Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697749848271.pdf (Ireland)
Irish Second-Level Students’ Union Aontas Daltaí Iar-bhunscoile na hÉireann Representing, Uplifting and Defending Student Voice Chairperson, members of the Committee, Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

My name is Emer Neville and I am the Uachtarán of the Irish Second-level Student's Union.

As the national representative body for school students of Ireland, one of the core elements of our work is ensuring that students remain core stakeholders in the decisions that affect them.
We strive to represent, uplift and defend the voices of students in second-level education.

When given the opportunity to present on an issue, we are always willing to work to find the solution.

And it is in this spirit that I speak before you today.

The ISSU welcomes the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly on Gender-Equality in relation to Norms, Stereotypes and Education.

Recommendation 26 highlights the importance of a broad subject range that counters gender stereotyping.
School is often one of the very first places students see gender stereotypes, with expectations placed on young girls to study subjects such as home economics and similarly on young boys to study subjects such as woodwork or technology.

These stereotypes are exemplified by a lack of resourcing for schools, it is rare you would ever see a woodworking room in an all-girls school or a home economics kitchen in an all-boys school.
It is of the utmost importance that schools are given the resources they need to build these classrooms, to source teachers and to offer these subjects to their students to counter gender stereotypes.

Equally, as stated in recommendation 26 (b) and recommendation 30 it is important that we resource schools to provide gender-neutral career information and advice from early second level education.
We need to think logically here, if a young woman is attending school and that school doesn't offer woodwork or technology or engineering, well then that young woman is significantly less likely to explore those career paths, because they’re not available to her now so why could they be available to her in the future?
We need to broaden our own mindsets, curriculum and teaching to show students that their opportunities are endless, that they do not need to be confined to what society deems a traditionally masculine or feminine career.

We need to show them that a young man can be a nurse, that a young woman can be engineer and that a young non-binary student can be a teacher.
The issues of gender stereotyping in subject choice and in career information go hand-in-hand and the solution for them both begins with education, it begins in the classroom.

The ISSU particularly welcomes recommendation 27, which encourages curriculum review with an emphasis on gender equality and diversity.

I’m sure it is no surprise when I say that our Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum is outdated.
It simply does not reflect the world we live in, it doesn’t support, educate or protect our students, it focuses more on biology than consent, a subject we cannot be shying away from.

In a recent survey conducted by the ISSU, 1 in 3 students stated that they had not received any form of RSE at senior cycle.
The survey also showed that regardless of whether students received partial or complete RSE, students’ attending all Irish Second-Level Students’ Union ISSU 9th Floor, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1, D01 F9K2, Rep. of Ireland Tel: + 353 1 443 4461 | Fax: + 353 1 686 5567 | info@issu.ie | www.issu.ie Facebook: issu4u | Twitter: issu4u | Instagram: issu4u | Snapchat: issu4u | TikTok: issu4u Irish Second-Level Students’ Union Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Dublin Registered Address: ISSU 9th Floor, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1 | Registration no.
511901 | Charity registration no: 20141868 (CHY22315) Irish Second-Level Students’ Union Aontas Daltaí Iar-bhunscoile na hÉireann Representing, Uplifting and Defending Student Voice boys schools generally felt that their RSE was more comprehensive than students’ in girls schools.

Our education system has a responsibility, a responsibility to educate young women, men and non-binary people about gender power dynamics, about consent, and about domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
It has a responsibility to inform our students about the reality of being an Irish person.
Stark statistics from Women’s Aid and the Rape Crisis Network show us what that reality is; ● That one in five young women in Ireland have been subjected to intimate relationship abuse, ● That 51% of young women affected experienced this abuse under the age of 18, ● That when surveyed over a one year period, 80% of adolescents disclosed being subjected to some form of sexual harassment, ● That 47% of adolescents did not know how to report sexual harassment within their school, ● That 247 women have died violently in Ireland between 1996-2022.
Initiatives such as the Bystander Intervention Programme in University College Cork and Active* Consent in NUI Galway are doing tremendous work, they’re taking the lead in educating our young people at third-level and even creating pilots at second-level but there’s still a long way to go, there's nothing mainstream and there needs to be.

We must embed gender power dynamics, consent and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence – both online and offline, in our curriculum.
Everyday, women are abused, whether is it emotionally, physically, or sexually, LGBTQ+ students are harassed and young men are forced to supress themselves resulting in outrageously high suicide rates.

Why?

Because of their gender.

To conclude, the ISSU believes that while these cannot be the final destination, they are a fantastic starting point to tackling these problems.
Gender inequality is systemic, to truly address it we need an approach that involves the entire sector, that is intersectional and that devotes itself to not just raising awareness or making promises, but taking real, tangible action.

I want to thank the committee again for this opportunity.

I am more than happy to elaborate on any of the points I’ve made, and I look forward to answering any questions alongside my colleague from the ISSU, Saoirse Exton.
Irish Second-Level Students’ Union ISSU 9th Floor, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1, D01 F9K2, Rep. of Ireland Tel: + 353 1 443 4461 | Fax: + 353 1 686 5567 | info@issu.ie | www.issu.ie Facebook: issu4u | Twitter: issu4u | Instagram: issu4u | Snapchat: issu4u | TikTok: issu4u Irish Second-Level Students’ Union Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Dublin Registered Address: ISSU 9th Floor, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1 | Registration no.

511901 | Charity registration no: 20141868 (CHY22315)