Stop Sexist Remarks

Children and young people are impressionable, and they are influenced by adults in positions of authority, especially those they interact with daily. For most children, that includes their elementary or middle and high school teachers. 

What teachers say affects how students perceive the world around them and how they analyze, think about, and respond to new information or ideas. When teachers convey negative messages about women’s status or abilities, girls and young women may absorb the message that they are not as valued or that their roles in the community are limited by their gender. Boys and young men may conclude that girls and women should not be chosen to be leaders and are not qualified for certain careers. When sexist remarks in the classroom go unchallenged, girls and boys also learn to remain silent when derogatory remarks are made about women. 

Educators, parents, and other concerned adults therefore need to be concerned about the messages that children and young people hear about women in the classroom. 

It is important, however, to give teachers and school administrators the benefit of the doubt. They work in an increasingly complex culture, dealing with myriad parental perspectives and value systems. Ensuring that children’s school experience is not routinely influenced by sexist remarks is something that all concerned adults will want to be vigilant about—but in a realistic and reasonable manner. 

This is critical because everyone in a teaching/public speaking role—especially those who do so 8 hours a day, 5 days a week—will misspeak every now and then. Sometimes their comments will be made in passing, without the degree of analysis that others might bring to bear on the subject, especially those who have a finely attuned antenna for sexist remarks. Or a teacher’s comment will be taken out of context, thereby potentially changing either the meaning or the speaker’s intent. 

For that reason, the best approach is to begin by trying to promote a healthy, egalitarian culture in the local school system, rather than simply monitoring for sexist remarks. School board members, school principals/administrators, teachers, parents, and other concerned adults might use the strategies below—and create others—to contribute to efforts to eliminate the use of sexist comments. 

Working together, they can help define what constitutes sexist comments. They also can move schools toward effectively training teachers and students about, and then holding them responsible for, maintaining an environment free of sexist remarks. 

Strategies for School Boards
Strategies for School Principals/Administrators
Strategies for Teachers
Strategies for Parents

Do you have other ideas about how schools can maintain a “sexist remark-free” environment?  

Are you currently involved in efforts to end sexist remarks in a local school system? 

If so, at the bottom of this page please post your ideas and/or a description of your efforts so that others can learn from your experience.

School Boards might consider doing the following:

1. Determining (on the basis of their designated authority) whether there is a need for a school-system-wide policy that prohibits the use of sexist remarks (including reviewing existing individual school policies).
2. Discussing with school administrators and teachers the value of prohibiting sexist comments in schools.
3. Supporting school principals and administrators in establishing protocols for addressing teacher conduct related to the use of sexist language.

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School Principals/Administrators might consider doing the following:

1. Establishing policies that prohibit the use of sexist remarks in the classroom and during other school-sanctioned activities, including field trips and sporting events.
2. Forming coalitions with local women’s groups to design and conduct training for teachers on (1) how to avoid using sexist remarks during classroom lectures and other school-related activities and (2) creative strategies for intervening when students make sexist remarks, specifically using those as teaching moments to make students more aware of the impact of their words.
3. Developing a system for continually assessing whether sexist remarks are routinely being made in the presence of students at the school and by whom, including a process through which parents might report serious patterns of sexist remarks by school employees.
4. Establishing a formal process for situations that demand intervention with teachers or other school personnel regarding their use of sexist remarks.

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Teachers might consider doing the following:

1. Working with the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) to implement strategies for ensuring that sexist remarks about women are not tolerated in the classroom.
2. Monitoring their own language during lectures, meetings, and other interactions with students.
3. Intervening effectively when students make sexist remarks during class or other school-sanctioned activities, and using those as age-appropriate teaching moments to make students more aware of the impact of their words.
4. Encouraging middle- and high-school students to avoid sexist language in their writing and analysis.
5. Engaging older students in designing and providing training to younger students about the importance of language and the need to avoid sexist remarks.

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Parents might consider doing the following:

1. Getting involved with or encouraging the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) to implement strategies for ensuring that sexist remarks about women are not tolerated in the classroom.
2. Asking school board members and school administrators to establish policies that prohibit the use of sexist remarks in the classroom and during other school-sanctioned activities.
3. Asking those running for seats on the local school board about their plans for eliminating sexist remarks in the school system.
4. Becoming familiar with the school system’s formal process for parental reporting of serious patterns of sexist remarks by school employees.
5. Assessing whether sexist remarks are being made in their child’s classroom, which won’t be a simple process, especially because parents’ experience often will be indirect. They therefore might try doing the following:

Asking their children about what they hear and learn in school each day. Keep in mind that when parents and children have discussed the use of sexist remarks in the culture (see Taking Action with Your Family), it will be easier  for children to identify and respond age-appropriately to sexist remarks when they occur.

Spending time in their children’s classroom and/or talking frequently with other parents who are able to do so.

Talking with their middle-school- and high-school-age children about appropriate ways to challenge assumptions or remarks when those are made by adults in authority.

Determining over time whether sexist remarks are routinely being made in the presence of their children at school and by whom, and then using the appropriate channels for voicing their concerns.

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