Gender, Equity, and Education for Peace in a Divided World

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World—invites us to interrogate education’s dual potential: as a driver of cohesion and peace, or as a site where inequities deepen and divisions harden. At this crossroads, gender remains a central fault line. While global attention rightly focuses on expanding girls’ access, a deeper, more nuanced picture emerges—that includes overlooked inequities at the intersections of gender, poverty, disability, caste, language, and the rising crisis of boys’ disengagement.

This panel gathers diverse but complementary research efforts that collectively argue: gender and equity in education must be re-framed as systemic, intersectional challenges linked to peace and social cohesion. The conversation highlights how inequities manifest, how evidence synthesis can inform action, and how inclusive practices can transform classrooms and systems alike. The central insight: addressing gender and equity in education is not only a matter of fairness—it is fundamental to building just, peaceful, and cohesive societies.

Rethinking Gender and Equity in Education

Conventional gender and education narratives often focus narrowly on girls’ enrollment and attainment. This lens has secured progress, but obscures persistent inequities and emerging challenges. For example, children with disabilities—especially girls—remain disproportionately excluded from schooling (Thota et al, 2022). Data continually shows significant enrollment and completion gaps for marginalized communities and those in poverty (World Bank, 2021). Language further compounds inequity: students learning in a second/third language more often fall behind early and struggle to catch up (World Bank, 2021). And an under-acknowledged crisis is unfolding among boys (UNESCO, 2022). In many urban and relatively privileged contexts, boys are increasingly disengaged from learning (Dalberg, 2025), underperforming academically, and struggling with socio-emotional wellbeing. This phenomenon is deeply entangled with rigid masculinity norms, which can foster frustration, violence, and susceptibility to extremist narratives (Dier & Baldwin, 2022). Rather than framing boys’ struggles in opposition to girls’ empowerment, a more constructive lens sees both as integral to advancing gender-transformative education—an education that challenges harmful norms, addresses systemic inequities, and supports all learners to thrive.

Mapping Evidence and Identifying Gaps

Large-scale datasets show inequities, but our understanding of why they persist and how they might be addressed is far thinner. Rich qualitative studies exist, but are fragmented and under-leveraged. The field lacks a synthesized, systemic view of how gender, identity, and learning outcomes interact over time. Recent efforts to map these dynamics offer a way forward.

By structuring evidence into causal pathways—such as how early learning links to adolescent health, early marriage, labor participation, or civic engagement—we can see more clearly both what is known and where the gaps are. For example, there is robust evidence that improvements in girls’ education reduce early marriage, but far less clarity on how boys’ disengagement shapes risks of violence or exclusion. Similarly, while we understand gender gaps in school completion, the role of intersecting identities like caste, language, or disability remains underexplored.

This kind of evidence mapping surfaces priority gaps where new research and investment could unlock outsized impact. Crucially, it emphasizes the interplay between evidence and action: knowledge must be generated not as an end in itself but as a guide for strategic investment and innovation.

From Systems Diagnosis to Classroom Transformation

Even the best diagnostics and evidence syntheses are insufficient unless translated into practice. Classrooms remain the frontline where equity is either reinforced or dismantled. Teachers, often unconsciously, reproduce biases in how they allocate attention, pose questions, or evaluate students. Supervisory structures can perpetuate inequities, especially when dominated by male cadres privileging male teachers.

Innovative practice shows that these patterns can be disrupted by embedding equity into teacher professional development—so that gender and inclusion are everyday pedagogy, not add-ons. Tools such as marginalization indices, which identify students at risk of falling behind based on intersecting identity markers, can help target interventions early before disparities widen. Practical levers illustrate that equity is not abstract: it can be operationalized in daily practice. When classrooms become more inclusive, children internalize norms of fairness and belonging. When they are not, children learn the opposite—that exclusion is natural and hierarchy is inevitable.

Education Equity for Peace

When learners experience exclusion—whether through gender bias, language barriers, or identity-based discrimination—the effects extend beyond schooling. Exclusion shapes self-worth, societal participation, and openness to difference. At scale, such inequities can fracture social cohesion, fueling cycles of resentment, violence, and division.

Conversely, inclusive education can be a peacebuilding force. When classrooms affirm dignity, challenge harmful gender norms, and support marginalized learners, they cultivate empathy, resilience, and shared belonging. Addressing the boys’ learning crisis, for instance, is not only about improving test scores; it is about preventing alienation that can manifest in violence. Ensuring equity for girls with disabilities is not only about inclusion; it is about disrupting intergenerational cycles of exclusion and poverty. Education equity, therefore, is not tangential but central to peace in a divided world.

Conclusion

The conversation across diagnostics, evidence synthesis, and classroom practice yields actionable insights like the need to move beyond averages and reframe gender. Equity cannot be advanced by designing for the “average student.” Intersectional analysis is essential to identify who is left behind and why. This makes essential the need to bridge evidence and action by mapping evidence to prioritize investment in real-world testing and learning that center practices. Equity lives or dies in the classroom. Teacher development, multilingual education, and tools for identifying marginalized learners are crucial levers. All of this links equity to peace via education that affirms dignity and belonging, that fosters cohesion.

In re-examining education and peace in a divided world, this panel underscores that gender-transformative, equity-centered education is both an educational and a peace imperative. Achieving this requires alignment across levels: diagnostics that illuminate inequities, evidence systems that map pathways and gaps, and classroom practices that transform lived experiences of learning. Rather than viewing these as separate agendas, the panel demonstrates how they interlock into a coherent approach. Equity in education cannot be achieved in isolation from peace, and peace cannot be sustained without equity in education. The task ahead is to pursue both—together, deliberately, and urgently.

Sub Unit

• Gender Justice SIG

Chair

• Lea Simpson, Brink

Individual Presentations

• Equity at the margins: Reframing foundational learning in India - Shivakshi Rana, Language and Learning Foundation; Dhir Jhingran, Language and Learning Foundation

• Picture this! Evidence Hub on Gender and Learning’s Evidence Big Picture - Lea Simpson, Brink; Amy Jo Dowd, Brink Foundation; Laura Hinson, Consultant

• Reframing Education Inequities and the Boys’ Learning Crisis - Subhashish Bhadra, Dalberg Advisors; Dayoung Lee, Dalberg Advisors; Saskia Sickinger, Dalberg Advisors

Discussant

• Mary Chepkemoi, Zizi Afrique Foundation