Misogyny is an outward or covert display of hatred aimed at a single, group or community of women. In education there is a long history of outward displays of hatred or refusals of advancement for women until the last 25 years. At the same time, there are many examples of women pioneers who have run very successful learning environments, managers and staff who have helped places thrive. Many schools were once ‘old boy’ clubs whose actions towards female staff were repressive or dismissive. In more recent times there has been an increase of female staff ‘moving up the ranks’ but there are still many male dominated environments. Even within those that aren’t, women in positions of power can appropriate the aggressive and bullying techniques associated with the male hierarchical structure. In addition, it is well known that women in the workplace, as a result of the messages sent out by society at large, are grappling with ‘imposter syndrome.’ Therefore the status quo in education does not necessarily shift, even if the gender representation amongst the SLT and Head Teachers within the country does.
But maybe this is too glib to explain what is happening. To claim that all males in positions of power are aggressive predators and all women mimic the aggression does not make space for those talented and compassionate individuals who strive to support, develop and keep those in learning environments safe. Also, this does not address the experience of girls in classrooms.
Schools up to thirty years ago colluded with general sexist accepted ‘norms’ within society. In decades gone by while boys did woodwork and metalwork girls would do needlework and home economics (cooking and home making.) In the last fifteen years there has been an even wider explosion of accepted sexist and misogynist images within mainstream society than previously existed. As a result, girls have been on the receiving end of increased amounts of bullying and sexually violent threats from boys. Some girls, so fully bullied and indoctrinated, are living out these misogynist images and being more susceptible to exploitation as a result. Online bullying, social media viciousness and ‘slut shaming’ have made an already difficult situation even worse.
Add to this increase the general opinion that adults often take about young people in this country- perceiving adolescent distress as demonised purposeful behaviour. They are often labelled (as are all of us), have fingers of ‘blame’ pointed at them (as indeed to all of us). Young people have lost the ability to engage in the finer points of communication and emotional intelligence because they are so generally absent within the way society conducts itself day to day. This leaves them much less able to deal with what is going on.
The default position in this country when trying to address such a big issue is to look at what others are doing and then taking crudely drawn and aggressively entrenched positions that will not allow for cohesion or working together to make progress. I sincerely hope that is not what I am doing here and will be hungry for feedback to ensure that this is not the case.
But before we are able to change anything on a local, national or international scale it is important for every single one of us to know the answer to one question:
What am I doing to collude or alleviate the situation and what can I do next?
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash