into the new thing

Girls need Buffy to win gender battle
Polly Curtis, The Guardian
Monday March 8, 2004

Girls need more role models like the fictional character Buffy the Vampire Slayer to help them out of the rut that sees them doing better than boys at school, but stalling in their careers later in life, the chief inspector of schools said today.

David Bell told a conference to mark International Women's Day that despite girls getting better grades at GCSEs and A-levels, and more going into higher education, they were less likely to get the top grades at university, less likely to be promoted and more likely to be badly paid.

He said the female role models provided in the media were crucial. "It is easy to mock the whole idea of role models and what children pick up in the media," he told the Fawcett Society in London. "But if we believe that television can be a powerful influence on young lives, and who doesn't, then having a balance of 'strong' and 'gentle' characters of both sexes is important.

"So, I can't get excited enough to insist that Postman Pat is accompanied on his rounds by Postwoman Patricia in the interests of fairness and justice. But more power to the elbow of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a strong fictional female character if there was ever one."

"Laddish" behaviour, homosexual bullying and the use of the word "girl" as an insult all needed to be dealt with to ensure that all pupils had a chance to succeed in school, he said.

However, he also warned that schools were too often failing girls. "Boys do not have a monopoly on problems. Disengaged girls also need help and support to encourage them to take an active interest in their learning. Indeed the consequences for these "lost-girls" can often be more life altering than for boys. In short, girls can be left holding the baby, often literally."

And where girls became unhappy at school, they can quietly get lost in the system, with severe consequences, he added. "This withdrawal from school and from learning can also be the result of abuse outside school, including sexual abuse. Girls are also more likely to self-harm as an extreme way of getting relief from painful lives and a lack of control. A few contemplate suicide - and some, tragically, take that step."

Part of the reason why girls were less likely to earn the top wages later in life, Mr Bell said, was that they made different career choices at school from boys. "This gender divide begins early," he said, with girls opting out of IT, maths and the sciences and more likely to go for less financially rewarding caring careers or arts subjects, such as English, sociology, art and design.

This point was echoed today by the publication of a report from the Institute of Physics, also to mark International Women's Day, which said that too many women were opting for the arts over the sciences in schools.

Children start forming opinions about jobs from an early age and if they do not know any scientists or engineers it is easy for them to dismiss a career in science, engineering or technology, out of hand, the report said. Parents' misconceptions and stereotypes about careers can have a negative influence on children's decision-making, it added.

"More than 50% of female school leavers [in the EU] have the potential to start degree courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering, but universities are losing a lot of these candidates," said Dr Helga Ebeling, an expert at the Women and Science Unit of the European Commission.

Julia King, chief executive of the IoP, said: "The Institute of Physics recognises the difficulties facing women in physics and related careers, and we are doing our best to change attitudes and to create a better working environment for all physicists, both female and male."

The speech in full
Guardian letters & This Week response