School teachers are being urged to take sexist language as seriously as racist language, according to new government guidelines.
Phrases such as “man-up” and “don’t be such a girl” will no longer be acceptable in a bid to counter sexist stereotypes. Calling boys “sissies”, boys telling girls to “make them a sandwich” and calling girls who study what are considered “male” subjects “lesbians” are among some of the expressions highlighted as inappropriate in the new guidelines.
The new “gender policies” are currently being trialled at a selection of schools in England before being rolled out across all schools.
Clare Thomson, from the Institute of Physics which was involved in drawing up the guidelines, told the Sunday Times. "Even low-level comments are potentially an issue with teachers using phrases such as ‘man up’.”
Schools are also encouraging senior staff to become “gender champions”, to encourage girls to take more traditionally “male” subjects, such as economics, computer science and physics.
The hope is that the results of the guidelines will also aid the gender wage gap. It’s thought that the stereotyping of certain subjects as “female”, such as English Literature and psychology are thought of as “soft” and may lead to lower-paid jobs.
Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary and minister for Women and Equalities, is assessing the gender pay gap.
