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Should we allow gender politics to be taught in UK schools?

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—Picture: Chatham House

Yvette Cooper rocked the gender political boat last week by saying we should raise our sons as “confident feminists” writes Glen Poole.

Chris Maume at the liberal left newspaper, The Independent ,agreed. He declared, as confidently as a boy feminist: “Should we be teaching boys to be feminist? [The] answer, naturally, is a resounding ‘Yes.’ And really, who could argue with that? Rod Liddle, possibly, but nobody in their right mind.”

Over at the conservative Spectator magazine, Lara Prendergast had a different view. “School shouldn’t be a place where you indoctrinate pupils to believe a particular ideology,” she said. “And feminism, for all its admirable achievements in the 20th century, is an ideology.”

These left vs right disagreements about gender politics are not unique to the UK. In France, a left-wing programme promoting the teaching of “gender theory” was dropped last month after a concerted campaign by right wingers and traditionalists led to parents removing their children from school.

The ABC of Equality 

On one side, advocates like Simon Massei, whose article “France gives way to opponents of ‘gender theory’ in schools” is published at insideMAN today, claim that the idea of the ABCD de l’égalité programme was simply to teach children that some differences between the sexes are biological, but others are socially constructed.

Meanwhile, opponents of the programme like the Catholic Group Civitas, claim that “an unnatural and perverse ideology” is being taught as early as pre-school “under the guise of equality and ‘the fight against homophobia’”.

Some of these arguments are redolent of the struggle over section 28 of the Conservative’s Local Government Act of 1988, which prohibited schools from teaching “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

Looking back at this period of recent history, the Conservative MP Francis Maude said in 2012 that “in hindsight, it was very wrong — very wrong. It was a legislative provision that came out of honourable motives. It took me some time to realise what an emblem of intolerance Section 28 had become for gay people. It was the tip of a deep iceberg — the iceberg below the surface being a host of anti-gay social attitudes.”

In the eighties and nineties leading conservatives were convinced they were right to ensure all children were NOT taught that homosexuality is an acceptable form of family relationship. Today, leading thinkers on the left are convinced that it right to ensure that boys are NOT raised to be anything other than feminists—and they believe “nobody in their right mind” could think any differently.

Not the usual suspects

But people do think differently—and not just the usual suspects on the right. In France one of the leading campaigners against the teaching of feminist gender theory in schools is, Farida Belghoul, a writer and filmmaker of Algerian descent who was the main spokesperson for the March for Equality and Against Racism.

In the UK, the former feminist and gender equality consultant, Karen Woodall dismissed Yvette Cooper’s calls for boys to be raised as feminists in no uncertain terms saying:

“The rights of boys are equal to those of girls and it is not for feminists to determine what makes a ‘good boy’ or a ‘good girl’ either for that matter.  Feminism is not synonymous with equality, much as the feminists would have us believe that it is so and it does not and cannot solve the problems of the world in which we are raising our children and grandchildren.”

Another opponent of Yvette Cooper’s proposal to teach boys to be feminists is the 17-year-old sociology and politics student and YouTube broadcaster, Josh O’Brien. In a video recorded for insideMAN he says:

“My issue is not that it is feminism that she wishes to be forced upon children, it is that she thinks it is the place of a school to indoctrinate any political belief.”

Let boys think for themselves

Josh’s suggestion that children should be given information for and against different beliefs and the critical thinking skills to form an opinion themselves, seems like an eminently sensible idea.

One project that’s already working with boys in schools on the issue of gender equality is the Great Men Value Women project. According to one of their male volunteers, Folarin Akinmade, “feminism is just about being a decent human being. It’s so much more simple than people make it.”

Is it really that simple? Experience suggests that the world of gender and gender politics is deeply and deliciously fascinating and complex. It’s complex because there are many different genders and gender identities and there are many different forms of gender politics.

No politician should seek to dictate what gender identity a British citizen can or can’t adopt and at the same time, no MP should seek to impose his or her own gender politics on every boy in the country. But why not teach boys about gender, gender issues and gender politics in school—from all perspectives, not just a feminist viewpoint—and let them make up their own minds what they want to believe?

Written by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

What do you think? What types of gender issues and gender politics should we be teaching boys in schools?

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  • http://thepowerofrelationship.com Mark Davenport

    Oh, such tired arguments! Of course schools should not present any particular ideology as the only way to believe, think or act. But it is the nature of scarcity politics (i.e: control of curriculum) to see public opinion as a pie that can be divided up just in so many ways with grabbing an ever bigger piece of that pie being the goal. That’s much easier than making a bigger, more inclusive pie that can include every perspective.
    Such presumption and lack of faith in the ability of young people to make intelligent decisions or to change their minds and behavior as new circumstances teach them otherwise.

  • Darren Ball

    School is one of the places where we do need to educate boys on how to behave towards and around girls and women. All successful societies have always done this. This however is not the preserve of feminism.

    As others have said, feminism is an ideology and should not be taught as an immutable fact. It’s not clear whether Yvette Cooper has simply conflated the two in her description or whether she is using something which most people would agree with (raising boys not to be aggressive/sexually aggressive towards females), as a Trojan Horse to indoctrinate boys into her political beliefs.

    • Nigel

      The conflation of boorish behaviour by young men, a series of moral panics about a rag bag of important but actualy largely unrelated things ( FGM, “Forced Marriage”, Domestic Violence and Trolls) is deliberate. As the actual position of Ms. Cooper and others is actually privileged they hunt ever more assiduously for reasons to support an ideology.

      It is the link with Domestic Violence that is chilling. In a series of large scale research reports on young people conducted into young people’s experience of abusive behaviours ( NHS Scotland, London and Bristol University ) the authors had the honesty to report “surprisingly ” high levels of abusive behaviour against boys ( as reported by boys and girls). Indeed actual hitting was both done and condoned more against boys than girls. Perhaps not so surprising if one considers the strong social convention against males hitting females. In all cases the reports actual recommendations were focussed on Violence Against Women and Girls , because this was the commissioning strategy.

      The surprising findings ( to feminist theory) though similar to similar ” dating” data from the anglophone world has not been followed up. What does this mean? Well that any education about relationships needs to explicity discuss the rights of males not to be hit , even if they are unlikely to hit back, that bullying, jealousy and spying are just as ugly from girls and so on . And that feminism is I’ll equipped to do any of this as it has completely ignored male experiences.

      Michael Kaufman a noted feminist campaigner in schools and colleges was moved to comment that some recognition of the truth of young men’s experience was essential or feminists such as himself would be ” percieved as telling lies”. There are already materials out there for schools , from the White Ribbon Campaign etc. And these do tell lies, well perhaps simply ignore the full truth. More of the same would be a travesty.

      • Darren Ball

        I agree that there should be gendered balance to any education programme. Just by omission, girls may be getting the impression that they are allowed to hit boys. Some may even regard this as female empowerment and to be encouraged.

        I think that boys need particular focus on sexual violence. A testosterone-fuelled teenage boy may not naturally understand where some of his behaviour might be abusive to girls, and he may not naturally understand the extent of the emotional harm that he can cause. Educating boys on these matters not only protects girls, but also protects boys from behaving in ways that they learn to be ashamed of.

        • Nigel

          I actually agree that for both sexes these is something more that could be done about being clear about the rules the society applies to their conduct in relationships. It seems in ditching “moral” rules and being reluctant to appear moralising that the context of the mechanics of sexual relationships is left wide open.One key thing is that young men appear to have lower expectations about how they will be treated(this actually is shown by their tolerance of abuse behaviours towrds them. Actually these low expectations are a problem as if the bar is set low for yourself you will be less likely to base your understanding of others on a higher expectation. If we expect people to understand they have to experience higher expectations as well as be taught.

          The large scale reports I refer to are below. I find it particularly poor that despte these being available they are not often cited for policy. For instance a Bristol University research paper is often citedbut it was subsequent to the much larger report than the one below done with the NSPCC. The smaller report was on young people in the care of councils and so a very small and specific population of young people.

          If one looks at the data and tables it is clear that a there is a more complex picture than a “predatary male” model. Both in terms of violence and controling behaviours but also in feeling forced or coerced into sexual behaviours. It is this sort of inforation that should drive education rather than a specifically political “cherry picking” ideology. In fact Josh in his video rather “reality checks” this by pointing out the patterns.

          Young People’s Attitudes Towards Gendered Violence. August 2005. Michelle Burman and Fred Cartmel. University of Glasgow. Published by NHS Health Scotland.

          Partner Exploitation and Violence in Teenage Intimate Relationships. Christine Barter,Malanie McCarry,David Berridge,Katy Evans. October 2009 . Bristol University Published by NSPCC

          Attitudes of Young People Towards Domestic Violence. 2007. Department of Health,Social Services and Public Safety. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

          Domstic Violence in Adolescent Relationships. Juluy 2006. Safer Southwark Partnership.

  • Chris T

    I don’t think ‘indoctrinating’ children with feminism will event help feminism as people tend to rebel against anything thats forced on them. There are certain principles; equality, respect etc…that should be taught and arguments such as “women shouldn’t be allowed to vote” should not be included in lessons in order to bring ‘balance’. (unless its done to demonstrate how stupid that argument is)

    However schools should leave room for debate on how to achieve equality and how men are affected by inequality. Children should also be taught its acceptable to choose traditional gender roles and identities. The idea that gender is just a social construct should not be taught as fact. (debates about nature v nature should be encouraged instead) People should not be shamed for simply disagreeing with homosexuality (so long as they don’t abuse gay people or deny freedom or human rights to them) or for seeing the traditional male breadwinner/female housewife relationship as desirable. (as long as they accept people have the right to choose non-traditional relationships) For me ‘enforced gender roles’ are the problem not ‘traditional roles’ per se.

    Teach kids important values. Give kids the facts. And then encourage kids to use their reasoning skills to interpret the facts within the framework of equality and respect.

    Should schools teach boys to be ‘confident feminists’? Depends on what you mean by ‘teach’ and what you mean by ‘feminist’. Should schools teach children to be ‘confident proponents of equality and respect’? YES!! Definitely!

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