Sexism in education

[Z0rr0]

Looking for examples of issues where girls are disadvantaged in schools and/or schools have found ways to tackle this (or not).
It's for a thing I'm working on.
Intersectional views including issues of class, race, disability, sexuality are welcomed.
Topics include uniform, menstruation, access to subjects, P.E., physical & mental wellbeing, safeguarding, sexual harassment etc.
Also interested in any orgs tackling these things and any recent amendments to govt law / guidance besides Equalities Act and access to menstrual products.
Who is active in this area?
Thank you.

Is this for a PhD OP?

@OhHolyJesus No, it's not. I'm bidding for a bit of work on this issue and already have a lot of examples, but it's not my niche so was just thinking I'd throw the net out a bit wider to see if anyone could point me at some other resources / research / law / orgs / anecdotes.

As a teacher I don't see a huge amount of discrimination of subjects , in fact in my school we have more girls than boys taking the sciences and maths (which wasn't the case 10 yrs ago ) menstruation , we have free San pro in every cubicle , uniform everyone wears trousers although girls can wear skirts if they prefer. Nothing obvious really

Thanks @maddy68. Is it something the school works hard at? Do they have any specific programmes to ensure girls are fully included in all subjects and does that include all PE? Do teachers have any training to ensure there is no inadvertent discrimination?
I'll give you some examples I've heard from girls. That they have only 5 minutes between lessons and are sanctioned if they're late or if they ask to leave during lessons, therefore they are disadvantaged if they are menstruating.
That the menstrual pain they experience is downplayed or that they won't ask for pain meds because of embarassment.
That although girls can wear trousers, most wear skirts and that their wearing of the uniform is far more 'policed' than the boys; e.g. if they roll their skirts, if they have any other expression of gender eg makeup or jewellery, also not being allowed to wear practical PE uniform compared to the boys and often being told the reasons for this micro-managing of their appearance is because they could be distracting the boys.
If your school has tackled all these issues I would love to hear more about what programmes / initiatives they've put in place to address this. Thank you so much for your reply.

Things have improved significantly, however, I work in a primary school and they have only recently created a girls football team and it definitely doesn't have the same status as the boys team yet. Interestingly, my dd who is 8 recently joined the local town football club and some of the boys from the school I work at also go there and told her they won't pass to her because she's a girl ☹️

I used to work in a girls' school, where the reason given for not allowing girls to shorten skirts or wear coloured bras under their white shirts was that it 'made the male teachers feel uncomfortable'. The students were - quite rightly - outraged by this response.

I haven't witnessed or experienced this first hand, but I understand from media articles that uniform policies on hair unfairly penalise black girls in particular.

Aww @katew355! Sad for your daughter! Hopefully that will change when they see how awesome she is!
But yes there seems to be a lot of evidence of inequality in PE.
It's good to hear that things are moving in the right direction.
I think our primary school has a mixed football team.

@SignOnTheWindow Yes there is a lot on unfair policies around hair for BAME girls.
And yes that is shocking (although not at all uncommon) to tell the girls to curb their dress because of the males around them. Particularly bad in a girls' school!!

BBC did a series called no more boys and girls and was about gender stereotyping. The program was set in a school and I think took a class of 7 year olds. Covered things like the boys and girls having already developed different skill sets and the girls thinking they weren’t as strong even though at that age there isn’t any difference.

is a link to the first episode.

Anecdotally in my secondary school for years 10 and 11 they gave up doing proper PE with the girls. They’d send us on a ‘power walk’ around the local town. If they did team sports it didn’t work as not enough people could be bother to participate properly. Quite annoying for those of us who enjoyed PE.

I feel that this www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3892818-Legal-action-against-CPS-launched-over-their-LGBT-Hate-Crime-Guidance falls within your remit

Thanks @PinkPlantCase. That's a bit shit about the PE. Will check out that link. Cheers.
Thanks @Coyoacan, will have a look.

It's not the only case, <a class="break-all" href="//www.mumsnet.comsafeschoolsallianceuk.net/2020/02/05/occjudicialreview/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.mumsnet.comsafeschoolsallianceuk.net/2020/02/05/occjudicialreview/

Oh right @Coyoacan. Yes it does. Thanks. Need to tread carefully as the work is in the Third Sector which is not traditionally GC though I feel very deeply that girls need more access to information regarding how they might be affected by proposed changes. They are traditionally more embracing of difference than boys and are accepting of sex and gender differences into their community but I don't think many are given the tools to consider the implications it could have.

So many things at primary school level:

• splitting bits v girls for PE (lazy way of splitting them up and a good way to stop girls from enjoying PE)
• girls told to stop using the monkey bars unless they go inside and put on PE shorts, then told they’re not allowed inside in breaktime and should have put on shorts beforehand (so no monkey bar play)
• higher tolerance of boisterous behaviour by boys (pushing in to lines, not following the rules in PE, but a load of ‘boys will be boys’, they’re naturally competitive, testosterone surge crap)
• girls sandwiched around the badly behaved boys in class to try and manage them
• girls football doesn’t exist, boys football is supervised by the TA as otherwise they fight. No more skipping or other supervised play opportunities as the TA who used to run them is instead supervising football. Talk about rewarding bad behaviour...
• main group of boys long term exclude any boy who is different (disability, race, not sporty) with no apparent consequence

This is all what I have observed over two DC in a naice state primary which says all the right things. A school which did the opposite of all of this would be getting it right.

I don't envy you, Z0rr0, having to pussy-foot around the most sexist movement ever since women were sent back the kitchen after the second world war.

I was born in the 1950s and suffer quite a bit of institutional sexism at school (to access to the school gym for girls; certainly no playing football at school; compulsory domestic science in secondary school, etc.)

My daughter was born in the 1980s and girls had so much freedom then that I felt sorry for the boys, who were still being governed by sexism and would not participate in anything where girls were the majority.

However this transgender movement is so sexist it makes the 1950s sound like the height of feminist utopia.

As a parent have noticed

Girls sat between boys to manage behaviour- primary and secondary

Girls and boys not split soon enough for changing. Girls in particular feeling really uncomfortable and have to take themselves off to go get changed elsewhere-primary

Boys allowed to dominate pe lessons. Girls whether get left out or again have to go off unupervised to go play something amongst themselves.- primary

Different behavioural expectations. Alot of "boys will he boys"- primary and secondary.

And can I throw white shirts in there too.

Nightmare for being able to see bras through. Any girl large of chest will struggle to not look swamped in a school shirt big enough to fit.

When I went to school both on.primary and secondary , girls were not allowed to wear trousers.

Thank you so much @OverZoomed for those insights. I've seen a lot of similar examples but I especially like your point about girls being used to manage disruptive boys. I've seen that but it's not been flagged up in this context so that's really helpful.
That sort of institutional sexism which is common but often overlooked where boys behaviour is excused at the expense of girls is so true and exactly what I need to be flagging for change.
Thank you, I'm really grateful.

Thanks @Coyoacan. It will be tricky and because I've already been upfront about my GC position there's a good chance they'll go with someone else, but we'll see.
On the plus side they are clear that it will be evidence-based so it will be considering genuine research and numbers and views from those in education settings, not just popular rhetoric.
The movement does feel very regressive, surprisingly presented as being very progressive, so it appeals to young people who don't yet have the benefits of knowledge of feminist history.

Thanks @SarahTancredi. Great examples. Really appreciate it.

OP The sandwiching I can (just) understand, in terms of it making sense for class management. Its the complete exclusion of girls from most of the playground (where football is played), the hugely different standards expected of them by TAs (and some teachers) and the (seemingly unnoticed) formation of an in-group of boys in most year-groups who exclude girls and boys who are different, that I think are really damaging.

I assume you’ve read Invisible Women on the design of playgrounds? If not, you really should.

My daughter was used to manage disruptive boys. Those boys also got (unfairly in my daughters eyes) rewarded whilst better behaved children were overlooked.

Can we also mention new PSE including books and ideas that reinforce sex stereotypes from an early age?

Ooh, thanks @OverZoomed. Invisible Women is on my list but I haven't got round to it yet. Will totally check it out. And yes re: Sport. Girls seem to be (understandably) very angry about those PE exclusions. And yes re: differences in behaviour being treated like that by teachers and TAs.
Thanks @Aesopfable. Tell me more about the PSE books?

I’d say lack of female role models in education. History, science all are missing key female historical figures and scientists. It is mostly focused on men.

For example- big focus on Henry VIII and his six wives....but then practically skipping over Elizabeth I and her religious reforms, defeat of Spanish Armada, rebuilding the country’s finances, the arts that flourished (she was a patron of Shakespeare), etc.