International Women’s Day, reluctant headmaster

[gemini1987]

Hi everyone, looking for advice.

I’m part of the PTA for a very small village primary school. We thought it would be nice to give the school some books about amazing women to celebrate International Women’s Day and to encourage the children to write about/draw a picture of/make a video about a woman in their life for a little competition.

The headmaster has flat out turned the ideas down, saying that the school doesn’t need any books and that they don’t want to celebrate IWD because it isn’t inclusive!

He has invited us to discuss it on Monday and I want to make sure we are prepared to discuss it properly. Any advice or tips on how we can try to get him to understand the significance of the day?

Thanks

Oh, I'd love to know his explanation of who he thinks need to be included in IWD and why.

I'd also be interested to know if he also refuses to engage with other events such as LGB events on the grounds of them not being inclusive.

I have no idea how to discuss this with him. Refusing books is weird. What does he think will happen if the school has a few more books that feature women for goodness sake? Does he consider the effect on the girls given that the books they do have will be massively skewed to feature boys and men?

Brilliant - 'inclusive' as an excuse to undermine efforts to include more women in the curriculum. You couldn't make it up. Ask him if the curriculum is already fully inclusive/representative and if 51% percent of all people the children learn about are women. Remind him that we only just celebrated the centenary of votes for women.

Were it me, I think I'd just ask (really nicely) about why he didn't support international women's day and then write down everything he said in front of him.

I'd bring up a few (say three) of your strongest arguments (rather than loads of stuff) and just ask about why he felt these issues couldn't be addressed- then keep letting him dig himself a hole.

After that, if he doesn't twig that he's made a really damaging booboo it's about how far you are prepared to go- headteachers are a law unto themselves; only threats of things like governors, press and ofsted have any effect. Persuasion is going to be far easier than confrontation here.

Totally agree with Assassinatedbeauty - Does he say the same about marking Holocaust Memorial Day? Martin Luther King Day? It really is an international event and is also about achieving equality as well as celebrating women’s achievements. Think Donquixote’s plan sounds good. We wouldn’t need it if there was no such thing as a gender pay gap, if girls and boys had the same access to education worldwide and if women and men spent the same time on child care and caring for people with disabilities, cooking, cleaning etc

Does the school celebrate Christmas
Does the school celebrate Eid
Does the school celebrate Pride
Does the school celebrate Halloween
Does the school celebrate Easter
Does the school celebrate Divali
Does the school celebrate fecking Pancake Tuesday

NONE of this small sample is inclusive either.
He sounds like he is a misogynist.

And be ready with International Men’s Day when he whinges about that (19 Nov),

Don’t for LGBT history MONTH in February.

(Prize for the organisation with the most fun speaker. Too outing to say who DH gets, but he is not happy.)

Inclusive of whom? Trans women I suppose. Ask him why he thinks there is a need for International Women's Day. Ask him if it is possible it is needed because women and girls are still oppressed because they are female and for that reason only.
Ask him, no on second thoughts remind him he was born from a female and we are 50 or more percent of the population. Ask him what he is afraid of? Does he think Mermaids will get wind of a small school actually having the temerity to celebrate International Women's Day and banish him into the outer darkness? I am beyond rage really at this.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, adultFemaleElf, that’s exactly what I said when I heard! Bearing in mind the children make cards for Father’s Day, mother’s day, celebrate Chinese New Year, Easter, Diwali, but cannot celebrate 50% of the population!!

Thanks for all of your suggestions, I don’t want to go in and have a massive argument/debate but feel he is completely missing the point! He also said that the rest of the staff felt the same, and they are all women!! Some really great suggestions here, thanks so much x

I would ask his reasons in a genuine spirit of enquiry, and look for a compromise. What would he and his staff regard as an inclusive way to promote positive female role models to all the children in the school? Can he explain the library purchase policy and is he aware of the stats on female characters in children's books (can't remember the stats, will look for the link) and is he confident that his library can do better than that? I wouldn't make iwd itself the hill I would die on tbh.

He sounds like a right charmer.

As somebody else mentioned there is International Men’s Day in November and there are now similar books about inspirational men.

Could you say that you were planning to offer the equivalent books for IMD so that over the course of the year they would be celebrating both women and men so who exactly is being excluded? And does he both think it would be good to have books that celebrate genuinely inspirational people throughout history and across time to inspire his pupils rather than just letting them hear about gamers and reality tv stars and pop stars etc that they are much more likely to hear about in everyday life.

Being able to hear about these people will be great for their general education and can tie into so many different topics they do because they’ll be able to look for examples of both men and women for all their topics.

Do any of you have dd at the school - maybe ask them and their friends beforehand to name the people that they have learnt about in school - show that they have learnt about eg Florence nightingale but no other women but can name 10 men they have learnt about. And get them to describe who can be a firefighter (that viral video doing the rounds at the moment), surgeon, teacher, headteacher, chef, cook, artist, etc to show (or not) that their education is lacking because they default to stereotypes: is this a reflection of what he believes, isn’t he letting both girls and boys down by letting them believe that, why is he holding back in the dreams and potential of half his pupils?

As a matter of interest how old is this Headmaster? And why do the female teachers agree with him? There have been famous women who spent their lives living as men. Suggest including a few of them. Am going to search the internet for a few because I can only remember one off hand, a woman who served in the Serbian Army I believe in World War 1.

It was Flora Sandes The most famous was Joan of Arc of course. And in any case whatever happened to the mantra 'Girls can do anything'.

I would be putting forward to celebrate both - he cannot argue with that surely unless it's because the school year goes from last September and November was not marked - both days could have gone onto the school calendar with a display board case for pupils' work...there should have been potential for female and male role models but, as with mother's day and father's day, it can be sensitive if they are to draw a role model from home and do not have one.
IWD had this as a resource but not all teachers are going to like it (educational colouring in, might just draw their mum and not all will have one etc)
s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/internationalwomensday/home/penguin/LIttleLeaders-ColourIn.pdf
One of the focuses on IMD is the higher risk of male suicide - cannot see them tackling that at primary school and it should be addressed at secondary but most staff won't be trained t deliver such sensitive issues.
So you could suggest cross-curricular approach with historical figures, or extended writing describing who is your hero/heroine...but these would have been placed in the scheme of works last Summer for November and March - nothing stopping you arguing it can be done for the first time within the calendar year, mind, with an assembly on each day.

www.enchantedlearning.com/history/women/

the 'find 8 famous women' exercise above would be a fantastic research homework/ICT or library lesson. It all depends on your class teachers and resources.

Do you know any school governors, any allies? If so, have a word if the headmaster says no. Also look at the school’s stated values. They will be online and argue your case in line with them. Look around for other schools that do this and cite them, especially if they are rated good or outstanding.

Sorry, I know this means work for you, but it’s so important to have these discussions at primary school level.

If you go in with as combatative attitude as suggested in some of these posts, then you can kiss goodbye to being being able to donate the books, or even to have an assembly about the Day.

This isn't a case of being right, it's a case of being persuasive. What are al, the good reasons why this school should mark this day in this particular way? What is your fallback position if HT really won't countenance a competition?

www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/findrelatedwords/8famousmen/

Same exercise could be done in November. (Male positive role models was the theme for 2018, do not know this year's) The point being: you tell head you are aware only 2% f staff in primaries are male, boys need male role models and white working class boys are under performing the most....so they also need to know there is more to men being famous footballers/rappers.
Hence proposing celebrating both days to celebrate both sexes to increase aspirations and self-esteem.
He cannot possibly argue with that.

Maybe you could have a suggested list of famous people linked to specific curriculum areas.

English - J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl
Maths - Florence Nightingale, Pythagoras
Science - Marie Curie, Galileo

You get the idea. It's a very good suggestion to try to use this as a way of expanding the children's horizons and introduce them to role models outside their immediate experience. Good luck!

You may find this useful: www.thegenderequalitycharter.com/ - I know, "gender", but I've met the people behind it and it is about promoting the "girls can be heroes, boys can have feelings" idea. I'm working on a display/presentation with our pastoral lead at the moment.

What do you have in terms of a library? I'm very lucky in that reading for pleasure is a high priority for us, we have a dedicated room, I get paid hours to maintain it, we have an active Schools Library Service and the kids have good access written into the timetable. That is not the norm in most primary schools, and my budget is tiny - I work extremely hard to get extras. I would snatch your hand off for book budget. Many primaries have little more than a cupboard and no-one to maintain it; it's the easiest thing to cut even though it has the most impact on literacy. It is not a legal requirement for a school to have a library (though it is in prisons), but I'm hearing on the grapevine that OFSTED are likely to be looking at provision in the future. That might be persuasive.

Rage has some great suggestions. We're highly unusual in that 20% of our staff is male but I'd run with the IMD role models even with that - most of the role models our boys talk about are footballers and youtubers