'Misogyny culture' in schools to be debated after Leeds teacher's motion

A survey of over 1,500 teachers by the Nasuwt teaching union ahead of its annual conference in Birmingham found that 72 per cent said they had been a victim of misogyny at their school.

Of those who had experienced sexism at work, nearly six in 10, 59 per cent, said this behaviour had come from a pupil, while 43 per cent reported that other teachers had been sexist towards them.

In total, 45 per cent of respondents had experienced misogyny from their senior leadership team, while 31 per cent said their headteacher had been sexist towards them.

Nine in 10, 89 per cent, said they had experienced verbal misogyny, while 60 per cent said they had experienced non-verbal sexist behaviour, for example through body language.

Over one in 10, 11 per cent, had experienced misogyny through emails, while 5 per cent had been subject to sexism on social media.

Teachers reported that they had been intimidated or undermined at work, while others said the misogyny came in the form of comments about their clothing, body, intellect, abilities and teaching style.

In a minority of cases, teachers were threatened with physical violence (9 per cent) while 3 per cent had experienced physical violence, and 3 per cent had been the victim of sexual violence.

Half of the teachers who had been subject to sexist comments or behaviour did not report it to their senior management, and for those who did report a problem, 45 per cent said no action was taken by their school.

A third of cases were resolved informally, while a fifth (20 per cent) of teachers said they were not believed when they reported abuse.

One teacher said that pupils made comments such as “is it your time of [the] month miss?” as well as sexualised remarks about other teachers’ appearance.

Another respondent said that pupils had exposed themselves during a lesson, and had made sexual gestures and sex noises in the classroom in order to intimidate them.

“On a daily basis I feel boys are disrespectful towards me as a teacher,” one respondent said.

“I constantly hear sexist remarks from students.

“I see boys grab girls and say sexist comments.

“The girls are just used to it and brush it off.”

Teachers reported that pupils had derogatory attitudes towards equal rights for women, with some pupils voicing the belief that feminism equated to a desire to “kill men”, while one teacher said pupils had called them a “feminazi”.

One teacher said: “A male student looked me dead in the eyes and asked if I’d ever been raped.”

Staff also reported that other teachers had made derogatory comments towards them.

One respondent said their head of department had said they were a “real problem” when they were pregnant.

Another reported that their colleagues had been “complaining about mothers taking time to look after such children, saying ‘My wife does that for our family’ not understanding that we are the wives!”

Respondents who were pregnant or had had a child said that male colleagues and female colleagues without children made belittling comments about their chances of promotion or capacity to take on extra responsibilities.

When teachers reported issues such as upskirting, colleagues made comments such as like “I am not surprised, have you seen what the teachers are wearing, no wonder” or, “If they don’t want this to happen they should wear trousers – boys will be boys… they can’t help themselves.”

One teacher said that a WhatsApp Group “which included only male members a member of SLT commented that I was hot and several teachers agreed”.

“A member of male staff brushed his groin across my buttocks whilst I was at the photocopier.

“A male student took a photo of my bottom, when I was helping another student,” they added.

In total, 69 per cent of staff said that misogyny in their school had made their working environment “unpleasant”, while 41 per cent said it had led to a lack of promotional opportunities.

Over a quarter, 26 per cent, said sexism had prevented them from earning more through promotion or moving up the pay scale.

Just 19 per cent said they felt their school was doing enough to tackle misogyny.

Kathryn Downs, a secondary school teacher from Leeds, proposed a motion at the conference on misogyny and incel culture, an online subculture involving men who express hostility and extreme resentment towards those who are sexually active, particularly women.

She said that in the last year, “we have also seen cases such as the murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and the shootings of five innocent people in Plymouth by a member of the incel community”.

“A study in October 2021, suggested that there was a 6.3 per cent chance of being suggested an incel-related video by YouTube within five ‘hops’ of a non-incel related video,” she said on Saturday.

“Given the amount of time our young people spend on social media, this is 6.3 per cent too much.

“Clearly this shows the dangers of failing to support and improve the mental wellbeing of boys within schools.

“Language and stereotyping attitudes such as ‘cry like a girl’ or ‘fight like a boy’ means that boys as well as girls still struggle to express their own difficulties with their mental wellbeing or feel like they need to suffer in silence.”

The motion calls for Nasuwt to lobby government to make misogyny a hate crime and also calls for more mental health support for boys in schools.