During 2011 and 2012, the Åland Islands Peace Institute has managed the Fair Sex project targeting Ålandic secondary schools with financing from the Åland Government. Since 2011, all students enrolled for their second year at upper secondary schools have participated in interactive workshops discussing Fair Sex.
In 2011, a national Finnish report on well-being of students showed that a big part of the Ålandic students had experiences of sexual violence and sexual harassments. In response to this the Fair Sex project was expanded to also include further education for school staff on how to prevent sexual violence in schools.
The aim of the Fair Sex workshop is to encourage conversations about sex and relationships, respect and gender equality in order to prevent sexual violence and support healthy sexual relations. The workshop focuses on questions about mutuality, limits, good feelings, listening for a yes, rumors, gray zones, sexual assaults and the different expectations there are towards men and women when it comes to sex. The workshops are interactive and give young people a chance to discuss these issues together with educated workshop leaders, who question prejudices and gender norms. The experiences and evaluations from the workshops show that the students appreciate these discussions and that there is a need to talk about sex, relationships, expectations and sexual assaults with young people.
Staff in upper secondary and secondary schools on Åland have been provided in-service training on how to work towards a school free from sexual violence and sexual harassments. The training was divided in to three lectures and was an important first step. The training showed that the teachers’ awareness of these issues were limited, there seemed to be a lack of initiatives from the schools’ managements to prioritize this work and engaged staff is asking for further training and help from experts to continue the work against sexual violence. To make this a long-term engagement, the work against sexual harassment and sexual violence must be an integrated part of the schools’ routines. The project has been acknowledged also outside of the Åland Islands, and has among others been presented to the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Social Affairs and Health in Finland.
