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Writer's picture Raksha B K

Sexism in Education


Have you ever been called out for wearing something too short, even if it’s just an inch above your knee, or called out for wearing spaghetti straps because they were too “revealing”? A lot of girls will be able to relate because I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard, “Don’t dress like that, you're distracting the guys,” or “Don’t wear that, you’re showing too much skin.”



When we were little kids, we had little to no rules on how we dress, but all of a sudden we grow up, and we have many rules and restrictions on the appropriateness of our dress wear. We are expected to start behaving differently because our bodies went through some biological changes. We notice these changes more in schools rather than elsewhere because most of our days are spent there. Have you ever seen a guy get dress coded? After a point, we start to realize it isn’t just about the clothes we wear, but about the constant division among guys and girls along with what sports they play and what activities they participate in. They start justifying the division on the basis of “strength” rather than one’s abilities.


For instance, there was an incident that happened in my school, where every house team would get a flag which would be carried by the team captains. They have a march along with the other people on their team. Unfortunately, they never gave the flags to the girl captains because they “wouldn’t be able to carry them”. This was just assumed without putting it into trial first. We were told to just be okay with these decisions. In other cases, teachers would need help with arrangements for any program and they’d pick up girls to do all the small, “girly” arrangements, while they picked guys for the actual arrangements, which involved moving tables and chairs and other traditionally masculine jobs.


A lot of thought processes that go into these decisions come from the long rule of patriarchy we have had, and still do. There have been changes, but it’s not to the extent where we can say sexism doesn’t exist. It does and probably takes a lot longer to be eradicated than people think. Not many people would be okay with throwing away what they have been taught their entire life, but when it comes to our generation,I think we have so much variation in thought. People don’t just want to learn what they have been taught, rather they pick up skills and experiences along the journey of their life. Most people aren’t afraid to accept that they are wrong, and learn from their mistakes.


Sexism can trigger many insecurities in people, especially students in areas of education. Those age groups are the periods of life when we are the most vulnerable and undergo the most confusion. How they are treated at these age groups will likely affect how they grow as a person. They may get feelings of not being enough or feel like the whole world is against them but at the end of the day, our generation knows how to fight for what they believe is right and against whatever makes them uncomfortable.


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