A year of commemorative days

If you’re looking for a special day to organize a project this coming year, consult this list of commemorative days and holidays! Don’t forget, if you get something going in site, the GAD committee would love to hear about it. Leave us a comment or send an email to gad.nicaragua@gmail.com.

Holiday links

Looking for a few feminist reads over this holiday season? We’ve got you covered! As this year comes to a close, many websites are taking a look back on 2013. Some see hope, others are less optimistic… we’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Piropos in the classroom... what do you do?

Even if it the words weren’t aimed directly towards us, we’ve all heard piropos. Cat calls… Hola mi amor. Chelita bonita. Regálame un beso, mwah! Preciosa. Mírame con esos ojos gatos. Oooh baby. Dame su número. The tone of voice, the leering stares, the kisses and mocking laughter—it’s enough to make your skin crawl right off your body and into a cleansing bleach bath. It’s one thing when piropos come from truck drivers or intoxicated men on the street, but on school grounds, or in the classroom… what do you do?

Volunteers from around the country sound off on how they responded to piropos in the education environment…

Harvard Business School Gender experiment

Check out this NYTimes article about the ‘gender experiment’ Harvard Business School carried out with their class of 2013 students. From classroom participation and grades to tenured professors to social rituals and dating, the campaign manifested itself across campus, with varying degrees of acceptance and success…

“Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity” Jodi Kantor

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Dia contra la violencia hacia las mujeres

This past week, on November 25^th, Nicaragua celebrated the Día Internacional para la Eliminación de la Violencia hacia las Mujeres with marches, radio reports, and other events across the county. El Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM), which brings together all the feminists organizations in Nicaragua, led the march in Managua that not only spoke out against violence against women, but also against the recently proposed constitutional reforms.

Mochila Educativa: Autoestima

The Mochila Educativa is a resource developed by MINSA and Nicaragua Avanza “as an educational guide that allows adolescents to learn about a series of themes concerning sexual reproductive health in order to apply and share the information with other adolescents, young people, family members and community groups.”

This Spanish-language guide offers activities and plans for teaching youth about the following themes:

So you wanna start a girls group...

Starting a girls’ group is an attractive project for many volunteers – it’s a great way to build self-esteem, strengthen leadership skills, share knowledge about sexual/reproductive health, and have fun! But where to begin? What ages do you want to focus on? Where will you hold the meetings? What topics make the most sense for your group? There are many things to consider.

To give you an idea of what worked for one volunteer, an RPCV shares her experience with the girls’ youth group she worked with over the course of her service…

Gender in the English Language classroom

I was very excited and surprised in a planning session with one of my counterparts (CPs) because the CP had printed flashcards for presenting different types of sports. Soccer, football, cycling, swimming, tennis, baseball, basketball, volleyball… we were ready to go! Except, then I realized every single picture was of a male athlete. When I brought this to the teacher’s attention, the CP responded “But girls don’t play football.” That’s true, I conceded, but we went on to make a pile of the sports women do play (most of them) and the sports women don’t play (football and baseball).

I don’t think this teacher was intentionally favoring male athletes. My CP was just going with what they see most often, and probably some of the first images that popped up on an online search. It’s an easy thing to do. That got me thinking about all the topics during the year when it’s especially important to be conscious about how we portray gender norms to our students.

Welcome!

Welcome to GADzooks! Peace Corps Nicaragua GAD (Gender and Development) committee's blog created to keep all PCVs informed of all things GAD related. Take a look around and keep coming back as we will continue bringing you up to date stories of PCVS and their GAD activities.