Pink for a girl, and blue for a boy? Jemima Hughes – Jarvis, Notting Hill & Ealing High School

All over the world, clothes shops that sell children’s clothing products are being made that contribute to the gender stereotypes and rely on the criticising of the female gender to sell their clothes. 

When Poundland began to sell baby clothes one of their first products was a boys onesie reading ‘Future Boss’ however the girls version read ‘Born to be spoiled’, this created an outburst by some parents trying to buy childrens clothes without exploiting their children and making the female gender come across as weaker and lack the intelligence that companies claim boys have.  

I attend Notting Hill & Ealing High School, a girls school which only aim is to educate and enrich us and for us to know that our sex is irrelevent to our education. My school is known for making it compulsory to do all three sciences for GCSE and this expands our choices and encourages us to do science for A levels. I know that perceiving girls not as intellectual as boys is simply incorrect, a girl can do just as much as boys can if not more. 

I’m not saying men don’t face stereotypes, however the degree and repetition of the stereotypes, ones that constantly bring them down is much less. 

There are many stereotypes of women that have stuck to us throughout history in addition to more being added constantly. If we go back in history you find insults for women such as a classic ‘go back to the kitchen’ which is such a derogatory phrase used to undermine women’s status. It is still used today. 

If we go back in history even more back to where women were prosecuted for being ‘witches’ they were killed in many different ways such as hanging, ducking, and being burnt on a stick. The first ‘witch’ to be killed was Agnes Waterhouse in 1566 and she was hanged, she was accused of using witchcraft to make her husband unwell. Are women crazy? Are we unable to do anything? Are we on our period, if we speak up about anything? What have women done wrong? 

Or maybe that woman would rather ‘go to their daughter’s piano recital than stay all night at work, working on a proposal’ said by Gavin McInnes as a guest on Fox News, can women win? In a society that is designed for men where whatever a woman does they will be mocked and not taken as seriously as men. It will change, it is changing and soon equality will be expected, nothing less.