The DfE claims that the present National Curriculum is “broad and balanced,” but critics argue that this dismisses its ongoing gender gaps, which quietly reinforce inequality in education settings.
The curriculum’s blind spots
The problem isn’t often an explicit ban, but rather a deeply ingrained bias in what our children are taught. Here are a few examples:
History
How many school textbooks actually mention women’s revolutionary accomplishments, outside a few queens and suffragettes? According to a 2017 University College London Institute of Education study, women accounted for less than 20% of identified people in the UK’s secondary history curriculum, with many confined to domestic or royal roles rather than drivers of substantial societal change.
STEM
Despite decades of campaigning, the path to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is still gendered. While females routinely outperform boys in many areas, the UK Department for Education (DfE) statistics shows a gender difference in A-level topics such as Physics and Computer Science. This is frequently due to subtle stereotyping in materials, a lack of visible female role models in STEM given in the curriculum, and even unconscious biases in teaching methods (source- PubMed Central).
Consent: The Unfinished Lesson
While Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) became compulsory in English schools in 2020, its implementation and depth vary. According to surveys conducted by the Sex Education Forum, a large majority of young people continue to rate their RSE as “bad” or “very bad,” often lacking critical parts such as understanding healthy relationships and how to clearly receive or provide consent. This leaves a major vacuum in equipping young women to manage their physical autonomy and personal safety.
Why does this matter?
This curricular imbalance can have serious, long-term repercussions.
Impact on Aspirations:
When girls fail to see themselves represented in leading jobs, their self-esteem and career goals may be subtly limited. According to a Microsoft study published in 2018, visible female role models greatly increase girls’ interest and confidence in STEM disciplines.
Fuelling economic gaps:
The curriculum perpetuates gender gaps by gently discouraging girls from certain careers, particularly STEM. According to UK DfE data, this disparity directly contributes to women’s under-representation in higher-paying industries and the larger gender pay gap.
Risks to Safety and Agency:
A curriculum that lacks strong consent and healthy relationship education leaves young women unprepared to deal with complex social situations. The Sex Education Forum reminds us that uneven RSE can raise vulnerability and undermine confidence in arguing for personal boundaries.
Diminishing Critical Thought:
By minimising female viewpoints, students miss out on a thorough understanding of society intricacies and power relations. This can limit their ability to critically examine and oppose the patriarchal standards that dominate our culture.
The Dystopian Echo: Narrative Control from the Classroom?
The disturbing “dystopian” element here isn’t a totalitarian dictatorship suppressing books (though that is also a problem); it’s a widespread, subtle type of narrative control that is taking place right in front of our eyes. It’s the subtle way the curriculum trains young brains to accept a constrained reality for women.
Consider being taught a version of history in which women are secondary figures, or a vision of the future in which some powerful vocations are implicitly labelled “male.” The systematic filtering of knowledge leads to a dystopia in which potential is prescribed. Girls learn implicitly what society expects of them, not what they are genuinely capable of. Their goals are shaped by a historically biased understanding.
True unbiased education demands a fundamental reshaping of how we tell our stories, ensuring that the chapters of “her” are no longer left unwritten.
