Gender in Education: The Depths of Gender Narratives and Sex Education

Written by Charmaine Cheong, edited by Ryan Lim and researched by Ellysha Najwa & Edwin Goh.

8 min readAug 10, 2020

Gender-related problems such as sexual harassment and gender discrimination remain real problems that our society faces even till this day. In the long pursuit of gender equality and equity, no longer can education be careless in the way that it portrays gender narratives nor is there a place for harmful narratives such as victim blaming, especially since these narratives influence social behaviour and interactions between genders.

Malaysia has been on the receiving end of the United Nation’s praise for our progressive stand on early sexual education in an effort to reduce rates of child marriage, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and sexual abuse against children. Dr. Wan Azizah, the former Minister of Women, Family and Community Development was recently quoted saying that the government intends to educate children in education as early as preschool on topics such as child grooming, reproductive health and determining safe and unsafe touch.

That being said, while our society and education syllabus has progressed in recent years, there are still numerous errors that can be identified and corrected by closely analyzing the content of our school syllabi.

This week, MYER will be delving into the effects of gender narratives on students and the impacts that will subsequently follow them into the workplace, as well as looking at the government policies that exist on sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

So, what are the widespread gender-related problems that still loom over youth?

The Harmful Narrative

In an assessment by The Programme for International School Assessment (PISA) on 15 year olds, the number of boys who wished to work in ICT occupations was 8 times the number of girls. Some parents are also more likely to conform to harmful gender stereotypes as they expect their sons, rather than daughters, to work in the STEM industry — even when the latter performed equally well in mathematics and science. This proves that the responsibility to debunk harmful gender narratives does not lie solely on the education system, but also on parents as they spend the most time with their children and, therefore, have the most influence on their young.

In the book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success by Carol Dweck, mindsets and self-conceptions of different young students are surveyed and researched to see how they affect individual motivation, achievement and decisions. Dweck finds that boys are more likely to receive praise for their work and achievements than girls, thus allowing a growth mindset (the belief that intelligence and skills can be developed through effort) to be reinforced in boys while girls grow with fixed mindsets (the belief that their qualities are fixed traits from birth and cannot be changed).

The consequence of a fixed mindset in girls is that they tend to fall back in math and science subjects as they are made to believe that they can’t excel or that they are simply ‘not good at it’

In the workplace, women were found to make 15% less than their male counterparts on average and studies speculate that this is due to women choosing jobs in industries such as art that pay much less than the industries men choose to pursue their careers in as a result of gender based narratives that are taught early on in education.

To eliminate all forms of discrimination upon being party to the convention, it requires the government to follow its provision to ensure equality of girls in education and workforce by actively dismantling old gender stereotypes and improving the narrative.

THE SOLUTION: Given that Malaysia is bound under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), there exists a greater obligation for the Malaysian government to address and attempt to resolve the problem of discrimination against women in education and in the workforce.

The government, parents, and teachers share an equal responsibility to foster perspectives erring against harmful stereotypes and narratives with their children. More importantly, they need to actively encourage growth mindsets in their children, especially with young girls, as such mindset would incentivise more girls to pursue STEM subjects which will eventually break down negative stereotypes.

Sexual Harassment

In regards to sexual harassment, YouGov carried out a survey with 1002 Malaysians and found that 36% of women and 17% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment, including acts in verbal, emotional/mental and physical form. A fifth of the aforementioned incidents occurred in schools or universities. Some of the statistics gathered showed that a staggering 59% of those acts were of sexual assault, followed by verbal comments of a sexual nature (48%), flashing (29%) and unwanted sexualised photography / videography (20%).

Out of fear of repercussions and embarrassment, only 53% of cases were shared by survivors to their friends or family, and only in a few cases, the police.

Despite the prevalence of sexual harassment, official bodies have continually struggled and failed to safeguard the rights of victims and provide them with commensurate recourse. Case in point, recently, a student from Universiti Malaya (UM) lodged a police report against UM’s Integrity Unit after they allegedly mishandled her sexual assault complaint against a senior lecturer. Although the lecturer was suspended, UM failed to inform the complainant of all developments in the investigation and the subsequent safety and punitive measures that were to be taken after the investigation had ended.

Despite being one of the first institutions in Malaysia to implement the Code of Practice on the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Harassment, which states that an institution is obliged to notify both the complainant and the defendant in writing about the results of the investigation once it is completed, UM’s handling of the complaint was clearly in a non-transparent manner, which is in direct violation of the Code and to the detriment of the complainant.

This incident is one of many that exemplify the need for more competence and transparency in official bodies with regards to handling cases of sexual harassment in order to protect and safeguard victims. Only then will we incentivise for more victims to step forward and demand for legal action against their aggressors.

THE SOLUTION: The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) believes that a Sexual Harassment Bill requiring organizations to establish competent Sexual Harassment Policies will ensure that such cases will be properly addressed and handled to ensure accountability and transparency for victims. Clear codes of conduct should be established in order to ensure that both students and teachers are enlightened on what enforcement protocols are in place to protect victims in the case of sexual harassment.

In 2021, the Ministry of Education will include topics like statutory rape from the perspective of law, cybersex and human trafficking in 2021 for secondary and post-secondary school syllabi to enable students to understand their rights, sexual consent, and to avoid instances child grooming. It will be taught to Year 6 and Form 5 students and it will include sessions for students to discuss the matter to spark necessary conversations matters previously considered taboo. In 2019, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development released several videos that to educate children in sex education and was well received, having been watched 2.8 million times.

WHERE CAN SURVIVORS SEEK HELP?

COUNSELLING/VICTIM SUPPORT

Agape Counseling Centre Malaysia
Tel : 03–77855955; 03–7785 4833
Email: agapemal@yahoo.com / counselling.agape@gmail.com
Befrienders Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03–79568144/5
Email: sam@befrienders.org.my
Befrienders Ipoh
Tel: 05–5477933/55 (4pm-12am)
Befrienders Malacca
Tel: 06–2842700 (7pm-10pm)
Befrienders Penang
Tel: 04–2811108/5161 (5.30pm-10.30pm)
Emmaus Community Centre
Tel: 03–7956 5977
JM Counseling & Therapy Unit
Tel: 03–5633 4732
Protect & Save The Children Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (P.S. The Children)
Tel: (603) 7957 4344 / 7956 435
Email: protect@pstheshildren.org.my
Website: http://www.psthechildren.org.my
Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA)
Tel: 03–7782–5499
Email: mmha@tm.net.my
Talian Segera Penderaan Kanak-kanak (24 Hours)
Tel: 1–800–883040
Women’s Aid Organisation
P.O. Box 493 Jalan Sultan, 46760 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: 03 7956 3488, 03–7960 3030
Email: wao@po.jaring.my Website: http://www.wao.org.my
Women’s Welfare Council
409, Babington Avenue , 10450 Penang
Tel: 04–229 8355
Childline Malaysian — Dial 15999
Befrienders — Call 03–79568144 or email sam@befrienders.org.my

Reporting

If a survivor of sexual assault/harassment chooses to file a report and the perpetrator is found guilty, they can be charged under the following Penal Code Sections:

If the survivor is a child (under the age of 16), the perpetrator can be charged under Act 792 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017

STEP 1.

Victims of sexual assault/harassment can lodge a police report at any police station. You may be asked to type out your statement or orally dictate it to a police officer if you haven’t drafted it in advance. In the report, be sure to include what happened, when it happened (date and estimation of time), where it happened and who were involved.

STEP 2.

An investigation will be opened by an Investigating Officer (IO) based on your report where they may interview witnesses, suspects or ask you to offer a further statement. Depending on available evidence, the IO may bring the case to the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP)

The DPP will determine if there is enough evidence to make a case against the perpetrator. If it is determined that there is not enough evidence, the report will be classified as ‘No Further Action’ (NFA). Then, there will be no charge

STEP 3.

If the DPP finds that there is sufficient evidence, they will charge the perpetrator. The charge will be read in court and the suspect can plead guilty or not guilty

If the suspect pleads guilty, the case will proceed to sentencing.

If the suspect pleads not guilty, a full court trial will begin.

STEP 4.

In the court trial, the DPP will call upon witnesses to give their testimony. Following that, the defence lawyer (person defending the accused) will ask another set of questions to the witness to cross examine the information. The DPP will then question the witness again to clarify any doubtful or contradictory answer given during cross examination

If the judge determines that the evidence is strong enough to charge the accused of the crime, the defence lawyer will begin a defence and call upon any witnesses that could testify for the innocence of the accused. Once again, a three step cross examination questioning will occur before the judge decides on the verdict.

MYER has spent all month long researching and writing on gender in education, the effect of gender narratives and the policies in place to ensure that students of all ages and identity are aware and educated on this issue as they deserve to be. While Malaysia is one of the leading countries in addressing and resolving problems with regards to gender inequality, there is still much more room for improvement.

Undeniably, harmful gender narratives still exist within our society and are constantly perpetuated to our younger generations through both our formal and informal education. The terrible lack of updated data significantly undermines our understanding of the full extent of gender-related problems and their effects–in the long or short run–on our students and society.

Hence, it is imperative that we, as youths of Malaysia, actively push for more research to be done on gender-related issues in order to ensure our that our society has a comprehensive understanding of the matter, and, keep our official governing bodies accountable by pressuring them for the actual implementation of government policies to protect victims of harassment.