Year 2 DD can only remember being taught about men at school

[Crazyprojectparent]

Yesterday DD (aged 6) and I were having a conversation about a friend of mine we have always referred to as a doctor but yesterday I mentioned that she is actually a surgeon. Oh, says DD, I didn't know girls could be surgeons. Now we have talked a lot about women scientists at home, and the Suffragettes as well as many other women (I have purposefully bought books for her to give her female role models in a variety of industries) however we have never discussed surgeons before. I guess I thought mentioning lots of other career options would mean she would automatically think that all career options were open to women - obviously I was wrong and I'll look into doing something about that at home.

Anyway that was all by way of introduction to say that in the course of the conversation that threw up many issues I now intend to address at home, I discovered that DD couldn't remember being taught about any named, historical women at school at all. She could name 16 (white) men - inventors, artists, kings, writers and astronauts.

My question is: is it likely that she will not have been taught about women? Has she just forgotten the women she was taught about? I know I can ask her teacher, but I don't want to look a fool if she will definitely have been learning about women.

Thank you for your help!

My son is in year 2 - they have learned obout men and women. Florence nightingale and mary seacole were talked about last term, forgot what they did before, but it was reasonably balanced. The school has a headmistress though, and a lot of families with 2 parents working or women being the main earners so it might be them doing this consciously. Its a private school as well

Just looked it up: marie curie was talked about, and Ada Lovelace. Otherwise the usual male inventors

Thanks Yurona, good to know that some women are being discussed! DD is at a state school, so I don't know if that makes a difference. There are a lot of families with both parents working out of the home (ours being one of them!) and a headmistress.

Well, it depends a bit on what topics have been picked and how the school did them. The school i work at in admin does specifically cover women in the explorers topic and the mary secole/florence nightingale topic. Buy other topics are things like castles, floating and sinking, the arctic etc so they arent about people. They would learn abput both men and womens roles in a castle though. They do 'people who help us' and STEM week and get parents in so it depends who volunteers.

@Crazyprojectparent i just mentioned that its a private school as they have to keep their paying customers happy. And since its a lot of women paying, the headmistress would have a revolution/walkout at her hands if she wouldn’t make sure both genders are represented for careers etc

Mine have learnt about Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale, Grace Darling and Ada Lovelace. State primary.
Can't think of any others off the top of my head. I've asked 11yr old DD and she can't remember anyone else, even men 🙄.

You can usually view the curriculum on your school website, I know DD who's 5 has learnt about Florence Nightingale.

I work in a state infants and we definitely learn about both men and women.

To name a few from this terms topics: Mary Seattle, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, Helen Sharman ... There will be more to come in other topics being covered in the year too.

We also use books from the past written by both male and female authors.

We also have both male and female parents/visitors into school to read and to talk about their jobs - just this half term reception have had a male nurse, female vet, female doctor, male and female scientists, male and female firefighters, male shopkeeper, female professor, etc.

DD is year 1. Off the top of my head I remember that she’s learned about Rosa Parks, Emmeline Pankhurst, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Earhart and Mary Seacole. State primary.

DD did space last year and they definitely talked about women in space because one of them had the same name as her. Last term was the Great Fire of London so the poor bakery maid that didn't put the embers out had a starring role they're doing dinosaurs now and she knows about Mary Anning.

Oh yes she’s also told me about Valentina Tereshkova.

Thanks so much everyone. I have had a look at the topics they have covered on their website and the men DD has named certainly fit into the topics they have covered. It's just she can't remember any women. None of the ones mentioned here anyway (just asked her before bed). I will ask her teacher tomorrow if that represents the reality of the situation (wouldn't be surprised if DD has forgotten some). It also may be they are planning on covering women in the second half of the year.

Dd can also only remember one parent coming to talk to the class about her job and that was in reception (a female paramedic though so that's good).

Should mention it's parents' evening tomorrow - I won't be taking up the teacher's time at the classroom door!

I volunteer in a school, and I know the Year 1s learn about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. They do an annual trip to the Florence Nightingale Museum in London.
The nursery have recently had a female dentist, and doctor, come in to talk about their jobs.

Have you not seen any of her topic work?

It won't be school specifically, it will just be the overall effect of society, she won't remember where she heard things.

Yes, but it has all been about men when I think about it. I don't remember her mentioning women or seeing anything about it. All the artists she has learnt about have definitely been men, and when she did space she didn't talk about women but it didn't occur to me at the time that this was indicative of all she was learning.

The major challenge for primary teachers is that there are far less women in history to learn about.

There's the nurses from the war, and the suffragettes. Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks and Marie Curie, but not many others that fit in with the National Curriculum topics.

In the past it wasn't common for women to be great leaders, explorers or soldiers and the ones that were weren't always documented.

I've managed to make sure we cover both with my class, but it's still heavily skewed towards rich white men.

It sounds to me, from all your posts, that it is very unlikely she hasn't learnt about famous women while at school. I shall ask the teacher who they have been/are going to be (in case there are a lot coming up) so I can refresh her memory!

I think it disturbed me that, despite what I thought was a reasonable effort on my part, she hadn't really taken on board that women can do and in fact do do, and have done, the vast, vast majority of the roles that men do (even if not in the same numbers as @RamblingFar pointed out). I will increase my efforts and also look to reinforce what the school does cover.

Thanks everyone!

DS2 is in Yr 1, and he’s mentioned learning about Rosa Parks just this term.

Although worryingly, the school had a female doctor (a parent) in to talk about her job. I asked DS2 about it afterwards, and he said something along the lines of “oh, she was really a nurse, she was lying about being a doctor because women can’t be doctors” 🤦‍♀️

My Y1 class last year learnt about Helen Sharman and Michael Foale (who they met), Amy Johnson, Jane Goodall, Birute Galdikas andJacque Cousteau, Joseph Banks and Kate Sessions, Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Yvonne Coomber and Monet among other artists. We read David Roberts book Suffragettes and learnt about Emmeline Pankhurst. I'm not sure if six year olds will remember all the people we've discussed or just the ones that appealed to them most.

The "what jobs people do" is more likely to be as a result of what she sees around her than what she is taught at school. At 6, historical figures can seem a it unreal.

I agree.
I'm 42 and find myself surprised if a cab driver or supermarket delivery person is female as I've overwhelmingly met males in those professions.

Just to update: I spoke with DD's teacher at parents' evening today, and she acknowledged that the teaching subjects seemed to have been light on women. However as a lot of the subjects were taught by different teachers (they seem to have different teachers for art, history and science) she wasn't entirely sure so was going to look into it. She did say she thought they had covered Florence Nightingale, but as she wasn't the history teacher she wasn't sure whether that topic had been covered yet.

I felt reassured though that she was going to investigate and ensure that the choices made in the future were more representative. I was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and she certainly seemed to take it seriously and saw this as an issue.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed, it really put things in context for me. Now DH and I need to work out what to change at home to ensure this message hits home!

They're very literal though at this age. DD1 was astonished to discover that men could be dentists because she's only ever been to my female dentist. I had to point out the male dentist in the next room before she believed me!