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Showing posts from February, 2015

We must protect young girls from sexism in primary school

A new study suggests that gender-based assumptions about girls can have a long-lasting effect on children. Sadly, we see them all the time – and not just in our classrooms   A parent had shared a snapshot of her six-year-old child’s homework – a worksheet asking pupils to research a scientist or inventor. So far, so normal. But the question, in jaunty Comic Sans, read: “Who was he? Who was the person you have chosen to look at? How old were they when they began inventing? Did they have a wife and family?” The frustration of the parent, who appealed to other Twitter users for suggestions of female inventors, would be dismissed by many as an overreaction to a carelessly worded question. But she is far from alone. Parents share similar homework woes with the Everyday Sexism website and Twitter account with startling regularity. One referenced their son’s physics homework, which used examples of men pushing vans, lifting weights, climbing trees and shooting arrows. The sole female