The educational innovation project Women’s Legacy, led by Valencian researcher Ana López-Navajas, is one of the nominees for the 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. This year marks the first edition of the award, which, according to the official award website, aims to “promote successful projects that improve and foster educational opportunities for girls and women, thereby enhancing their quality of life”.
Women’s Legacy was founded in 2020. Ana López-Navajas had spent years researching the absence of women’s contributions to science, culture and history in textbooks. In 2019, she found that female role models accounted for less than 8% of textbook references. To address this disparity, she launched a project aimed at providing resources to correct this inequality. The initiative involves collaboration with institutions and universities from Lithuania, Scotland, Italy, France, and Jordan.
WOMEN’S LEGACY: OPEN AND FREE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Over the past four years, Women’s Legacy has organized more than 30 working groups focused on various fields of knowledge, engaging nearly 300 contributors from different countries with support from international institutions. The outcome is a set of educational tools designed to challenge the androcentric perspective prevalent in education and to recover Europe’s female-authored cultural heritage.
A key achievement of the project is the creation of a digital resource bank with over 1,000 entries, providing an inclusive system of educational content that can be adapted to different educational systems. The platform offers classroom-ready materials categorized by subject and level, featuring female role models, their works, and activities. Additionally, three digital catalogs have been developed, showcasing female-authored works in art, music, and literature. All resources are accessible on the official website: www.womenslegacyproject.eu. The initiative also offers a teacher training course focused on women scientists in STEM.
A NATIONAL PROPOSAL TO DEVELOP GLOBAL MODEL
The Women’s Legacy nomination for the 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education was submitted by the Spanish Ministry of Equality and the Ministry of Education, following a proposal from the Women’s Institute. The institute, which became an official affiliate in 2023, has helped fund the digital resource bank. “We continue to move forward thanks to this support,” says project coordinator Ana López-Navajas.
Currently, Women’s Legacy is being implemented in educational centers across Andalusia, Madrid, Castile and León, Asturias, the Basque Country, and Catalonia. Additionally, a comprehensive teacher training program is being developed through the Castilla–La Mancha Regional Ministry of Education. “We are creating a global intervention model that will serve as a reference for other administrations and is highly transferable to different educational systems. Meanwhile, our working groups remain active, expanding outreach through teacher training,” concludes López-Navajas.
ABOUT THE UNESCO PRIZE FOR GIRLS’ AND WOMEN’S EDUCATION
The winners of the 2024 prize will be announced during an awards ceremony on Wednesday, October 16, which will be streamed live online. The prize is awarded to two initiatives, each receiving $50,000 to support their continued work in girls’ and women’s education. The winners are selected by an international jury of five independent experts: Mayyada Abu Jaber (Jordan), Christina Ting Kwauk (United States of America), Alex Munive (Colombia), Simone Yankey-Ouattara (Côte d’Ivoire), and Zuoyu Zhou (People’s Republic of China). More information here.
