Feminism in Education

By: Amy Steiger

If you want kids to believe in or follow something, you must teach them about
it and instill it in them at an early age. For example, if you wanted a child to be
religious, you would teach them from a young age about that religion and how to
follow it. If you wanted a child to be kind, you must teach them right from the
beginning how to be kind and what it means to be kind. This is why students should
be taught feminism in schools and we, as a society shall achieve gender equality.

The common refutation against feminism is that it is really just the same as
man-hating, and therefore we should shun it rather than try to make it grow. In
2013, a Huffington Post poll showed that 82% of respondents believed that men
and women should be social, political, and economic equals, but only 20% selfidentified as feminists (Cummins). Clearly, no one knows the real meaning of
feminism. Feminism does not mean that women should have more power over men.
The definition of feminism, as shown in the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, is the
advocacy of equality of the sexes (291). This can be socially, politically, and
economically. People can learn this and fix the negative stigma against feminism if
we teach it to children in schools. Most people already believe in feminism; they are
just too afraid of the word to admit it.

Teaching feminism to kids will simply get more people to identify as feminists,
which will then get more people to join womens movements and spread what they

know to others, causing the gender equality change that we need in the world.
However, only so much change can occur if only half of the population believes in it.
This is why teaching it to children in schools is also important for getting more boys
involved. According to a Washington Post poll, as of early 2016 while 43% of women
identified as feminists, only 23% of men identified as feminists (Cai and Clement).
This is problematic as men are often the ones at the top of the hierarchy hence
the need for feminism in the first place and therefore they are the ones that
especially need to be taught about it so that they can start making a change.

Schools will teach the real meaning of feminism, and not the man-hating
definition. Both women and men will be more convinced once they realize that
feminism is very similar to equality. They will be more comfortable identifying as a
feminist and that will cause others to as well. In the CBC Doc Zone, The F Word a
documentary about why young women and girls not only do not identify as
feminists but shy away from that word multiple women talk about how they do not
identify as feminists themselves because the word seems negative, hateful, and
ugly. As for women that do identify as feminists, they refuse to tell people that
they do and instead hide it away. How are we supposed to achieve gender equality
if nobody will stand up and say that they identify as someone who believes in the
equal stance between genders? This can change by kids learning the true definition
of feminism, and that feminism and gender equality are really one and the
same.

Lastly, teaching feminism to kids as a part of their school curriculum is

necessary because it will lead to gender equality. Gender equality is obviously
important because we are all human and the stigma that men should have a more
powerful stance than women is one that should have been demolished a long time
ago, because there is nothing that men can do that women cannot. Also, children
are the next generation. They are the ones who will grow up and hold the power to
do something with the knowledge that we give them, should they choose to.
Therefore, it is our responsibility to give them the proper knowledge they will need
to reach these goals.

In conclusion, students should be taught feminism in schools in order to

achieve gender equality. It will teach more people to be feminists, including boys,
who will then be able to make the biggest changes towards equality. It will teach the
real meaning of feminism so that people can understand that they are supporting
equality and not the belief that women should be seen as higher up than men.
Finally, in the end it will lead to the necessary equality of the sexes in our society.