One in four female teachers subjected to misogyny amid 'masculinity crisis' in UK schools
The percentage of female teachers reporting misogyny from pupils has risen for the fourth year in a row.
A teaching union has warned that there is a “masculinity crisis” in UK schools and that a quarter of women teachers experience misogyny from pupils.
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Teaching union NASUWT has found that nearly one in four female teachers say they have been subject to misogyny from a pupil in the past year.
This is up from 22.2% last year, and up from less than one in five (17.4%) in 2023.
One teacher reported a student making naked images of her using artificial intelligence, while others reported being called misogynistic names regularly, and being meowed at by male students.
The NASUWT blamed online radicalisation for the increase, as well as sexist and hateful content on social media platforms.
NASUWT General Secretary Matt Wrack told LBC he is calling for policy change from the UK Government:
"People don't go to work to be abused. It shouldn't be acceptable in any walk of life that you go to work to be abused verbally or physically or in any way. And yet that is happening in schools, regrettably. So it needs to be confronted and addressed."
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Wrack insisted that social media and AI companies must be held responsible for misinformation.
He said: "Our young people are being exploited to feed tech billionaires’ endless appetites for profit and power, and our education system is under attack as a result."
“If female teachers are reporting that they cannot contain gender-based aggression in their classrooms – and that is exactly what they are telling NASUWT – then we have a ticking time bomb on our hands," he added.
The NASUWT surveyed more than 5,000 teachers, 23.4% of whom said they had been subjected to sexist, racist or homophobic language by a pupil in the past year.
Survey respondents reported being called a “f****** slag” by students, having sexual noises and gestures made at them, and being asked if they were on their period.
Teachers recalled that some male pupils do not listen to them when they address sexist comments, simply because because they are women.
One teacher, who said she faced misogyny on a daily basis, said: “[I] have had boys joke about raping girls in front of me and laughed about it when challenged.”
“Parents have told me if I can’t handle teenage boys then I need to ‘work in a f****** nursery’", she added.
The NASUWT is calling for mandatory training to help teachers identify, challenge and de-escalate misogynistic behaviour.
NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack said: “We have a masculinity crisis brewing in our schools.
"Teachers desperately need increased support to deal with this new frontier of behaviour management – it affects the wellbeing of everyone in the classroom.
"This generation of teachers faces an unprecedented task that requires urgent action from policymakers."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Misogynistic views are not innate, they are learned, and we are committed to using every possible tool to achieve our mission of halving violence against women and girls.
"Our updated RSHE guidance is designed to make sure all young people can identify positive role models, and we are providing resources to support teachers to recognise the signs of incel ideologies so we can intervene effectively, including through the Educate Against Hate programme.
"We are strengthening our mobile phones in schools guidance to make it even clearer that schools need to be mobile phone-free environments and launching a consultation to seek views from experts, parents and young people to make sure children have a healthy relationship with phones and social media.”