ref • uge
noun
A condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble.
If we want girls to succeed, we need to teach them the audacity to transgress. Through the lives of students at three very different schools, Sally A. Nuamah makes the case for “feminist schools” that orient girls toward a lifetime of achievement. In How Girls Achieve, Nuamah advocates for creating feminist schools that will actively teach girls how and when to challenge society’s norms and allow them to carve out their own paths to success. She says in the book, “The goal must be for girls everywhere to have the power to end up wherever it is that they want to be without bearing significantly different costs than their peers for doing so.”
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To show how educational institutions can make changes to help all students, regardless of their gender, Nuamah provides a feminist school tool kit:
Feminist School Tool Kit
Is your school a gender-equitable institution? Assess your school’s policies and practices using this checklist. If you find that you are saying “no” to some of these, then your school may be engaging in biased gender practices. Work with your students to become a feminist school!
Physical Environment
- Does your school have flush toilets?
- Are there separate bathroom facilities, and are they open to students based on their preferred gender identification?
- Are there gender-neutral bathrooms?
- Do you provide free sanitary pads?
- Does your school maintain its supplies of toilet paper?
Classroom Instruction
- Do you ask students what pronoun they identify with?
- Do your textbook examples defy gender-based stereotypes?
- Are girls and boys grouped together on projects?
- During gym or dance class are gender-neutral roles promoted?
- Do you ensure that girls and boys are participating in class at similar levels?
- Do you openly talk about menstruation and puberty in sex-education courses?
- Do you teach students to recognize abuse and give them the resources to respond?
School Policies
- Is there a specific place for students to report sexual abuse or misconduct?
- Are students reprimanded for reporting what happened to them?
- Are girls and boys able to wear the school uniform option that is most comfortable to them?
- Are girls and boys held to the same standard in terms of their body language?
- Do your curricula and policies account for those who may be differently abled, trans, queer, or gender-fluid?
Research and Data
- Do you ask students about their needs annually?
- Do you make this data available to all stakeholders—parents, teachers, community partners?
- Do you regularly assess your policies and design interventions to respond to them?
Let’s continue to build this assessment together. Send your ideas to howgirlsachieve@gmail.com.
