Ms Emer Neville:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the opportunity to speak today. 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 the committee.

The ISSU welcomes the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality with regard 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 that one 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, source teachers and 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. If a young woman is attending school and that school does not offer woodwork, technology or engineering, she is significantly less likely to explore those career paths. They are not available to her now. 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 and 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, a young woman can be an engineer and a young non-binary student can be a teacher. The issues of gender stereotyping in subject choice and career information go hand in hand and the solution for them both begins with education. It begins in the classroom.

The ISSU especially welcomes recommendation 27, which encourages curriculum review with an emphasis on "gender equality and diversity". I am 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 in which we live. It does not support, educate or protect our students. It focuses more on biology than consent - a subject from which we cannot shy away. In a recent survey conducted by the ISSU, one in three students stated that he or she 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-boys schools generally felt that their RSE was more comprehensive than those attending all-girls schools. Our education system has a responsibility to educate young women, men and non-binary people about gender power dynamics, consent and 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. One in five young women in Ireland has been subjected to intimate relationship abuse and some 51% of young women affected experienced this abuse under the age of 18. When surveyed over a one-year period, 80% of adolescents disclosed being subjected to some form of sexual harassment. Some 47% of adolescents did not know how to report sexual harassment within their school and 247 women have died violently in Ireland between 1996 and 2022.

Initiatives such as the bystander intervention programme at University College Cork and active consent at NUI Galway are doing tremendous work; they are taking the lead in educating young people at third level and even creating pilots at second level. There is still a long way to go, however. There is 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. Every day, women are abused, whether it is emotionally, physically or sexually, LGBTQ+ students are harassed and young men are forced to suppress themselves, resulting in outrageously high suicide rates. Why? Because of their gender.

The ISSU believes that while these cannot be the final destination, they are a fantastic starting point to tackling these issues. 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 again thank the committee for this opportunity. I am more than happy to elaborate on any of the points I have made. I look forward to answering any questions alongside my colleague from the ISSU, Ms Saoirse Exton.