Bottom of the Class: Ireland and the Impact of Single-Sex Schools on Gender-Based Violence

Bottom of the Class: Ireland and the Impact of Single-Sex Schools on Gender-Based Violence

By Eoin Ryan, SF Law and Political Science

Editors’ Note: This piece deals with gender-based violence, which some readers may find distressing.

The tragic murder of Ashling Murphy in Tullamore, Co. Offaly reignited an important and overdue conversation about how we deal with the endemic level of gender-based violence in our society. The statistics are alarming and disgraceful: a 2014 study by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency found that in Ireland, 1 in 4 women (26 per cent) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15. The perpetrators of these crimes are overwhelmingly male, with 2020 data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealing that 98 per cent of suspected offenders of detected sexual violence crimes reported were male.

Education is a key preventive measure against the misogynistic attitudes and values pervasive in society that cause and enable gender-based violence. Speaking in the wake of Ashling Murphy’s death, Director of the National Women’s Council, Orla O’Connor, submits that “what we need is real, systemic change through the education system” if we are to tackle this issue head on. While a progressive and comprehensive Relationships and Sexuality Education curriculum is a core aspect of any new educational approach, this article will seek to examine the impact of sex-segregated education in Ireland.

Single-Sex Schooling in Ireland

When it comes to the number of single-sex schools, Ireland is a outlier when compared to the international norm. According to the Global Education Monitoring Report, Malta is the only other country in Europe that has a higher concentration of single-sex schools than Ireland. The same report found that over one third of Irish second level schools are single-sex, significantly higher than all other Western countries. The unusually high proportion of single-sex schools can be attributed to the dominance and control of the Catholic Church over the Irish education system.

Since the founding of the State, the Church has played a prominent and outsized role in Irish schools, with nearly half of second-level institutions continuing under its patronage.

The religious practice of sex-segregated education is based on antiquated notions that girls and boys are intrinsically different and thus, should be taught separately. The Church-controlled education system can be traced back to 1831, which precipitated the decline of hedge schools and the establishment of a national system of education that the Catholic Bishops managed to successfully monopolise. This allowed the promotion of Catholic doctrine which espoused many stereotypical views in regards to sex such as the conceptualisation of women as “homekeepers” and men as “breadwinners.”

Effects of Sex-Segregated Education

Studies reveal that sex-segregated education leads to the reinforcement of gender roles which can manifest itself in different forms. Professor Chris Hickey of Deakin University, Melbourne argues that single-sex boys’ schools can facilitate and incubate hypermasculine and misogynistic cultures. Drawing on research from

2008-2017, Professor Hickey showed that while such attitudes are not solely found in single-sex schools, “there is a higher propensity for it when you have boys en masse who are left unchecked.” A vast array of academic literature has shown that all-boys schools are more likely to cultivate cultural norms that allow for sexist attitudes to be expressed, the marginilastion of women, and a tolerance of sexual abuse.

It has also been argued that single-sex schools can lead to sexist attitudes and behaviours among students. Speaking at the 2016 Congress of the American Psychological Association, former President Professor Diane Halpern affirmed that sex-segregation causes young people who attended single-sex schools to form strong stereotypes, in-group bias, and legitimise institutional sexism. Professor Halpern also highlighted how education is one of the only areas of public life which is segregated on the basis of sex and that single-sex schools consequently fail to adequately prepare their students for the diverse world in which they will have to live and develop relationships. “After graduation, virtually everyone will work for and with females and males – students need to learn mutual respect and the social skills of interacting.”

Sexist attitudes and gender stereotypes develop at a much higher rate in single-sex schooling than in their coeducational counterparts. A 2014 study comparing the two institutional arrangements showed that all-male environments produced a higher level of gender-based violence. It is submitted, that it is these sexist ideas and values that induce and enable a culture of violence against women. When misogyny has been legitimised by institutions, aside from the actual perpetration of the crime, men fail to call out inappropriate acts and instead are complicit in the facilitation of abusive behaviour.

It is often argued by proponents of single-sex schools that international research shows that academic outcomes are better for both boys and girls in sex-segregated education. However, a 2010 Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study by Professor Emer Smyth found that there was “very little consensus” on whether single-sex education leads to better academic outcomes for either sex. Single-sex schools are more likely to contain students from more affluent backgrounds, and when studies were adjusted for social class there was no significant difference in academic outcomes between coeducational and single-sex schools. Professor Smyth described the idea that girls perform better in single-sex schools as a “folk myth.” Similarly, a 2014 meta-analysis of 184 international studies, representing the testing of 1.6 million students, by Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin–Madison failed to find any advantages of single-sex education.

Private Members Bill

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, a Dublin TD and Labour Party Spokesperson on Education, has recently published a Private Members’ Bill that would seek to eliminate se discrimination in school admissions policies. The draft Bill proposes a 15-year period in which second-level institutions would phase out single-sex admissions, after which the State would cease funding any remaining single-sex schools. Deputy Ó Ríordáin argued that in order to properly deal with issues of consent, toxic masculinity, and gender equality it made more sense for boys and girls to be educated together as opposed to the current “outdated” system. The TD has also emphasised the necessity of adopting an education system that is “more reflective of every other European country.” In fact, coeducational schooling already represents de facto policy for the Department of Education, as the Department “hasn’t given recognition to a new single-sex school since 1998.”

While there may exist a preference within the Department for coeducational schools, former Minister for Education Richard Bruton has observed that the Catholic Church remains a “structural barrier in the system.”

The decision to transition a school from a single-sex system to coeducational remains within the power of the school’s patron, and given the high level of Catholic patronage for schools within Ireland, this has hampered any significant change.

Conclusion

Ultimately, reform of the education system and the potential abolition of single-sex schools will only form part of the larger reforms needed to combat gender-based violence. It is submitted that the prevailing orthodoxy must be challenged, the misogyny that sex-segregated education fosters should be considered unacceptable in contemporary Irish society, and a move to a fully coeducational model should be regarded as essential.