Sexism in schools...

Former Member · December 2003

Maybe this should go in Students... but i dont think so, so im putting it here..

Do you think theres sexism in schools? I didnt think so (i went to an all girls school so maybe i never noticed it) but recently i learned that with particular subjects (chemisty, physics, maths, technology, it) text books show men in senior roles, teachers encourage boys more, guide them towards chosing the subjects for GCSE and a level etc.. whilst girls are discrouraged because of lack of teacher encouragement, text books show men more in these subjects so subconsciously they feel the subject isnt for them and tehy are pushed towards feminine subjects (languages, englsih, biology, social studies etc) and ecouraged to persue employment in these lines..

Do you think that when you were at school this applied for you? did you notice teachers encourage and push boys more towards masculine subjects and girls towards feminine? do you recieve a lot of support if you are a girl and chose technology or physics? blokes - were you unable to take socail or humanities subjects because of the order of the timetable?

whats your views? when you think really hard to you notice a sex bias?

Former Member · December 2003

Sorry about the bazillions of typos, i really do have computer dyslexia today!!! :rolleyes:

Former Member · December 2003

I haven't really noticed any major pressure on either genders to do sciences or humanities, it's just sort of happened naturally.

I think there are 2 girls out of the 32 doing Politics in my year and only a few more in Economics. In my English class I'm one of only a few chaps (:D ) and in Art it's pretty much all girls.

In the Sciences and Geography though it's actually pretty balanced.

Former Member · December 2003

thats quite interesting, because typically art&english are feminine subjects.. and girls are more keen to take them in your school.. with politics and economics male subjects so i guess youre school is following with the trend..?

traditionally geography is balanced, with science supposedly masculine.. physics and chem in particualr (girls go for biology)

i never thought there would be sexism but after discussing it at college, the things my class said about theri experienced seemed to prove my lecturers point...

Former Member · December 2003

Not really. At our school kids were encouraged to do whatever subject they were good at, or showed an interest in.

As for the text book thing - WTF? There's more men in those types of fields, so it's easier to get pictures of them for the text books. It's hardly some big sexist conspiracy

Former Member · December 2003

that was the point the lecturer made, there are more men in those field because traditionally they were amsculine jobs, so in text books they show men more than women it makes people think 'well thats a job for a bloke' so the devide in employment sorta continues..

i have the biggest essay to write, and its got very boring because im not too sure whether there is sexism or not, sort of stuck looking for peoples opinions to push me in one direction or the other

Former Member · December 2003

i do tech at collage. im the only gal in my class, which is quite good cos there's quite a few fitties in my group, and the big strong men can help me with my work lol.

Former Member · December 2003

Ahh.

I've spent the last two weeks discussing this in Sociology.

That is all.

Former Member · December 2003

Re: Sexism in schools...

I did all about this in my A-level sociology coursework, tis rather interesting

Former Member · December 2003

My school was sexist. It didn't let boys in :no:

Former Member · December 2003

Originally posted by Faith
My school was sexist. It didn't let boys in :no:

Former Member · December 2003

Depends what type of school you go to definately.

If your at a mixed private school, everyones expected to do well, and youve paid, so theyll pay you all a good amount of attention.

Mixed Grammar schools have a lot of pressure on everyone to do well.

Comprehensives are ok, maybe a little sexist against girls, but proper inner-city comprehensives (from what I've seen) are the opposite, teachers tend to dismiss boys as disruptive and unwilling to learn, and since girls are often quiter and less of a hassle they concentrate on getting them good grades, and leave the boys for the scrapheap.

The fact that girls do so much better than boys (especially at GCSEs) shows that it can't be that bad for them, but boys at that age are a nightmare anyway.

Former Member · December 2003

subtly - but its both ways. i mean, all the top 'academics' (as in, science and maths) in my school are boys, so they are generally in the groups that are encouraged more. and in the news all these things we get told that girls are better than boys really undermine your self confidence in a way - its almost like being told you arent good enough just because of your gender... when if im honest

I am probably one of the top two students (for science + maths anyway) in my year (the top is a guy too).

These may just be coincidental of course, but.. a little diagram i did to show my point:

thats my opinion

edited to add - the diagram is supposed to represent relative acheivers for boys and girls

Former Member · December 2003

Originally posted by pussy_palace
i do tech at collage. im the only gal in my class, which is quite good cos there's quite a few fitties in my group, and the big strong men can help me with my work lol.

I'm soooo jealous :eek:

Former Member · December 2003

I go to an all gils school and really wanted to take product design for GCSE. We are taugh it up to key stage 3 but cant tae it for GCSE. I have to do food tec instead which is nothing like product design. I dont get the same pleasure out of hitting some bread dough as i do with some wood or metal. I think its cause i go to an all girls school. Also were no allowed to play football or rugby. I dont mind so much about that but still dont think its fair that we cant do it. *Actually it would be quite nice to ram my body at some really bitchy girl!! I hate going to an all girl school* I dont think we should have single sex schools anymore. I've missed out on so much. Which in the long run will show with getting boyfriends cause i havent had the experiance of being around boys!

bah!

Former Member · December 2003

ps. my school is a catholic girls school

Former Member · December 2003

i really ought to remember lots off the top of my head :chin:

spent bloomin' ages studying the factors that affect educational attainment between boys and girls - one of them being sexism in school.

umm..

Former Member · December 2003

But i guess if there wasnt sexism in schools then we wouldnt learn or care about it

Former Member · December 2003

Originally posted by rachie004
Not really sure about the sexism thing but at my school we were FORCED christianity.. it was an all white school (meaning that there was no coloured people/ethnic minority people there purely because there wasn't and not cos they were racist)
but if it'd had been mixed there was no way they could have gotten away with it.. bah at my old school

they could have - under the national sylabbus set out for religious education, 50% has to be about Christianity. The reason why is because the church still has some say in politics, there's no logical reason for it, except we are a Christian country by definition.

Former Member · December 2003

In our school we have one girl taking Engineering, in our RE class there are 5 boys out of about 27 people. Our Graphics class is mostly girls, I think there are 3 boys in it, and there are very few boys doing Food. Girls are not allowed to play Rugby, whereas the boys play everything. Our school is quite sexist. Of course it's also shit so it doesn't make a great deal of difference!

Oh and ShyBoy that's a great Box and Whisker diagram there

Would be better with a few numbers on it and a title though

Former Member · December 2003

to be honest I think it is more biased towards girls all you see in the news is how girls do better than lads. hardly fair to rub that in guys faces. Also there were several known sexist teachers at my school one of which when damage occured in a room let all the girls leave as it "obviously wouldnt be one of them" and made the guys stay in detention. Also PE wise girls always got the gymn when it was cold. All girls schools seem to produce good results but its just encouraging sexism and to be honest it seems very antisocial.

Former Member · December 2003

In our school, the ones who were actually good at Physics and stuff were encouraged to do it to the next level. And that tended to be boys rather than girls.

The sexism comes in when people are actively discouraged from doing something like that, even thought they've got proven ability in whatever it is they wanna do.

And I was the only guy in my Intermediate 2 French class, then my Higher class the next year. But it was good laugh.

Former Member · December 2003

ok psychology knowledge comes in here, if you want some studies about this i can think of Carricoates and Pilcher, and the stuff about girls getting more attnetion is not necessarily true; Clarricoates found that boys were thought to be more interesting to teach than girls and that girls were expected to conform and be less disruptive. ooo someone has been doing her coursework

Former Member · December 2003

It really isn't nice that in the newspapers you see girls are smarter than boys, it really gets on your nerves.

And Franki - yes it's damn good

I did it! :hyper: But it doesn't need numbers and a title cos I rushed it and like, it's rough

Former Member · December 2003

At my school we were forced to all take r.e for gcse. So we had one less option to chose which was annoying!

Former Member · December 2003

if anything i think the teachers are sexist against the lads, they get the blame for things more than girls. but subject wise we are treated equal entirely: lots of lads do food tech at our school. But none do textiles, but likewise no girls do resistant materials. but its their choice

Former Member · December 2003

oh definatly

im chemistry it was ab out 4 girls to 25 odd boys
home economics was 2 boys to a billion girls
physics more boys than girls

i think its more boys dont want to do subjects such as home economics, so they do stuff like technical and make big masculine meatal chairs (grrr) and we girls make our cakies in home ec

Sexism in schools...

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