Gender equality in education: Scottish Youth Parliament research

Reflections on Gender Equality in Education

At the beginning of each interview, participants were asked if they wanted to share their reflections and thoughts about the issue of gender equality in education. Many shared their own experiences while others shared what they have observed within the school environment. Below are some direct quotes of these experiences. One theme that is evident in these reflections is, teachers gender stereotyping in relation to career choices and teachers lack of confidence in female pupils.

• "A head boy and girl at school were asked by a male head teacher what they wanted to do after school, my male friend said he wanted to do medicine and the head teacher said 'oh that's good' and my female friend said I'm not sure yet but maybe teaching. The head teacher replied to her 'oh well that would be good so you have time to raise a family.' He didn't suggest that to my male friend. She was shocked, she didn't say anything. But my male friend was aware of the comment, knew it was wrong."
• "My male friend in school said if he wanted to study psychology, he was praised. But my other female friend wanted to do medicine and it was like 'oh that's pretty tough going' and she was like, yeah, so it's not a problem. This is from teachers."
• "I was the only female in my computer design class – the male teacher made me feel I had to really prove myself and when I asked questions, he made me feel incompetent – saying 'oh you should know this' so I had to prove myself. I then finished all my work on time, and he asked me to help the other guys who needed help. I was always dreading coming to this class – I almost left halfway through the year. It did put me off but for a time. I know other girls after me decided not to do it".
• "For me it's not really a big talked about issue, but I know that's awful, but thinking about I can see how there is inequality, my friend was picking her subjects for Highers, and she picked all the sciences and was then advised not to. They actually suggested a Home Economics subjects and I remember thinking that's terrible – it really is. You wonder then why there is a gap in the uptake in STEM subjects between males and females."
• "Even in physics – my friend thought that the teacher thought she couldn't do it and this is what's putting young people off these subjects."
• "It's a shame to think that girls would be brain washed to think they can't do that subject because they are female. For me I've not experienced inequality in education because I'm a male and I know that's not right. I've got it easier compared to women and that's such a shame. There shouldn't be that level of inequality."
• "Reflecting back, the treatment of my female teachers (especially new teachers to the school) was awful. Younger boys would make sexist comments or rude remarks towards many of them under the excuse of 'banter'. Obviously, this made me feel uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe. The teachers would often not respond and would ignore them. It made me wonder, if this happens to my teacher, what hope have I got of avoiding it…?"

Another theme from these initial reflections shows how young women's voices are perceived in comparison to young males. Female participants expressed how they feel their voices are not respected in the same way as their male counterparts.

• "I think a big part of it is how students treat each other – my brother has a really sexist physics teacher and he made some mildly sexist comment and then went on to say why are others (female) hanging out in the other room and my brother replied 'maybe they enjoy the lack of sexism in the other room'. If I had said that as a female, it would have been looked at as being really 'naggy' and annoying and people would have rolled their eyes. It's almost like because he's a boy – he's allowed to call those things out. And that's not from teachers – it's from other pupils – being, oh my god why are girls always going on about this, and I think that would be from girls too."
• "I was lucky that my school experience was generally quite positive in this sense. However, I would often be mocked for voicing my opinions in a way that my male friends weren't. I would be called annoying, too chatty and boys would disregard my comments or talk over me when they didn't agree with me, which was never picked up by the teachers."