Fed up of not seeing great feminist thinkers and doers in their history books, the Feminist Collective at Fitzroy High School, Victoria, Australia, decided to create a feminist elective. The class, which could be rolled out across their entire state, includes 30 lessons on feminism and feminist thought, covering topics from systemic sexism, objectification of women to the links between gender inequality and violence against women.
Briony O’Keefe, who helped to set up the Fightback curriculum, told The Age: ‘We're trying to get young men and women to think a bit more critically about the sorts of sexist behaviours they might either engage in or see on a daily basis.
‘And on a teaching level, I wanted to create free, accessible curriculum for teachers who might want to talk about these issues but don't know how or where to start.’
The idea started as part of the Feminist Collective’s lunchtime meetings, with students complaining they were fed up of: only studying books by white middle- class men, seeing friends succumb to eating disorders, objectification of girls on Facebook and being branded ‘feminazis’ on social media.
Once it gathered pace, there was more backlash, in the form of male students looking for a ‘men’s rights collective.’
Stella Bridie, one student, said: ‘It got increasingly aggressive. And these are lovely people... I tried to stay calm, but when I left, I just about to burst out into tears, because these were a couple of my really good friends who had just yelled at me, for simply saying that I want rights.’
This, coupled with the fact that only three boys to 10 girls signed up to the initial class, is a sure sign that any feminism in schools should be taught outside of electives. Because as great as it is to provide young women and girls with the solidarity feminism can offer, to effect change, there is no point preaching to the choir.
A better solution, at least in the UK, could be one proposed by the Women’s Equality Party in its manifesto, launched last month. Among other great things, it suggested that history books be audited to see if there are points where women’s contribution to the world could be included where it’s previously been washed over.
Though the Government hasn't actually put this in action (the WEP want the Government to steal all its policies), young people are already working to make it happen. As well as university students campaigning for syllabuses to feature some women, last week, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Rupa Huq (sister of Konnie!), asked David Cameron if he would congratulate one of her constituents, a student who got Edexcel to put female composers on to its music syllabus for the first time ever. He did congratulate her, not before gloating that having a third of female MPs in his cabinet makes him a great feminist…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.