‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ in schools is everyday sexism

It is, that’s what my DC have in their secondary. I agree with the OP that these titles are not equal, although I do not think this is how DC see it these days.
(we used title surname when I was at school)

I used to work in a school that used Sir and Miss. I can completely see the OPs point but found it to be used in a pretty respectful way (the behaviour was very variable but this wasn’t one of the problems). It felt pretty neutral/respectful in practice.

@Ddakji it's not actually an objective fact. I have been in education since I was 4 up to my advanced age now. I have never, in thirty years of teaching had a colleague say they feel demeaned by "Miss". I have never felt I was honouring a male colleague more if I used Sir instead Miss if explaining to a child they needed to see their head of year. I work with teens who have a very strong and clear idea about identity, sexism, equality. They are not backwards in coming forward if they things are amiss and they have never once raised this spontaneously. I have actually had classroom discussions about it and none of them felt that it prioritised or raised men above women.
As far as I am concerned, in my fairly extensive experience, it's not an issue and there are far more actual problems to focus on. Stirring up angst over nonsense like this is a distraction from real issues.

Yes!

Very good point.

My work the students and staff call everyone by their first names. No disrespect, no misgendering, no pronoun preference issues

Ridiculous

Much as I hate being called Miss, I really don't like 'Teacher', which is v common in my Irish school. I am v clear to students that I prefer Ms M and 99% of them remember it.
It's not about respect from students, for me anyway, it's the idea of me, as I said in a pp, calling a 22yo sir while he calls me Miss and I'm more than twice his age!! I also think it's what you're used to.. I'd taught for many years before hearing this in current school and it's v much 'a thing', eg I bumped into a male teacher during the summer holidays and he said 'Hi Miss' 😆 Both of us are over 40! I laughed at him and tbf he laughed too.

It could become honorary, if that’s the right word, like medical doctors being Dr, even though they don’t have a doctorate.

Yes, it is. That you can’t or won’t see it doesn’t change that.

And once they know these aren’t equivalent titles? What do they think then?

It’s a bit like how “guys” is now used as a group noun for people, both male and female - though of course no one would ever call an individual girl or woman a guy. The male term has become the default. I know a few younger women who hate that this has happened.

Once you see these things you realise how prevalent and normalised they are. Everyday sexism, as the OP says. Best to get the girls as used to it as early as possible. Boiling frogs.

I’m called by my first name. All staff use their first names. I’m still the teacher, no title needed.

In previous schools I used to correct from Miss to Mrs Louisiana. I’m perfectly happy as Queen, it’s what everyone else calls me after all.

Of course it’s sexist. It’s a hangover from the not so distant past when all female schoolteachers were ‘Miss’ because they would lose their job when they married.

Am perfectly.happy being called Miss.I don't attach.layers of hidden meaning to it and get provoked into a sense of unwarranted grievance. Respect does not reside in the title pupils give us. It's something we generate.

That would be excellent. Professor though is a professional title that teachers don't hold.

'Sir' was once - and to some extent still is - insisted on by schools as the form of address for male teachers. I doubt whether 'Miss' was ever insisted on by female teachers; I suspect it was coined spontaneously by pupils. I remember my mum recalling her schooldays and mentioning one teacher who introduced herself by saying: 'my name is Miss X, and you must never call me 'Miss'.

No it really isn’t ffs

It’s Sir and Ma’am in our school.

School I was at the female teachers could choose.
One chose Madam
One chose Sir
The others were all Miss.

So I'd assume they didn't mind Miss.

Madam sounds sarcastic to me

It should be like Hogwarts where they are all just “professor “

In the 80s young children recently arrived from Ghana used to call me Auntie.

I don't..but the OP and others are convinced that children absorb some implied sexism over the status of Sir and Miss. I'm saying they don't. They may decide through other means that things are unequal but this is not one of them, in my opinion.

I totally agree
It's misogynistic and demeaning to call women Miss and men Sir

I'm senior management in a secondary school and have mentioned this more than once and am astastonished that colleagues who I would otherwise think of as modern and equal see no problem with Miss.

But what to use instead of Miss?
I can't come up with a good alternative

I’m a primary teacher - most of the time any male teachers I’ve worked with get called ‘Miss’ too! Lots of the children who are Indian call the staff ‘teacher’, and we often get called ‘mum’ too. it really doesn’t bother me one iota. Lots of staff in secondary schools also call each other sir or miss.