Sunday 21 September 2014

Parental sexism


Hannah took the 11+ two years ago. Ethan took it this weekend.

I remember thinking there were a lot of girls in the same boat as Hannah when she went through the process but I was not prepared for the number of boys who took the exam at the same time as Ethan.

It might be just perception, but I'm fairly sure there were far more boys doing the exam this year than there were girls when Hannah sat the exam.

I wondered if this might have anything to do with birth rates, and it could.  There are probably a thousand other, plausible explanations, including my faulty memory, but I just wonder whether one of them is sexism.

Do we expect more of our boys? Do we care more about their education?

I discussed this with a friend who had sisters and one brother. The girls all went to the local school, the brother went to a private school.

I'm not asking whether you specifically give your son's education more thought than your daughter's, but do you?

Or is this something that we don't realise is happening because it's unconscious and is only obvious at a societal  level?

Or is this just the mad and crazy imagining of a mother who doesn't have a clue what she's talking about?

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