T-SHIRT – Tools on Suporting the figHt for Issues of gendeR Traditionality and disparities
Although this may not be immediately shocking, a lot of researchers as well as concerned educators and parents believe otherwise.

RATIONALE
THE PROJECT
A myriad of studies and research projects have already proven that gender discrimination, bias, and other related issues actually exist in most primary schools throughout the globe, including Europe, a reality asking for coordinated actions & targeted activities. The latter is reflected in:
European Commission’s Gender Equality Policy
It includes measures that aim to promote the advancemente of women and goals for strategic engagement for gender equality. The key principles of the strategy are based on a dual approach: key actions to achieve gender equality and strengthening the integration of a gender perspective in all EU policies and major initiatives.
Strategy for Equality between Women and Men
Although The European Union made significant progress in the last decades, and is now a global leader in gender equality, gender-based violence and stereotypes continue to persist. The strategy presented by the European Comission until 2025 sets out key actions and includes an equality perspective in all E.U. policy areas. It outlines how the Commission will provide the same opportunities for all that share the same aspirations.
Gender Policy Website
The Gender Equality Commission was established to help ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality into all Council of Europe policies and to bridge the gap between commitments made at international level and the reality of women in Europe. The Commission, whose members are appointed by member states, provides advice, guidance and support to other Council of Europe bodies and to member states. actions and includes an equality perspective in all E.U. policy areas. It outlines how the Commission will provide the same opportunities for all that share the same aspirations.
Gender Equality in Horizon 2020
Gender equality concerns all parts of Horizon 2020. When drafting your proposal, you need to pay attention to gender equality from different angles, in terms of human resources: balance between women and men in the research teams who will implement your project and content: analysing and taking into account the possible differences between men and women, boys and girls, or males and females, in the research and innovation content of your project.
UN Agenda 2030 with the SDG's
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OECD, with over 60 years of experience, is an international organisation that shapes policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all. Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, they work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, they provide a forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.
Education system is the context for an effecting change both on an individual and social level and it is a key institution that can minimize the differences between genders. Teachers are key- actors responsible for implementing this basic function of education and, they themselves are raised in societies that are stratified by gender; teachers act as carriers of the values and cultural codes of their societies and therefore their empowerment with pedagogies and tools towards gender issues ‘elimination’ is a necessity, through the provision on the one with effective training on how to tackle with the gender equality in their classrooms (via educational approaches to adopt a strategy combating gender inequality, raise awareness and proper sensitivity) and on the other, with additional materials and extracurricular activities targeting the gender equality sense of their students, a challenge also discussed in a series of researches about gender issues in class. The central issue here is the increasing concern about the role of the formal education system in reproducing gender differences and inequalities particularly, or their role in supporting teachers and students against gender inequality issues.
In this context, emphasis must be placed on sensitizing key-actors in the education system to the importance of gender issues and on the fact that it is a long and painful process requiring not only learning of new perspectives but also the unlearning of old ones. Teachers need to undergo gender sensitive courses in classroom behaviour and interaction with students, to be empowered on gender bias identification in the system and to be equipped with the proper mechanisms or learning/teaching materials on reacting against these. Additionally, they should empower their students with critical thinking by considering their attitudes, judging school text books, changing negative perceptions or concrete attitudes towards gender roles, all these from multiple perspectives and alternative dimensions. T-SHIRT addresses school community members, the teachers at primary education and subsequently, the students at primary education level (7-12); furthermore, it concerns all the relative stakeholders, such as school education policy makers, school curricula and syllabuses & approaches experts, researchers and pedagogy instructors, teacher trainers and gender experts, as well.