbands" and girls could initiate dating were all out of the question with the boys but were acceptable to the girls.

Occupational stereotyping was extremely prevalent among both male and female students. When they were asked to imagine being the opposite sex and then choosing a suitable career, there were marked changes in their personal choice of careers.

Let's look at the textbook depiction of gender. Women were said to cry, behave strangely and not be able to help eating. Men were associated with courage; women and children were associated with being weak. Fathers taught children to deal with the outside world, mothers taught their daughters how to behave at home. Men served as a knowledge bank, taught children how to perform real world tasks and had no problems. Mothers appeared to teach about interpersonal relationships and mothers and children were said to have problems.

On disabilities, the students tended to pay attention only to the constraints and limitations of people with disability. For example, PWDs were perceived as deviant, accident prone and appropriate for repetitive work and people with mental illness were assumed to be deviant and violent. Students were hesitant towards personal commitment and cautious about the social consequences. They perceive and fear threat and unpredictability. All respondents said that their impression of PWDs came largely from the mass media.

The respondents were still largely under the negative influences of many prevailing assumptions that PWDs would be more comfortable and better educated in special instead of integrated schools. Only about one-third of the students had had contact with PWDs and students viewed their exclusion from mainstream society normative.

You can never tell how a young mind can be affected by what they see or not see around them. On my trip to a Women Leaders' Network meeting in 2000, my husband and my then ten year old son went with me. On the flight going there, my son asked what I would be doing there and I explained. He proceeded to give me his perspective of the world. He said, " I think women are less suited to being leaders than men. There are so few of them around!"

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION

Let me conclude by telling you a little bit about the mission of the EOC.

Of all forms of human rights, nothing can be more basic than the rights to life and to survival. An extension of these rights is the right to development. Equal opportunities provide a fair starting point, a level playing field for the individual to develop his/her potential and to achieve greater self-sufficiency. Many anti poverty measures are pegged on the individual capacity to develop.

In our work we deliver three messages. These are:

For the individual – Everyone has the right to development. This leads to self-sufficiency and independent living.

For the business – Social accountability means marketability. Equal opportunity practices help to build brand names and sell products.

For the community – Enhancement of human capital sustains development and reduces reliance on social security.

Education is the first port of call for the development of the individual. It is an investment in human capital. Education is also part of the long term socialisation process – built on diversity and equality, people are different but they are equal. And education of young women in particular is one of the best forms of investments.

A study of women in the Ivory Coast gave us the answer. With better education and control of the family purse, health and education of the children went up and the tobacco and alcohol bills came down.

Women have a unique perspective of the world, the willingness to transfer benefits to others.

Thank you.

End

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