Gender Equality in Primary Schools

A Guide for Teachers

Helen Griffin

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781785923401
• eBook ISBN: 9781784506612
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This hands-on guide supports primary teachers and other school staff in challenging gender stereotypes, and sets out advice on how to implement gender equality and respect in the curriculum, and in all areas of school life.

An increase in the number of transgender children - and a recognition of gender reassignment as a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act - means that all primary schools need to ensure they are safe environments respectful of all genders. This book draws on the 'Gender Respect Project', which identified the need to address gender stereotyping and gender-based violence with children and young people.

The book is full of lesson plans, case studies, clear guidance and recommended actions as well as further reading and resources. Extending beyond awareness of other genders, this book provides a framework for a gender equality approach in the classroom, and empowers children to think critically about gender and to respect themselves and others.

PART 1

WHAT IS GENDER
EQUALITY EDUCATION
AND WHY IS IT
IMPORTANT?

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

‘Originally we thought that sexism wasn’t such a big problem but now it’s absolutely ginormous. We thought it was just a small thing but now we realise it’s global, all over the world.’

(Boy, aged nine)1

Primary school-aged children participating in the Gender Respect Project2 found talking about gender issues remarkably engaging. Being a girl or a boy, even in 21st century Western Europe, is still a hugely important aspect of identity with all sorts of implications for daily life and behaviour, let alone future life chances, physical and mental well being,3 choices of work4 and access to money5 and power.6 With the global phenomenon of gender-based violence, whether you are male or female can be literally a matter of life or death with, on average, two women being killed by their partner or ex-partner every week in England and Wales (Women’s Aid Federation of England 2015). Men are disproportionately involved in violence of all kinds. Violent crime statistics for England and Wales in 2011/12 showed that overall, 62 per cent of violence victims were male, while 80 per cent of offenders were male (ONS 2013). Men are over-represented in the prison population with women making up only just over 4 per cent in UK prisons in 2015.

And yet, in primary schools in the UK in the last 20 years, explicit work on gender equality and stereotyping has largely been the interest of only a few dedicated teachers. Since the advent of the English National Curriculum, national Standard Attainment Tests (SATs)7 testing, Ofsted and comparison of GCSE results, the main focus of any national work on gender has been concern about boys’ attainment, particularly in literacy, being on a par with that of girls. More recently, because of national investigations into incidents of child sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation, the UK government has turned its attention to sexual harassment and violence in schools (House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee 2016). An increase in the number of young transgender people8 has once more brought gender to the attention of schools, which are being challenged during Ofsted inspections to show policy and practice which promotes transgender inclusion and prevents bullying.9 In all these cases – boys’ lack of attainment in literacy, transphobic bullying, sexual exploitation – it is a particular problem which drives initiatives in schools where groups of children are identified as needing targeted support or interventions, and yet one of the underlying causes of all of these is prevailing cultural gender norms and inequality.

GENDER INEQUALITY AS A ROOT CAUSE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

The Gender Respect Project, on which this book is based, was inspired by the massive global response to violence against women in the form of One Billion Rising10 on 14 February 2013. On this day, this campaign, which began in 2012, attracted hundreds of thousands of participants all sharing in a dance which, as V-Day founder and award-winning playwright Eve Ensler described, ‘expressed our outrage and joy and our firm global call for a world where women are free and safe and cherished and equal’ (One Billion Rising 2017) in 207 countries across the world, broadcast by media outlets globally. This problem of violence against women and girls is being responded to globally by, for example, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57 2013) and locally in grassroots action around the world.

CSW57 defines violence against women as ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life’ (2013, p.2). Globally, 35 per cent of women have experienced physical/sexual violence by a partner and/or sexual violence by a non-partner in their lifetime (of this by far the majority of violence is from a partner; only 7 per cent of women and girls globally have experienced sexual violence from a non-partner in their lifetime); see GHO 2010.

According to CSW57 the root of gender-based violence is ‘the historical and structural inequality in power relations between women and men’ and this is ‘intrinsically linked with gender stereotypes that underlie and perpetuate such violence as well as other factors that can increase women’s and girls’ vulnerability to such violence’ (CSW57 2013, p.2).

The evidence about the causes of violence offers a hopeful message that change is possible. Gender-based violence is not natural or inevitable because of anything intrinsic about men or women or their relationships. A cross-cultural study of domestic abuse found that nearly a fifth of peasant and small-scale societies were essentially free of family violence (Levinson 1989) and another study found societies free of rape (Sanday 1981). The existence of such cultures proves that male violence against women is not the inevitable result of male biology or sexuality. Kimmel (2008) describes the work of a number of social anthropologists who have concluded that gender inequality is one of the most significant causes of male violence: ‘those societies in which rape was relatively rare valued women’s autonomy (women continued to own property in their own name after marriage) and valued children (men were involved in child rearing)…the lower the status of women relative to men, the higher the rape rate’ (Kimmel 2008, p.325).

Gender inequality is an issue relevant to us all; we all have gender identities and are all involved in relationships of power. ‘Schools are themselves sites of normalization’ where ‘the idea of the “normal” child is constructed’ (Paechter 2007, p.61). Within schools, social norms can lead to, reflect or allow gender inequality unless they are revealed and challenged. It could be argued that an essential role of education is to uncover the social norms within society at large which support gender inequality, examine the reasons for them and develop alternatives. Revealing and critiquing those same norms in their operation within the school institution would be an essential part of this process. Bringing critical awareness to something which is taken for granted as normal is a vital first step in a process of societal change.

SOME COMMON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER EQUALITY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

These may be assumptions that you hold, or that you know others who you would like to influence hold (for example, other staff, governors and parents). For some of these assumptions, arguments and information are offered below, and for others reference is made to the chapter in which the issue is examined in more detail.

Assumption 1: There is no problem – we have gender equality in the UK now, don’t we?

There are many worrying statistics to choose from which reveal that this is by no means the case, for example, the fact that the UK is slipping down the league table on gender equality internationally. In 2006, Britain was 9th in the World Economic Forum’s (2017) gender equality league table, but although there had been some progress from 2016 to 2017, it had moved down overall nine places to 15th in 2017. The UK is 53rd out of 144 countries on economic participation, with the gap mainly due to an imbalance of work between men and women as 57 per cent of the work women do is unpaid compared to 32 per cent of the work men do. The UK is ranked 95th overall for estimated earned income with women’s earnings being 66 per cent of men’s. The UK is 38th on women in parliament with not only other European countries ahead of the UK on this but also many others in South America and Africa (for example, Bolivia and Rwanda; see World Economic Forum 2017). For statistics relating to sexual harassment and violence in the UK see Chapter 4.

Assumption 2: Although a school might care about gender equality there is little UK government support through Ofsted, for example, for giving time to it.

National legislation and guidance

The main legislative framework that relates to gender equality in the UK is the Equality Act 2010.

Under the Equality Act 2010, maintained schools and academies, including free schools, must have due regard to the public sector equality duty (PSED). This means that they must take active steps to identify and address issues of discrimination where there is evidence of prejudice, harassment or victimisation, lack of understanding, disadvantage, or lack of participa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: What Is Gender Equality Education and Why Is It Important?
• Part 2: Implementing Gender Equality Education in Primary Schools
• Appendix 1: Gender Respect Scoping Study: Images and Questions
• Appendix 2: Gender Equality Checklist for Primary Schools
• Appendix 3: A Checklist for Children’s Books
• Appendix 4: Recommended Books for Children
• References
• Further Reading
• Notes
• Index
• Join Our Mailing List
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Of Related Interest