A classroom is a space for learning, but apart from learning math, physics, art, do we also learn something else? Yes. We learn patriarchy. As Judith Butler, the famous writer of ‘Gender Trouble’ has said that masculine and feminine is not something fixed, it’s socially constructed. Through gender-based stereotyping, problematic syllabi, and implicit norms, we imbibe gender.
It’s safe for me to say that the institution of patriarchy is thriving today because of our faulty educational institutions. In this article, I will be exploring the three P’s of Patriarchy: Privilege, Power, and Purity and how we end up learning them in the school itself.
Gender Bender? – Stereotypes And Privileges In Classroom Settings
“Good morning, boys and girls” begins a teacher as soon as they enter an eight-thirty morning class. What is wrong with this statement you? Well, it is heteronormative. Since school is a foundational space, where you learn the most, it’s important our teachers be sensitive to the existence of different genders.
When a teacher calls on the boys of their class to move furniture and a girl to prepare a dance for an assembly, that’s where stereotyping starts. It’s that simple. This minor detail is important because it gives us an idea of how cognitive structures develop. Earlier in school, I would be forced to think that boys are stronger than girls in the physical sense because of this.
That’s not all. Teachers often use gender as an important label to differentiate between and organise students. An implicit stratification takes place in classrooms when boys are told to sit with girls and vice versa as a punishment. It is taken for granted that boys don’t want to befriend girls and vice versa. This creates an implicit division which then leads to the formation of homogenous groups. Having limited interaction with the other gender, we can’t defeat the stereotypes given to us by the world. We also lose out on understanding appropriate modes of behaviour (by appropriate I mean, making sure you don’t make someone uncomfortable).
Implicit To Explicit Patriarchy: From Privilege To Power
Boys often end up commanding power in society as a result of what happens in educational institutes. Firstly, the example of how it’s assumed that a male will be physically stronger than a female ends up reinforcing the idea amongst males that they have the edge over my female counterparts and can exercise dominion over them.
Secondly, since girls aren’t allowed to stay back in school for functions or practices because a parent is more likely to allow a boy to come back late than a female. This takes away the myriads of opportunities they might have had if they were allowed to stay a little later at school, their office etc. Power then is accumulated because of these opportunities.
Thus, who is more likely to go for competitions, get better posts, participate in functions, get a pay raise? Men. Spaces like the office, schools, public transport are made unsafe for women and girls on account of sexual harassment. Fathers and brothers tell the girls that it’s risky to stay there, and then these spaces and opportunities get taken over by men themselves. Hence, the cycle of patriarchy rides on.
Another arena where gender differentiation takes place is the PT period or even the lunch break. It’s common to see girls flocking to the canteen, while the playground is a space dominated by boys. This happens because young women are exposed to “ideal” beauty standards from a very young age. The idea of “feminine beauty” dissociates itself from all things “masculine”. They are told to cut your hair short, or hang around in the sun for too long is ugly and unladylike. Thus they resort to staying in during breaks conforming to the ideal standards laid out for them. The ideas of femininity are used to control girls from doing things that are considered “masculine”, disabling them from achieving power.
Men, too, are disallowed to partake in anything outside of “masculinity”. Applying nail paint, growing out their hair over a certain length, or even participating in the Home management club is looked down upon by their peers. Boys are often told to “man-up” when they complain about bullying to their teachers.
Learning Patriarchy Through Textbooks (Or The Lack Of Them)
In a country like India, where textbooks occupy a central place in classrooms, we must write them more inclusively and sensitively.
A recent study by the American Economics Association found out that women are underrepresented in economics textbooks. Three-quarters of the people mentioned in the textbooks are males: real and imagined. It’s also important to notice that when these textbooks do end up mentioning women, they are usually passive and are doing secondary tasks unrelated to economics, while men perform the more active part. Often since women don’t find models in these textbooks, they are uninspired to get into subjects which are seen as male-dominated.
Many times, the language used in these textbooks is also sexist. The problem with sexist language is that if sexism is a disease, sexist language is both its symptom and the cause of the disease. This kind of language includes words that are exclusionary to females. You automatically associate the word chairman to a male head, despite the fact that chairmen can also be women. Using “man” to mean people causes a lot of confusion and ambiguity.
Sex education is also absent as a proper course in all schools in India. Sex ed will be a monumental step towards gender equality since it will enable people to dispel notions of purity with regards to menstruation, virginity and sexual intercourse.
Unlearning Gender: NEP And Civil Society’s Role
The National Education Policy was commended by many on the front of gender equality. Its recommendations included setting up a gender inclusion fund to provide quality education to girls. It aimed to attain a hundred percent participation of girls and close gender gaps for students in higher education. The draft policy also stated that “changing mindsets and halting harmful practices to foster gender equity and inclusion; inculcating girls’ capacity for leadership to help develop current and future role models, and improving dialogue with civil society to exchange best practices and lessons learned”.
Schools are imperative contexts for socialization; we learn our attitudes and behaviors in the school itself. Unfortunately, teachers receive very little training in firstly recognizing their own unconscious biases and secondly in combating them. Despite the suggestions of the NEP, we still have a long way to go. We need massive efforts from civil society and organizations like Pravah and Unlearn that work on gender to help make more inclusive curricula, train teachers, and do workshops with students.
Going from a co-ed school to an all-girls college, I had to unlearn a few things myself. LSR (Lady Shri Ram College) was a totally different egalitarian space. “Come on girls, let’s pick up that sofa,” said my sociology teacher while we were gearing up for a function, and at that moment, I had power, a kind of power I had never known before.