SCI has been working to promote peace, non-violence, human rights, social justice and international understanding as an alternative to war since 1920. Gender inequalities arise from different treatment of people according to their gender and sexual orientation. They are expressed in economic, social, and political institutions that systematically reinforce unequal roles, rights, and opportunities. In most societies, structural inequalities result in the marginalisation and discrimination of people with non-normative gender and/or sexuality from childhood on. Connected stereotypes and prejudices influence everyday life experiences, often leading to exclusion. SCI sees this as violence and therefore seeks to deal with the issue.

One of SCI’s recent activities has been to look at gender in workcamps and international volunteering activities, creating a questionnaire that developed into a report that will guide our future activities.

The way that SCI has been working recently on this topic is through the Gendered Realities project.  It is an annual Work Plan for 2019, aimed at increasing understanding of the gender topic and the present realities in SCI activities. The Work Plan consisted of two international activities and a series of local follow-up actions, and produced different useful resources.

SCI has worked hard to create a toolkit that can be used to look into and address Gender on different levels and with different communities. The toolkit is freely available below.

Free to be You and Me, toolkit on gender