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Recording women's experiences and resilience during Covid-19

For International Women's Day 2021, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) recorded the experiences of women during Covid-19

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This article belongs to the Women and Workplace Struggles: Scotland 1900-2022 collection.

Silhouettes of people holding a variety of protest banners

 
banner of the EIS, purple background with EIS in white edged in redFounded in 1847, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) is the oldest teaching union in the world. As the largest teaching union in Scotland, the EIS represents more than 60,000 members across all sectors of Education.

The video, ‘Recording Women’s Experiences and Resilience during COVID-19’, produced for International Women’s Day 2021, recognises that women's contributions can go unrecognised in the documentation of major world and national events. To redress this, and to document women's contributions to history as it happens, the EIS recorded the experiences of one thousand women members around health, homelife, paid and unpaid work during the pandemic. Together, we celebrate women’s resilience and demand better for women.

From December 2020 to March 2021, one thousand women members participated in an online questionnaire, the answers to which informed this video, showcasing the work and homelife experiences of women in education professions. Teachers and lecturers offer insight into the many ways EIS members ensured the survival of education in Scotland through the COVIVD-19 crisis.

"Since International Women’s Day 2020, the pandemic and lockdown has shone a bright, harsh light on the inequalities that remain in all aspects of life in Scotland today.”


If you would like to contact the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) for more information, please email Pauline McColgan at pmccolgan@eis.org.uk or visit www.eis.org.uk.  


References, sources and links

Please visit the Gender Equality section of the EIS website for updates on our latest projects and policies to promote gender equality and challenge sexism and misogyny: https://www.eis.org.uk/Equality/Gender

 At a time when teachers across Scotland transformed their classrooms into virtual ones in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pauline McColgan describes how her studies with The Open University (OU) have helped her to support Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) members during this challenging time:

OU/EIS Microcredentials Case Study: https://www.open.ac.uk/scotland/partnerships/unions/pauline-mccolgan

Scottish Union Learning Fringe event on the impact of COVID-19 in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvkjNg31gaI

EIS ‘Teacher Professional Identity and Professional Learning Blog- https://www.eis.org.uk/Professional-Learning/PLBlog




 

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