The storm over the words of Nausėdienė: in a few sentences he hooked the most gruesome wounds in Lithuania

Lithuania’s failure to maintain gender balance in different areas is also demonstrated by the Gender Equality Index compiled across the European Union. However, according to specialists interviewed by Delfi, the problems do not arise because there are too many women working in some field, but because they occupy less prestigious positions due to unequal opportunities. Meanwhile, most executive chairs, even in the educational system, are held by men.

Called sexism

Speaking about the situation of women in Lithuania yesterday, D. Nausėdienė stated that they often join systems that do not seek solutions to real problems and raised the question whether a woman can do something about it.

According to D. Nausėdienė, there is a stereotype that areas in which more women participate are more successful. However, according to the ladies of the first country, this is negated by the situation of the educational system.

“79 percent work in the education system. Women, but if we look at the indicators of the education system, we will see that the key indicators, the ones that are supposed to grow, are constantly falling downwards. Those that should decline are constantly growing upwards “, – D. Nausėdienė was quoted by the portal 15min.lt

According to Margarita Jankauskaitė, an expert at the Center for the Development of Equal Opportunities, these statements are sexist.

“I would consider that statement as a sexist statement, because when we talk about the success or failure of the education system, we have to pay attention to the decision makers and see who makes them, who shapes education policy and why we have such a gender imbalance. in one area or another Yes, obviously there is a big gap in the education system, but it is not the only system where there is such an imbalance.

If we look at the European Union (EU), we are actually among the most segregated countries in the labor market. But this is a systemic problem and blaming the people who work there is completely wrong. I don’t think the system works badly because there are more women working there, “he said.

In turn, the equal opportunities expert Donatas Paulauskas pointed out that although D. Nausėdienė did not directly accuse teachers of the poor educational system, he could be included between the lines.

“It seems to me that that comment on the role of women in education was careless and profound enough to try to improvise on a subject that may seem very easy, but in reality there are many nuances and some experience necessary to say something meaningful. Now we get the message that women cannot change anything in the education system, even though there are so many. That quality of the educational system is too poor and there are all kinds of negative phenomena. Such an explanation seems to lead to the conclusion that such a system is such, because these women are powerless and if there were more men, they would solve those problems ”, said the specialist.

Chair: Nausėdienė wanted to draw attention to the empowerment of women

When Delfi asked D. Nausėdienė herself to expand on what she meant by her remarks, the president’s communication group sent a comment to the editorial board. She claims that the country’s first lady tried to emphasize that increasing the number of women in a particular area alone will not work, and that their participation in decision-making is important.

“Diana Nausėdienė wanted to emphasize that to promote women’s leadership, it is not enough for the number of women in one or another professional field to simply increase mathematically. It is important that the empowerment of these women takes place at the same time.

The education system has been cited as an example: there are a large number of women who work in this field, but they are often not trained to improve or change it properly. For this reason, from the point of view of the first lady, it is important to ensure opportunities to increase the empowerment of women by giving them greater opportunities to pursue careers, dialogue and make decisions in this field, ”the editorial sent to the editorial board.

However, M. Jankauskaitė stated that he had not heard that message in his opening speech.

“I don’t see it in the speech. I just think that by increasing the number of women where they are now tragically lacking, such as in the decision-making ranks and in politics, I have no doubt that our policies will be of much better quality.

We are talking about the fact that our policies are being carried out in such a way that social areas are unduly underestimated. They are not considered prestigious in our society. And because they are not considered prestigious, wages are lower and isolated men traditionally do not go to work where there is less money. That is where the problem lies, ”said M. Jankauskaitė. She added that it is in undeservedly undervalued areas where a situation arises in which the majority of workers are women.

This, he says, only shows a lack of gender equality in certain areas of life.

“We face such a paradox because we are used to hearing that there is a tragic lack of strength in all IT specialties. We turn our heads to what to do here to attract people to those professions. But somehow we are silent about the dramatic lack of people in the social sphere. We are an aging society, we really need developed and quality services ”, highlighted M. Jankauskaitė.

86 percent. Ministers of Education – Men

Swedbank Chief Economist Nerijus Mačiulis did not want to evaluate D. Nausėdienė’s own statement, but noted that in Lithuania there is a large gender imbalance in management positions. For example, wrote on a social network, 86 percent. Lithuanian education ministers are men.

“I just want to point out that when we evaluate the performance of individual sectors and their possible reasons, we need to look not only at how different genders are represented, but also who and for what reasons are in leadership positions. Why are there so few women among ministers, school and university leaders? Isn’t this a consequence of deliberate discrimination or negative prejudice? We see similar problems in many sectors, both public and private companies, ”said N. Mačiulis.

EIGE’s Gender Equality Index also shows that it is difficult for women in Lithuania to access leadership positions. According to the power, Lithuania has obtained only 32.5 points out of 100, which shows that we are far from equality in this area. In addition, the situation here not only does not improve, but also worsens.

“The indicator of the energy area of ​​Lithuania is 32.5; Compared with 2005, it decreased 4.8 points. (-4.1 points from 2015). Lithuania ranks 21st in the European Union and is one of the three member states where the situation in this area has deteriorated ”, it is written in 2019. In the EIGE report.

At the beginning of last year, Lithuania also sounded like a country in Europe where there were no women in the Cabinet of Ministers.

“Due to the leadership in the educational system, both in terms of the level of ministers and school directors, directors of other educational institutions, it seems to me that in the 21st century. There is no doubt that there should be no prejudice or discrimination between women and men. men. And it is in management positions in Lithuania where there are few women in many public sector companies and institutions. And this is a problem, “said N. Mačiulis.

There is research on the relationship between feminization and children’s learning outcomes.

As D. Paulauskas told Defli, there is no large-scale investigation that corroborates the words of D. Nausėdienė about the quality of education and the number of women in the system.

“What is more interesting in the context of gender equality is that there are studies and experts who believe that more women among teachers – the feminization of educators – has to do with the learning outcomes of poorer boys or girls.

This is due to the lack of male teachers who would otherwise address issues that would be role models for the boys themselves, boys who would only be interested in the fact that a person of the same sex is involved in the whole process. Learning. Such perceptions really exist, but to say that a greater number of women among educators leads to a poorer quality of the educational system, it really is not, ”emphasized D. Paulauskas.

For his part, N. Mačiulis agreed that education in Lithuania is a very sensitive issue and the situation in schools is not normal, but, he emphasized, it is not a question of gender, but of old and known problems.

“Yes, the subject is very important. The quality of the educational system is unsatisfactory, as shown by many international studies, the reasons must be examined, there are many, they are well known. For example, I can name one of them: every third school in Lithuania has joint classes, when, for example, fourth and fifth graders study together. That cannot be the case, which affects the quality of education, ”said the economist.