From the chapter ‘Democracy‘
Jude Kelly CBE, Theatre director and arts producer, and founder of the WOW Foundation
Gender roles used to be something that we, by and large, took for granted. Most societies were structured by conventional patriarchal and heteronormative principles. The idea of raising children by teaching them anything other than ‘girls will be girls’ and ‘boys will be boys’ seemed unnecessary, ridiculous even. But things are changing at a pace in some places in the world and producing a backlash in others. Gender, with all its revealed complexities, is under the spotlight, and progressive and conservative beliefs have gone to war.
Children’s style of upbringing and education is the future being fought over, and governments need to steadfastly take the side of equality.
In 2010, I founded WOW – Women of the World, a charity that exists to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a world of gender equity is desirable, possible and urgently required. Since then, over 100 WOW festivals and events celebrating women, girls and non-binary people have taken a frank look at the myriad of obstacles they face as well as marking their huge and varied achievements. WOW festivals have been held across six continents, reaching more than 12 million people. I’ve spent years reflecting on the impact that gender inequality has on all of us, and I’m now convinced that educating children from early years upwards is key to shifting the embedded attitudes surrounding gender that all of us carry, whether overtly or internalised.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals state that gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful and prosperous world. So if we are educating children to inherit the stewardship of society, we need to ensure that they are not only strong, smart, kind and alert to all injustices, but also that they particularly understand about the complexity of gender inequality and how it permeates everything including adding disadvantage to other marginalised groups. None of us stand in an ‘objective space’ on this since we are all part of the gendered landscape with various degrees of vested interest in maintaining the status quo. That’s why it’s so often hard to get consensus, as with many areas that require a shift in power.
Numerous studies reveal that from the age of six many girls begin to develop self-limiting beliefs, thinking of themselves as not as clever and as capable as boys. An article in Volume 355 of Science, titled ‘Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests’,[i] brings together 35 pieces of research exploring everything from science teaching bias to the praising of modesty in females, to explain why girls’ ambitions begin to diminish without affirmative action. Cultural stereotypes, implicit prejudices and media representations stop them from believing their own potential to be anything they choose. Roles of leadership, particularly in science, technology, finance and politics, are often assumed to be unattainable whereas the caring and assisting professions, where there is less status and monetary reward, are deemed natural career pathways. Early indications suggest that for Black girls and girls from minority ethnic groups the impact of stereotyping is even larger because of the intersection of gender and race.
Schools hoped that opening up all children’s curriculum to all subjects would even up the gender playing field. It was thought that encouraging girls to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in greater numbers with greater enthusiasm would result in equal numbers of male and female STEM students. But more girls taking up subjects commonly considered as ‘male’ dominated won’t successfully solve the issues because the contents of many of the subjects being offered themselves contain gender bias. So increasing the number of girls taking such subjects could inadvertently reinforce gender-biased attitudes. Coding, for example, as a subject is laden with problems that stem from the gender gap in technology and the data it’s been developed from.
And in English literature, although any girl can now excel in examining the canon, that canon is itself flawed in gender equality terms where texts by female authors are in the minority and many patriarchal attitudes are embedded and reinforced.
The issue of gender imbalance won’t fit neatly into one discreet lesson. Instead, gender spills out into every corner of the curriculum and every part of society. We must equip children to examine the issue as it arises in every subject, from all angles. They must be asked to think critically about it and choose how they want to navigate it.
It’s simplistic to think that this discussion is about girls. Boys, of course, also suffer from societal hesitation to teach how gender stereotyping harms everyone. Promundo research[ii] from 154 countries shows that some boys are beginning to fail educationally compared to girls because they no longer feel secure about male primacy and are losing motivation for academic and personal advancement as a result. The confusion that many boys say they feel about their perceived ‘loss of status’ can lead them to the Andrew Tate school of thinking. In February 2022, Education Week reported on this and the growing concern of teachers in many countries who are dealing with newly acquired attitudes of deep misogyny in young and adolescent boys.[iii] Tate was one of the most Googled names in 2022, and in many schools across the USA teachers have been trained on how to talk to students about him, even holding assemblies to educate and encourage students to question the content he puts out.
The solution to gender issues for children hasn’t been found in shifting the spotlight away from boys and on to girls, and it won’t come from returning the attention back on to boys to the detriment of girls. The solution definitely isn’t ‘boys ought to be proper boys again’ any more than it is to simply ‘empower girls’. We have to do better than that. The only solution is better education and experience for all children inside and outside school about the importance of exploring and learning how to achieve equality for all genders. Obviously some societies make that very hard, but we have to aspire to an ideal, and those societies that do want to make further strides in breaking apart stereotypes have to establish gender as a formal subject in its own right as part of everyday education.
A challenging but much needed change
It’s easy to understand and empathise with the reasons why societies have avoided educating children formally about gender. It’s messy and complicated and there’s a high risk of getting it wrong. There’s all sorts of pressures and counter-currents running within all societies, and the views of parents, teachers, governors, religious groups and the children themselves can create turbulence.
But it can be done. Many societies around the world now want to acknowledge and undo ‘colonial legacies on education systems’. However, the same commitment to deconstructing ‘patriarchal legacies’ within education systems has not yet been forged. It will be immensely demanding to build academic consensus across all subjects, but also critical for achieving systemic change.
So we – schools, teachers, parents, the community and governments – need to be brave and sophisticated in educating our children, helping them understand that the historically dominant concept of gender isn’t a fixed set of cultural norms, but instead something constructed by different patriarchal societies, theologies and philosophies. We must teach them how this is embedded in everything they know. We must teach them how this maintains inequality. We must teach them how this is as detrimental to the rights of boys as it is of girls. Because unless children understand how and why gender-based attitudes are embedded inside social and political constructs, they won’t examine them early enough not to have been infected by them, with a resulting detrimental effect on every single one of their human rights.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) affirms that every child has a right to education. And the purpose of education is to enable every child to develop to their fullest possible potential and to learn to respect human rights and freedoms. If one believes it’s a fundamental right for all children to receive an education, then what are the other human rights implicit in that desired education? We can’t empower girls and boys with an education that reinforces and maintains inequality through the curriculum and canon of work from which it educates. I believe the time has come to make a radical change away from general good intentions and towards a properly constructed curriculum teaching modern gender justice for everyone.
Schools and what they teach can’t solve everything in society, but unless we are bold about the history and consequences of inequality in gender, pupils will continue to under-perform, under-achieve, inherit harmful attitudes and conduct unhealthy relationships because not in spite of their education. Surely we want to be brave on behalf of all our children?
Notes
[i] Bian, L., Leslie, S.-J. and Cimpian, A. (2017) ‘Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests’, Science, 355(6323), 389–91. doi:10.1126/science.aah6524.
[ii] UKFIET, The Education and Development Forum (2022) ‘Launch of the global report on boys’ disengagement from education’, 19 April, www.ukfiet.org/2022/launch-of-the-global-report-on-boys-disengagement-from-education
[iii] Will, M. (2023) ‘Misogynist influencer Andrew Tate has captured boys’ attention. What teachers need to know’, Education Week, 2 February, www.edweek.org/leadership/misogynist-influencer-andrew-tate-has-captured-boys-attention-what-teachers-need-to-know/2023/02