Single-sex schools perpetuate gender stereotypes
THE last few years have brought a misogyny reckoning. But if we are to really tackle the gender pay disparity, sexual assault, and the raft of other impacts of gender inequalities, we need to break down the gender stereotypes that still box everyone in.
The latest Citizen’s Assembly on gender equality heard that only 4pc of girls do physics and 3pc of boys do home economics – in a session about gender stereotypes. Shocking stuff but it’s backed up by a recent survey carried out by I Wish, an initiative encouraging young women into Stem.
Four per cent of girls said they don’t know enough about those subjects and more than a quarter said they believed there are easier ways of getting CAO points than opting to study Stem subjects.
Isn’t it sad these girls have already mentally deselected themselves from some really cool and rewarding jobs?
When it comes to breaking gender stereotypes, we all know it needs to start early. What our kids see is formative, for better and for worse.
But how can we fight sexist stereotypes when one-third of our second level schools are single gender – a massively high number by international standards? The answer is simple: ban all-girl and all-boy schools.
We are a bit odd here in Ireland when it comes to our gender-based education system. Single-sex schools are still quite common here, particularly at second level, whereas in many countries around the world, not so much.
Presumably, it’s because so many schools were founded and run by religious orders, which again is not necessarily the case in other places. But it isn’t it ridiculous we are still segregating our schools based on gender?
What is even stranger is we don’t seem to want to talk about it. And when we do we tend to fall back on nonsense arguments like saying teenage girls are delicate wallflowers who can only thrive in the science lab if there isn’t a band of boys in the room trying to look up their lab coats.
Then when anybody complains or questions the single-sex dynamic, we were told these schools get better Leaving Cert results because there are fewer distractions. I say rubbish. When we grow up we will have to work in mixed-sex environments. No one is frightened of us being distracted then.
There’s also the claim our single-sex schools send more pupils to university. They do. But if you look closer, it’s obvious this is down to social class, not the act of segregating girls from boys.
Boys are held back by gender stereotypes too. If men are supposed to be strong and silent, and good at science, where does this leave the young boy who is creative and good at dancing?
Just as girls need to see they can grow up to build things and look into microscopes, boys need to see they can grow up to be carers, stay at home parents, or even just occasionally vulnerable. And every child needs to see there are a million choices they can make that aren’t determined by their biological sex.
A study by Concordia University found girls at same-sex schools feel far greater pressure to conform to gender norms – and were bullied if they didn’t – than those at mixed-gender schools.
Even more surprising, the same researchers say girls at same-sex schools evaluated their self-worth based more on social confidence than cognitive confidence – while girls at mixed-gender schools weighed academics higher than their social confidence.
A 2014 meta-analysis of 184 studies, representing the testing of 1.6 million students of all ages from 21 different countries, failed to find any advantages of single-sex education. The University of Wisconsin-Madison study found many of the claims made by advocates of single-sex schooling were unsubstantiated.
And attending single-sex schools could actually be disadvantageous for children, with significant evidence showing segregation caused people to develop strong stereotypes and in-group bias.
Well, of course. If you’ve been incarcerated in a single-sex school for 14 years straight, then the other sex and the real world is going to be a mystery to you.
Single-sex education suggests there are such huge inherent differences between males and females we must always be separated or else we will fail.
Wouldn’t it be so much more progressive to teach children that men and women are all just people and try to break down the divide between genders?
I went to a mixed school where gender stereotypes weren’t even a thing. Boys studied home economics and the girls took classes in everything from woodwork to applied maths. Every one of us was encouraged to try everything as we learned to get along with each other as people.
Hundreds of our schools continue to separate boys and girls because of history, culture and dubious studies that don’t fly with neuroscientists but seem to resonate with parents and teachers.
I know stereotyping isn’t all about environment, it’s not all about parenting, and it’s not all about school.
But good intentions or otherwise, it’s very damaging to separate children by gender. Boys and girls should all learn together.
Every child needs to see there are a million choices to be made that aren’t determined by their biological sex