Answer:
When teaching gender equity, we typically focus on the injustices women have faced throughout history and today. And we should! From the glass ceiling to the lack of educational opportunities for women around the world and the gender pay gap, there are (unfortunately) a plethora of topics to choose from. But as we focus on justice it is also important that we examine gender equity through other domains of social justice education.
Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards are based on the work of Louis Derman-Sparks’ four goals for anti-bias education. Divided into four domains—Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action (IDJA)—the Standards recognize that, in today’s diverse classrooms, students need knowledge and skills to reduce prejudice and recognize and act against injustice. While it’s important to teach about injustice toward women, it is also important to acknowledge gender equity as it relates to identity, diversity and action.
In doing so, the narrative of gender equity becomes multi-dimensional, and students can understand how gender equity relates to their multiple social identities (identity) and different groups in society (diversity). They can also begin to make plans for what they can do to stand against the injustices women and gender-nonconforming people face (action).