Why do girls let the boys get away with it?

You could easily speak to the teacher about it. It's a straightforward thing to say, that you're concerned your son isn't understanding the dynamics of group work and has taken advantage of the girls' organisation and effort. Ask the teacher to monitor this next time, specifically to pay attention to his attitude and engagement.

You could also talk to him about fairness. You could also talk to him about the fact that his subject teachers will contribute to his UCAS reference, and he should be concerned with how the teacher perceives him.

Yonic I really admire your tenacity

I would say to you son:

You can get away with not doing work but it is not fair, it is not right and it is entitled.
You might still get a good mark but school is more than about getting a good mark.
Working in a team allows you to learn networking, communication and organization skills.
No academic work is ever wasted.
Time to step up and do the right thing for you and for the group.

And what does your DS say when asked about fairness?

He is not lazy, but he can see no logical benefit of asking for extra work when he does not need it. If the work was being assessed he would not leave it to others.

So if it's not important and there's no value to the work, the girls can do his share, but when there's credit to be had the girls can step aside and he will do his share? He (and the other boys) should be making sure he does his own share of work because he's supposed to be an equal member of a team. He can't just decide to be an equal member and do his share when he's going to get credit and benefit.

I'd ask him why he thinks that just because he is better at geography, does he feel that he doesn't need to pull his weight? I'd ask if he'd be ok left doing the bulk of the work if he were the least knowledgeable of the team? I'd also ask him if he thinks other teams work this way in general, like does the best sports person not take part in training and then just turn up to win the medals etc.

Coukd you speak to his teacher, they could encourage them all to do their fair share or acknowledging the fact the girls did the bulk of the work when marking etc.

What Buffy said at 20.29

I think pontificationcentral is spot on.

If he were in a group with his male friends and they were leaving him out, he would be making an effort to get involved because he wanted their respect and company.

It isn't the girls job to teach your son to be a better person - it sounds like they have enough work to do covering for his lazy arse.

Thats exactly it, Buffy.

You're expecting rather a lot of some 16 year old girls to make your DS understand why it's wrong to take advantage of women!

Have you straight out told him he is being unfair and unkind?

If I, as his mother, don't tell him what to do and how to behave then who will?

All the girls apparently...

Can't imagine where he gets his attitude from

Has your son no work ethic?

Why should the girls help you? Now you think it's girls' responsibility to help the parents of boys parent them?

Anything else you want to dump on to girls?

The question is not if the girls/teacher are happy with the status quo, it is whether your DS is! If he is not, then he should bring it up. Simple.

On the other hand, if he is happy, and the girls are happy, maybe they have actually exercised some leadership and divided up the tasks so their learning can benefit.

You could give him consequences for not pulling his weight in the group, of course,

Surely empowering women is about encouraging them to challenge weak/lazy/stupid male behaviour. I would be more than happy if the teacher helped me by having a go at him, and all his friends.

Hang on so do you want the girls to hold the responsibility for challenging the boys or do you want the teacher to do it? It's not the same things and the fact you have mentioned teachers suggests you think the girls are on par with the teacher wrt whose responsibility it is to challenge these boys' attitudes. They aren't. The girls are pupils, they are entitled to the same relationship with the teacher as ten boys are. They aren't the teacher's assistant there to chivvy along the boys and only go to teacher if they can't!

". In our house if he doesn't do his jobs he's told. So he does the job, toilet cleaning included."

That's a parent child thing. In a sense, you and your DH are the bosses of the house and he is assigned tasks by you.

The girls are not the bosses of the group; they are equals.

I know there's a lot of posts here but you haven't responded to mine about fairness (regardless of sex)

I'm assuming he wants to go to university?

I'd tell him to get his act together and be proactive about his group work now then, him slacking off and then blaming other people for his shitty behaviour will not go down well.