Pupils at girls’ schools‘not used to’ harassment
WOMEN WHO have attended single-sex schools are likely to have the confidence to “call out” harassment, a leading headmistress has suggested.
Charlotte Avery, head of St Mary’s School, Cambridge, said girls’ schools provided a “privileged space” for young women and “there isn’t any sense of it being normalised”.
She also suggested that celebrity role models can help to open up discussions among youngsters about issues such as sexual harassment, abuse and mental health.
Ms Avery, who is also president of the Girls’ Schools Association, which is meeting for its annual conference in Manchester, was asked by reporters if she agreed that attending single-sex schools, and being spared unwanted attention from male classmates, influences girls’ confidence.
“Yes, I do – I think that there isn’t any sense of it being normalised, because they don’t see it, because it is simply not there. So I think they are then possibly surprised when they hear about it.
“I think they are aware of it – and think ‘well it wouldn’t happen here’.
“Well of course it wouldn’t happen here because they are in a privileged space, so I always say to the girls ‘you are in a privileged space now, you have got the opportunity to learn, to really understand who you are and what difference you want to make.
“And then when they go out and they are involving themselves post puberty, because I think puberty is a different area from adult life, when they go out and meet men and indeed women who have been at co-ed schools, that they have the confidence to be able to call it out in a way, because it is something that is different to them.”
Ms Avery’s comments come amid widely reported allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood and Westminster.
She said that safeguarding is a priority for all schools, and that there is now a culture of openness.
Asked whether she believed it was important to have celebrities and public figures speaking out about sexual harassment and discrimination, she said it was “absolutely” important “because it’s a big name it couches attention, so it’s giving permission for it to be discussed.”
But Ms Avery added that young people also need role models closer to home.
“I also think it’s really important that the girls have role models who are not just celebrities, because the aspiration to be a celebrity is unreal, they’re not going to end up, most of them being a celebrity,” she said.
“So if they can find role models who are less elevated but still present in their lives, and that might be a teacher, it might be a figure in their life outside school, that’s also very important.”