Casual sexist remarks at school/college that stayed with you?

I went on a taster day for the mechanics course at the local college. I was told "we will humour you for now, but girls never finish this course, never mind pass it". I gave up my dream of becoming a mechanic (despite being able to change the wheel faster than all the lads on the taster day) and did a year of childcare instead, which I hated I didn't necessarily give up because he had said I would fail, I gave up because I couldn't be bothered dealing with such an arse for 2-3 years!

I've told this anecdote before, but it's such a doozy I'll repeat it. My girls comp joined up with the boys school next door when I went into the upper 6th. They had loads of school prizes which were awarded on the basis of performance in mocks. A boy won the biology prize. Girls won the further maths, chemistry and physics prizes. A girl should have won the maths prize as well, but (clearly because by this stage the teachers were feeling upset at how things were going) they decided to share it between the top performing girl and the top performing boy, who'd come... wait for it... 5th!

whoops, must remember this is a message board not a blog, and not go on too long....

Back in the 80's I went to the sixth form of an extremely highly regarded girls' school that is now a 'superselective' and almost impossible to get into. I remember the talk on university choices and being warned that some courses were very competitive and that one must have a back-up of a polytechnic course. (I was probably a bit of a snob about polys back then, but was almost certainly right to suspect that an English degree from Wolverhampton Poly wasn't going to be a magnet for employers). I remember them mentioning Oxbridge in a 'stars and teachers' pets only need apply' sort of way that made the rest of us feel incredibly foolish for even thinking we were capable. And I have vivid and painful memories of my English teacher ruthlessly demolishing the first draft of my personal statement before it was even a complete draft. I've been phobic about that blank 2 pages in the application form ever since. Cow.

None of this is overtly sexist, of course, but I very much doubt if the neighbouring boys' grammars and independents presented university choices in quite such a fearful, negative way. What should have been a time for anticipation, excitement and exploration was turned into an ordeal of perfectionism and scalding self-doubt, and probably distorted a lot of our choices at the time.

"The only way you could get French A Level is if you spend the summer over there with a French boyfriend"

I've always wondered why she didn't just stop after the 'over there'. She was pretty cool otherwise.

Oh and no-one was put off doing Maths or Sciences just because they were a girl. If anything because their Maths pass rate at Higher Level wasn't brilliant they possibly pushed more than they should , boys and girls.

Everyone who got a good Ordinary Grade pass was encouraged to do Higher Maths, Including me despite the fact it became obvious that Ordinary Grade really was my limit. They persevered with extra one to one tuition from my female Maths teacher. I still failed.

I suppose someone will educate me on this but what is sexist about asking if the poster went to ballet lessons because of the way she walked?

I don't recall teachers at a mixed rural comprehensive in the 70s behaving in the ways you are reporting.

If there was cause for complaint it was the way most teachers concentrated on the bright boys and girls. This was admirable in a way as there were many children who were the first in their families to go to university. It became very noticeable in 3rd and 4th year when those who would stay on after 16 were being identified.

Typing wasn't for girls - it was for those who weren't bright enough to do something else. Modern studies was the same , the less bright children of both sexes did it, the clever ones did history and geography.

Both sexes did one period of Home Economics in First Year , the academic children dropped it.

Was fine by me as I was one of the clever lot.

My maths teacher walked into my A Level maths class and his first comment was, "why are so many girls in this class? What do you need maths for?" Utter fucking shit for brains. I ended up telling him he pissed me off and being asked to leave his class. Still passed maths and restrained myself from keying his car. Just.

I think that would have been becoming known by early 00s so he was just a git, in case you didn't realise . Took women going into science to take women and children's evolutionary history and biological importance seriously of course.

Senigallia " Although I suppose technically he was correct in an evolutionary sense,"

I'm not letting that one past. He was wrong. There is a lot of debate (or was at any rate) about why women survive past childbearing age at all, if there was no evolutionary purpose we wouldn't. Turns out grandmothers generally improve the survival rate of youngsters. Wisdom of the elders and all that.

Not a remark but asking in Primary school (late 80's) to be allowed to train with the football team. Male friends asked if I could play on the team as they felt I was good enough and the teacher laughing out loud

I'll read the thread in a minute. But wanted to add my little gem.

Girls' school Sixth form. I told my English teacher that I had decided against Oxbridge entrance as I knew I wanted to be a primary teacher and wanted to do a B.Ed. He said, and I remember precisely, 'Well, it's not a bad career choice...for a girl,' and left the room.

I met his daughter the next year. She was in the year above me at teacher training college. She thought her dad was an idiot.

At school in the early 80s, John and I came joint top in a Computing Studies test and both did well in German. John was allowed to continue with computing studies, I had to drop it (against my preference) and do German because computers are for boys. Guess which of us is an IT professional?

At university in the early 90s, I wrote an essay in which I criticised a Channel advert from a (slightly) feminist perspective and saying that some of the target audience may find the caged, fetishistic images off-putting. The male tutor told me that there was no way woman would be unsettled by the ad and gave me really low grade. No discussion, no debate, I was just wrong.

Women in history didn't do anything? I think Elizabeth the first, Marie Curie, Boadecea, Florence Nightengale, Joan of Arc, and the list goes on, would agree there.

In fact I seem to remember his exact words were 'they start to crumble away...'

Girls school, early 2000s, we were told that our skirts were too short and as we were walking to and from school we looked like whores! And that we couldn't be surprised if men got the 'wrong idea' about what we wanted. The only positive is that even at the age we were, we all thought the (female) teacher who said that was sexist and it was a ridiculous thing to say.

In mostly male sixth form, told by an ex-army male biology teacher that after women have had children they have no purpose any more, that's why they start getting osteoporosis and other health problems. Although I suppose technically he was correct in an evolutionary sense, quite why he thought it was a sensible thing to say to a class in a very male environment with only a small number of girls I don't know.

None. I was in an all girls' school until 16.

I was told by a female office studies teacher that if I didn't improve my typing speed I'd never get a good job as a secretary.

Luckily my mother brought up well (and I was a gobby 16 yo), and simply replied that I wasn't going to be a secretary, I was going to have a secretary.

I was right

For my A-levels, I went to a private boys' school which had recently started admitting girls into the sixth form. There were 24 girls for 150 boys in the sixth form, and about 700 boys overall. Only four of the teachers (but all of the catering and nursing staff and cleaners) were women. The girls' A-level grades were, universally, much worse than expected. It was a real eye-opener.

The most glaringly sexist teacher was an 'eccentric' history master who also ran the girls' boarding house. He gave all the pupils in the class nicknames; the four girls in my year were 'The little mermaid', 'Miss Gorgeous', 'Squidge' and 'Ma belle' (me). For one test where all the girls had done badly, he chose to mark us for our beauty rather than our brains. Thereafter he addressed us as "the brainless beauties" and told us not to bother our "pretty little heads" with revision, as it was futile. Strangely none of us objected or complained. I think we realised it truly would have been futile.

One of the girls did complain to a male teacher that the girls' swimming sports heats were set to take place in the school's outdoor pool at a time when many of the boys were able to stand on a staircase and watch. She was told she had "nothing to worry about" as she looked "fine in a swimsuit".

Some of these are truly, truly awful. I think I just gravitated towards strong, opinionated women at school and ignored the other teachers.

Nothing wrong with you, ageing: you're just pleasantly plump (I hate that term...arggh...).

A teacher of Geography couldn't resist referring to landscape features as "undulating hills" without looking pointedly at the chest of a very well-endowed girl in the class....

I didn't have any of this - single sex school late 60s to mid 70s.

Of course, all our teachers, bar one, were female too. So I was taught physics, chemistry and double maths by able, intelligent women, who presumably had had to overcome significant barriers to their own success.

I am wondering if grimbletart and I went to the same school. Our (nun) headteacher once started a speech to my class when we were about 15: "When you are teachers and nurses, nuns and housewives..." My super cool friend interrupted with "but I'm going to be a pathologist!" She was sent out of the room. She's now a surgeon.

Same Head also had a standard speech before summer holidays telling us not to "get interfered with" by boys during the break. And once accused a group of us wearing highly fashionable at the time patent brogues of wanting boys to see our knickers in the reflection I was 12. It had never occurred to any of us, and she must have had a very twisted brain to have thought of it! I never wore them again though.

RedHair, do you know if he is still teaching? Would you consider reporting it?

When I was about 14 my male R.E teacher took a liking to me, he scared me quite a lot. He made me sit on his lap once which now I realise is awful, but I remember someone saying "how come she never has to do >whatever they thought I wasn't doing