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At its annual conference last summer, the National Union of School Students (NUSS) carried a resolution that women's groups should be set up at a regional level throughout the union, which has a membership of 12,000. The initiative came from women members in London, who themselves set up such a group last spring. SUSAN ROSTON is a member of this group.
The article that follows is written by a member of this group, and raises some of the general questions associated with women's oppression in schools and the preparations made by the education system for women's role in capitalist society.
Much theoretical work has yet to be done on these questions, not least by school students and teachers, and the women activists in NUSS have not yet determined how they will practically take up the issues which concern them. The article is therefore an initial contribution to the debates which are now necessary.
The leaflet which has been circulated to all branches of NUSS states: *Few active members of NUSS would deny the oppression of women in our society. Most active members we feel are aware that women need to organise themselves and make themselves aware of their oppression so as to fight against it...
Women's position in society is reflected in the division of the sexes in schools and in the home, At nursery school age most children are already influenced by their home environment and this continues when they go to nursery or primary school. Here the division is widened due to the different types of attitudes towards girls and boys. Girls are given dolls to play with, and they act out the role of nurse and mother. Boys are immediately taught they are much stronger than girls, play with cars and guns, or act out the role of the father.
TOMBOY At this ago, I can't remember any boys wanting to be girls, whereas many giris did want to be boys-hence the tomboy image. Boys are taught that they have to make the decisions. Attitudes towards agressiveness in giris and boys are completely different at school. If a boy is aggressive it is considered quite normal while an aggressive girl is told this behavior is wrong and in future she must behave far more passively.
Throughout their school career, most boys are encouraged to study at home (to be equipped to fulfill the role of their father), while girls are generally influenced to fulfill the role of their mother: they Icarn housework and how to bring up a family.
All this becomes entangled with your school career, when girls are taught cooking and needlework, and boys are taught metal work and technical drawing.
In addition to this there is a distinct division between the type of sports that boys and girls learn. Boys tend to receive far more training in building up their museles with such activities as cross country running and weight lifting.
As a result of this extra training men are considered by society to be naturally physically stronger than women, as well as being considered to possess a larger mental and academic capacity, which results from these different attitudes to girls and boys in education.
This distinction between girls and boys is enhanced in single-sex schools. These schools directly teach girls and boys that they are totally different to cach other. (like splitting black races from white races). More money is usually given to boys schools for science laboratories and mathematics departments. Whereas girls schools tend to concentrate far more of their. money on typing and art subjects, as well of course, as on subjects such as cookery and needlework.
Sex education which in most schools is taught far too late to teach the students anything they haven't already learnt from other (not necessarily so accurate) sources, only aids this system of discrimiyation between the sexes. Girls and boys are usually split up into different classes. They are given the impression that they need to know different things about sex and the sexual organs of the body than the opposite sex. This results in a tremendous amount of confusion between the sexes.
Also the boy is taught that it is up to him to start off any form of sexual relationship, and this can lead to a very cunbarrasing situation between girls and boys. If each sex understood what was wrong with his or her sexual partner at certain times there would probably be far less conflict within many relationships.
S.P.U.C.
At my school we had a speaker from the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child to talk to us about abortion and contraception. We were shown hotrific films about foetuses designed to put girls off from having an abortion. False and deliberately misleading information was handed out to the students, and many girls walked out after the lesson saying they would never have an abortion.
No one spoke in favour of abortion, and everyone ignored the oppression that results from women having children they don't want.
A month later, a speaker from the Responsible Society told us of the necessity of getting married, and not having sex outside of marriage. She wasn't married, but she was hoping to be. She handed out a booklet which romantised marriage, and the questions at the back included: 'How would you feel if you were a bastard?
### CAREERS
For most girls it is assumed that their job is not as important as the boys' jobs, as it is very likely that the majority of girls will soon or ultimately get married. This will probably happen but mainly because there is very little else available for women to do. When women get married it is assumed that quite naturally they will divert attention to looking after their family, and a job outside all the work they do in the home is not so important.
Therefore careers talks are mainly aimed at boys, and especially those who are to fulfill the leading jobs in society These boys are usually the middle class boys who have been taught throughout their school careers by school and society that they are to run society.
Finally, the fact that the two sexes are so often split up just generates the idea that men and women are completely different to each other, and should fulSCHOOL
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fill totally different roles in our society. ST. HI LANS