The discovery of sexism in schools: Everyday revolutions in the classroom

Feminism was an influential movement in education in the 1970s, with formal state-based policies developed on equal opportunity and non-sexist education as well as substantial school-based and grassroots activity in Australia and elsewhere. Within teacher unions and curriculum associations, there was an explosion of publications, dedicated committees and high-profile activism. The impact of this work was felt across school programs, in classroom teaching and in heightened attention to ‘sexism in education’ as a category of policy, pedagogical and scholarly attention. This encompassed sustained attention to the sex role, sexuality education and new approaches to the explicit role of curriculum in teaching for and about ‘human relations’. Educational reform was a key theme in the recommendations arising from the 1975 Royal Commission on Human Relationships. The report’s first recommendation on education loftily directed that: