In response to revelations about Plymouth mass murderer Jake Davison, the Government has announced changes to the school curriculum allowing for greater flexibility in what schoolchildren can be taught in relationships, sex, and health education (RSHE) lessons.
Davison, 22, killed five people, including his mother, last week, and it has since been discovered that he showed online support for the involuntary celibacy ('incel') movement, who spout misogynistic hatred in unregulated chatrooms to moan about why women won't have sex with them (because women 'owe' them sex, apparently). This new flexible curriculum is designed to help teachers incorporate the darker side of misogyny into learning, including abuse and sexual violence, as well as groups like the incel movement. But is it enough?
The aim of these changes seem to be on preventing radicalisation - the Government, of course, doesn't want another Jake Davison on it's hands - rather than tackling the everyday misogyny which leads to the kind of bigoted views that incels hold. As per usual with this Government, ministers seem to be trying to pick out the bad apples from the barrel before they affect the others, ignoring the huge rot in the barrel itself.
As I outlined in my recent piece on private schools, misogyny is a cultural issue - it is normalised and perpetuated in schools, which fail to provide proper education and oversight. And while I only directly discussed 7% of students in that article, you don't have to look very hard to realise the problem runs much deeper than just private schools.
In 2017, UK Feminista and the National Education Union conducted a study called "It's just everywhere" into misogyny in British schools. Their findings were striking - two-thirds of girls reported hearing sexist language, and over a third have experienced sexual harassment. These figures are, undoubtedly, a conservative estimate - but they should still have sparked change. They did not.
The testimonies of thousands of school-age girls on the website Everyone's Invited earlier this year should have given an even more serious wake-up call about sexism in the classroom. And yet, a 'more flexible curriculum' seems to be the only response we are getting to deal with this issue. The Government seems incapable of acknowledging that, quite simply, sexism and misogyny is rampant in schools across the country. It is not a case of a few bad apples. How can it be, when there are over 50,000 testimonies of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault on Everyone's Invited alone?
Their inaction on this issue is unforgivable. Proper education on incels, as well as rape culture, sexual harassment and misogyny should not be optional. It must be a core part of any sex and relationships education, alongside better teaching of consent, and from an earlier age. Schools must do more to tackle this issue - students must feel able to report incidents in confidence, with a guarantee of meaningful action. Teachers, and especially other children, must feel empowered to challenge sexist language without being denounced or ignored. Above all, the culture of misogyny must be broken down, not allowed to persist and merely viewed as a token issue, or addressed whenever a tragedy makes the headlines. There have been too many tragedies already.
20% of women have experienced sexual assault in their lifetimes, and 31% experience sexual abuse in childhood. 97% have been sexually harassed.
On average, a women is killed by a man every three days. That's over a thousand in the past ten years alone.
It starts in schools, and it must therefore be dealt with in schools. Gavin Williamson, and this Government must do more, else the problem will only get worse.
So, Mr Williamson, how many more women must be subjected to sexual harassment, assault, or worse, for you to address this?
Too many, I fear.
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- "It must be a core part of any sex and relationships education, alongside better teaching of consent, and from an earlier age."
With sex education being compulsory from the age of 11 in UK schools, do you think it's appropriate to teach younger primary school kids the concepts of consent, rape and harassment?