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!

On our governors monitoring date we looked at diversity, gender and other forms of representation in displays and work across our infant school. I would certainly ask the teachers. You may find they have been pushing it in the school already !

It seems odd to have separate subject teachers at Y1 as well.

Ooops sorry Y2 but even so.

Our Y2 team have been distinctly hot on the "women are equally awesome" front - this year DD2's covered the suffragettes, Rosa Parks, Helen Sharman (my personal heroine - I thought she was seriously beyond awesome when I was a kid) as part of their "real life heroes" topic. Think Amelia Earhart was highly featured when they looked at explorers as well... but that might be me getting school and the Go Jetters confused.

The grandparents were amazed when the littlest one started giving a perfect recount of what Rosa Parks had done!

My 6 year olds favourite book is ‘Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World’, I definitely recommend it. ‘Bedtime Stories for Rebel Girls’ is a good one too.

I used to bagsy the best display board in the school and use it to celebrate international women's day. I used to find good pictures of notable women on line (or the national portrait gallery postcard shop is a good place too) . The best thing I found was to theme the display annually scientists, musicians, actors, sports women, writers, artists etc. Seemed to make more impact. Write a short bio for each one to put by their picture. I also used to add a Why Don't You Find Out About list of other women in the same field so kids (and adults) could do their own research. If I had time I would put up teaser pictures or names the week before . Do you know who this woman was ? Her maths skills calculated the flight of the USAs first manned space flights.

Taught me quite a lot about how women's contributions to world knowledge have been sidelined.

Oh get a grip ffs