Schools must play a vital role in eradicating gender bias

Andrea Greystoke, who founded the central London school Abercorn, has cautioned that gender abuse and inequality in the workplace and in relationships is likely to continue for longer society unless schools embrace a mixed sex approach to academic, sporting, creative and pastoral education from the early ages of a pupil’s life.  
 
Andrea Greystoke, who made history earlier in her career by becoming the first-ever female teacher at St. Paul’s School for Boys and latterly at King’s College School in Wimbledon, stated: "Preparing pupils for their future lives and careers in a mixed sex environment not only gives children a more realistic grounding for the future world, but it also has tangible benefit for their personal development, enabling pupils to form authentic, meaningful, and respectful relationships that are not differentiated by a perceived gender line.”  
 
Andrea Greystoke has also urged schools, whether they are mixed sex or single sex to offer all academic, sporting, creative and pastoral subjects to both boys and girls to ensure that subjects and activities should no longer be predicated by gender.

“It is vitally important that girls are offered the same opportunities to learn STEM subjects and participate in sports like football and rugby, and equally, all boys are actively encouraged to study subjects which once belonged to an old-fashioned tired mentality which dictated what a ‘female’ subject and profession should be.”

“Schools in the UK have an opportunity to become leaders in offering a more open education where gender bias to academia and pastoral care is eradicated. Addressing gender equality within education offers the best chance to mitigate future gender bias and the mistreatment of women and men in later life.”

Even in countries like Norway, which is largely considered to foster one of the most open and equal societies between genders, two of the most gender-segregated occupations are nursing (90% women) and engineering (90% men).

At Abercorn, children are encouraged to pursue their interests regardless of their own gender status, with all boys and girls participating in sports with mixed teams for sports such as hockey, football, and netball. All students also take part in yoga sessions, as Abercorn places particular importance on wellbeing, in addition to academic excellence. Cooking, woodwork, and sewing are taught to both genders under the umbrella of ‘Design Technology’, while all pupils are actively encouraged to study STEM subjects such as ICT and coding in an age-appropriate way from 2 years of age.

Andrea Greystoke continued: “A clear non-gendered approach to early education, which has the capability to be at the forefront of social change, would provide a quicker, more natural route to much-needed gender equality, than having to tackle the issue subsequently in the workplace, where longer-established and deeper-rooted gender biases are often already established.

“As a new generation emerges, schools have a responsibility to accelerate gender equality, facilitating societal change from the very early stages of a child’s development. Mixed sex environments are preparing the future generation for a balanced world, and an equal workplace.”