Gender equality in Wales

A Cardiff University academic recently joined First Minister Carwyn Jones at the United Nations in New York to discuss how Wales is advancing gender equality.

Professor Emma Renold, of the School of Social Sciences was also with La-Chun Lindsay of GE Aviation and Purna Sen, Director of Policy for UN-Women, to discuss the challenges, advances and actions on gender equality in Wales at a regional and national level.

At the panel, Professor Renold shared the ways in which children and young people influenced the Welsh Government’s Violence Against Women, Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Act through a series of creative activisms. They also discussed the making of the innovative national resource, AGENDA, a free bi-lingual online toolkit created with young people to support them to raise awareness of and challenge gender-based sexual inequalities, violence and oppression. It was developed by Professor Renold in association with The Children’s Commissioner for Wales, NSPCC Cymru, Welsh Women’s Aid and Welsh Government.

Through film, objects and sound, from the stop-start plates with messages for change, to the ruler-skirt activism, Professor Renold celebrated what has been possible to achieve in Wales, and how these activities build upon Wales’ legacy of championing children’s rights and gender equity.

Professor Renold also discussed the report published in December 2017 by the Welsh Government’s expert panel on the future of the Sex and Relationships Education Curriculum in Wales, and the recommendations the panel made for an overhaul of how the subject is taught in schools.

The panel outlined their vision for a new gender equity and rights-based Sexuality and Relationships curriculum which is relevant and responsive to real issues affecting the lives of all children and young people.

Professor Renold said: “It was an honour and a privilege to platform the creative ways in which children and young people in Wales have been informing and shaping policy and practice, from the classroom to the Senedd. This was their #metoo moment, and where better than the United Nations to speak out on the issues that matter to them?”

As a result of the event, examples of Professor Renold’s work will be presented to the United Nations’ Working Group on Girls’ Teen Orientation.