Entrenched and harmful gender stereotypes are established early in life.
The issue of sexism in society isn’t a problem “out there”. The problem is me. Us. All of us – whether male, female or non-binary.
We are products of a socialisation that has skewed our thinking such that we are not even aware of our own complicity. Not aware, that is, unless we do the uncomfortable and purposeful work of exposing it.
What about you? Could it be that your own assumptions about gender are part of the problem?
There are two basic views of gender – the Essentialist and Existentialist.
The Essentialist View is the traditional view that men are naturally suited to some roles and women to others – women to caring professions which require emotional sensitivity, men to competitive workplaces and roles which require rational, critical thinking.
These stereotypes persist overwhelmingly and are evidenced by the huge disproportion of men and women in, say, childcare and nursing as compared to science and engineering.
The Existentialist View is that these differences between males and females are the product of nurture – that from the moment we are born we are “socialised” to play with certain toys, to like certain things, to behave in certain ways.
The resultant stereotypes are therefore manufactured not inherent, generated by culture and context rather than biology. For example, adults are more likely to introduce toys which develop spatial awareness and motor skills to baby boys than to girls, which affects brain development: when children play spatial awareness games regularly their brains change physically in just three months (Gold et al, 2018).
In other words, we are all to a huge extent products of the stereotypes and biases of society and as a result we, often unconsciously though sometimes deliberately, perpetuate those same biases. And the problem with the Essentialist View (which most of us have been raised with) is that it is self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating. That is, if we believe that boys and girls are naturally inclined towards certain activities and preferences, we will behave towards them in ways that successfully perpetuate the myth.
However, we need to recognise that this debate is not merely academic and centres not simply on the toys our toddlers play with. There is a darker side, which is being lived out in our schools every single day. Consider the following (figures from Bates, 2022 and Ofsted, 2021):
On average in the UK one rape per school day is reported to the police as having occurred on school premises.
- Almost a third of teenage girls say they have been sexually assaulted at school.
- Almost 80% of girls say sexual assault happens “sometimes” or “a lot” between people of their age at secondary school and college.
- 90% of girls say that being sent unsolicited “dick pics” happens to them or their peers “sometimes” or “a lot”.
- 75% of girls report that pressure to provide sexual images of themselves happens “sometimes” or “a lot”.
- And a recent NASUWT poll found that 72% of female teachers have been victims of misogyny in their school and 60% have experienced misogyny from pupils (NASUWT, 2022).
We cannot legitimately claim that the mass and systemic bias against women in society is the fault of a “few bad apples”. Those “bad apples” are a product, like me, of a system that tolerates and perpetuates misogyny; a product, like me, of an education system that prefers male, defers to male, idealises male, normalises male.
I have moved from the Essentialist to the Existentialist position. In my view we need to stop dividing people by biological sex or gender identity.
These categories may have some use for a small number of contexts. However, for the vast majority of contexts it is a fairly useless way to divide people. It is ludicrous to split 7.7 billion people into just two categories and say – “you are all like this” and “you are all like that”. The same goes for the other blunt tools we use to categorise: ethnicity, religion, age, disability etc.
I’m arguing that to challenge the sexism and all kinds of discrimination in society we need to recognise and affirm the beautiful diversity and uniqueness of every single person; to build schools that are people-centred and which value difference.
That’s why I think the move in recent years to acknowledge the complexity of gender is a hugely positive thing. Biology is one thing, identity is another. But – until we start discussing and understanding the impact of socialisation and the difference between biological sex and gender identity we won’t see real change.
And, unfortunately, the nature of the debate on this issue in the media has made many feel afraid to even talk about it for fear of being labelled either “woke” on the one hand or misogynistic or perhaps transphobic on the other.
Becoming comfortable with difference necessarily means being willing to hear different viewpoints, even the ones which make you feel uncomfortable. It also means listening to the lived experience of the half of the population who have been systematically silenced.
So how about starting with the debate above – Essentialist vs Existentialist. Are men better at some things and women better at others? And how should we as educationalists respond to this debate given the massive influence we hold over the developmental years of the entire population?
We need to listen too and be open to being challenged by what the science says and invite the difficult questions which expose our prejudices and faulty beliefs. Be open to hearing different views but prepared to give a reasoned defence of your own. Difference is good. Bring it on...
- Peter Radford is a speaker, teacher and author of Love Teaching Keep Teaching. He is the founder of Beyond This, which delivers training and workshops for staff and students. Visit www.beyondthis.co.uk
Further information & resources
- FREE & EQUAL? The National Stand Up Conference on Sexism, Misogyny and Harassment takes place on September 29, 2022. It will be streamed live to schools: www.beyondthis.co.uk/standup2
- Bates: Fix the System not the Women, Simon & Shuster, 2022.
- Gold et al: Spatial skills in undergraduate students: Influence of gender, motivation, academic training, and childhood play, Geosphere (14,2), 2018.
- Ofsted: Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, June 2021: https://bit.ly/3gDRW6t
- NASUWT: Too many teachers still suffer from misogyny , April 2022: https://bit.ly/3QuJ8z8
- SecEd: Sexual harassment and violence: What can schools do? March 2021: https://bit.ly/3f9mtsw
- SecEd Podcast: Everyone’s Invited and Safeguarding in Schools, September 2021: https://bit.ly/3gSgE2R
SecEd Autumn Edition 2022: This article first appeared in SecEd's Autumn Edition 2022. This edition was sent free of charge to every secondary school in the country. A digital edition will be available shortly via www.sec-ed.co.uk/digital-editions/