What can teachers and other professionals do to create a more gender free environment in our schools?

@Nuffaluff

Here is the link to Elise Gravel’s website:

elisegravel.com/en/

She is happy for schools and teachers to use her high-res images as long as they don’t use them commercially. I downloaded these posters and enlarged them on our photocopier at school

I don’t think anyone in our school would even think in the stereotypical way that your posters are trying to counteract, SuburbanRhonda. The danger is that those posters suggest that stereotypes exist where they don’t.

I genuinely wish gender stereotypes didn’t exist, user.

So many of the current problems we are seeing simply wouldn’t exist if that were true.

Unisex toilets in schools should not be allowed
One of the instances where treating people exactly the same is more discriminatory than acknowledging the differences in needs.

suburban
I love those posters. Where did you get them from?
I’d like to put some up in my class. I’m always having the same conversation about girls and boys and what they can and can’t do, what they are like, not like, etc. It’s so bloomin’ exhausting, but it’s very difficult to get 8 year olds to question the sex stereotypes that are pushed on them from a very young age.
OP, I don’t want to be policed on the language I use. Girl means young female human and boy means young male human. They aren’t ‘gendered’ terms, but are correct terms to describe sex, just in the way that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are. I can’t discuss sex stereotypes with the children without describing them in terms of their sex.

I don’t think anyone in our school would even think in the stereotypical way that your posters are trying to counteract, SuburbanRhonda. The danger is that those posters suggest that stereotypes exist where they don’t.

How can you go round saying no gender differentiation at all, it's all bad...oh but except for this case. And this one.

I am led to understand that many people with autism find blurring of rules difficult. Isn't that ^^ exactly the type of blurriness to cause upset?

(And why do you get to decide? What if another parent says they want another rule to be strictly enforced along gender lines? What if one says NO rules to be segregated at all?)

We do all of those things in our school anyway.

The toilets in the secondary school in our catchment are unisex and have been for years. There have been no issues that I'm aware of.

Not in my opinion, user, - they say girls and boys can have whatever personality they want.

They are perfect for showing primary school children that there’s no right or wrong way to be a boy or a girl.

But, SuburbanRhonda, don’t those posters actually perpetuate stereotypes? They would definitely be seen to do so in our DCs’ school.

Unisex toilets = rampant issues of prostitution in schools. Believe me, I live in a country where they thought unisex everything was the way to go...

Our head agreed to me putting laminated copies of these posters up in our school:

I’m a teacher and I always try to challenge gender stereotypes within school and with my own children, however, a lot of what children believe about gender comes from their home environment and this is much much harder to challenge and change.
As for your suggestions:
Sometimes it is necessary to use the words girls or boys.
Unisex toilet - fine - our staff toilets are unisex so why not the children’s.
Good girl good boy - meh.
Sexism and homophobia is robustly challenged in my experience.
Sex Ed isn’t ‘gendered’ it’s based on sex. Usually children are mixed except for upper school (Primary). Boys and girls are taught about both sexes.
Why would you organise a class based on sex? When does that happen?

Why is your child's gender non conforming as a result of having autism? Seems a very odd thing to say. They aren't related.

In my DD’s secondary school, all sports are mixed and girls play football as much as boys do dance. The very idea that there is any gendered content is ludicrous.

My girls hate sexism, but like being girls. I don’t want schools to be more gender neutral. I want girls and boys to have equal opportunities and treatment.

So you want the entire school to change for your child?

And I’m failing to see the connection between autism and gender non conformity. Most autistic children I know find it very difficult. They don’t understand why they shouldn’t refer to this man as he or woman as she simply based on how they are dressed.

I don’t think schools are gendered environments. I think that they pay the absolute minimum attention to sex differences and that, for the rest, they are fantastically egalitarian.

As someone actually working in a school, I couldn’t agree more.

And I have no idea what “gendered content” there is in sex education - could you provide examples, OP?

I'd be more keen on an environment where boys and girls both flourish, where teachers are aware of and not complicit in encouraging the stereotyping of children on the basis of their sexes, where sexism is challenged and gender non conformity (including for older children same sex attraction) accepted.

Calling groups of children 'boys and girls' is not something I see as in the least problematic. They are boys and girls. As an adult I'm often in groups addressed as 'ladies and gentlemen' and I've never thought that meant anyone was thinking particularly about my sex in some sort of intrusive way. I don't really like 'good boy' / 'good girl' but that's more because it's the sort of phrase I'm more likely to use for my dog so doesn't seem right for children. Plus it's the intention and context that matters. So long as children are treated as individuals and praised when they put effort into their academic or social behaviour then that's great.

No idea what you are on about regarding sex ed. I'd like kids to be taught about biology, consent and being generally nice to each other without taking any shit because they think they should. Some of that needs to refer to sex and some of it needs to allow discussion about gender roles and expectations.

Good schools do all this already.

I don’t think schools are gendered environments. I think that they pay the absolute minimum attention to sex differences and that, for the rest, they are fantastically egalitarian.

Doesn't 5 and 6 sort of contradict each other?

Gender is so important in sex education in the current environment and it is dangerous to eliminate that to protect the feelings of a small tiny minority.

I'm.intrigued what you think of as 'gendered content' in sex education? The anatomical and social differences between men and women are pretty important to sex education!

You seem to want a sex free environment rather than gender free. What is wrong with calling a girl a girl and a boy a boy? The issue is when we expect/reward/sanction certain behaviours because of their sex.

Im A teacher and things I do are:
Teach a unit on feminism
Challenge gender stereotypes whenever they are used by students or staff
Running a feminism club
Regularly bend the Head's ear on issues of sexism I come across.

Anything else that schools and teachers should do? For fuck's sake! We're already expected to sort out all of society's ills and do the paperwork!

You just know we’d end up with everyone in trousers being referred to as ‘guys’.

Shame that challenging sexism and homophobia is only 4th on the list, that would have the most impact.

Schools are not vacuums. They exist as part of a whole society.
I certainly would not want unisex toilets in a secondary school.