Reinforcing gender stereotypes

An initiative in curriculum for girls’ primary government schools in Punjab incorporates a lesson in home economics

An initiative in the curriculum for girls’ primary government schools in Punjab incorporates a lesson in home economics. Students in 1,000 girls’ schools will be the recipients of hens and cages, courtesy the Punjab livestock department. The objective is to teach girls about the kitchen, kitchen waste, and nutrition. While this may sound like an idea right out of a satirical newspaper, it is nothing other than the asinine workings of the minds of government officials. The programme reinforces regressive gender stereotypes, where popular cultural beliefs maintain that managing a kitchen is only a woman’s arena. Instead of encouraging girls to broaden their horizons and giving them opportunities to explore their full potential, this initiaitive, focusing only on girls’ schools, might just serve to do the opposite. We need a female population that has high self-esteem, confidence and apt decision-making skills, especially when it comes to standing up in the face of obstacles created by a patriarchal society. If boys and Pakistani males, in general, are cited as lacking responsibility as was stated by the head of the livestock department, such home economics lessons would be more valuable for them. The programme could have been implemented at both boys’ and girls’ schools.

A few more oddities exist with regard to this inane introduction in the curriculum. A home economics course at the primary level is illogical as children at this level are still developing sensorimotor skills. Will they suddenly be expected to skin chickens? Furthermore, many young girls already acquire basics in home economics at home so this effort might be futile. Considering the programme’s nonsensical nature, especially at a level where the focus of development should be math and language skills, one must wonder at the priorities of our officials. Pakistan ranks 143 out of 145 in terms of economic opportunities for men versus women, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2015. When it comes to preparing girls for the future, education officials should be focusing their energies elsewhere.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2016.

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