France’s gender equality watchdog has called for an “emergency plan” to combat widespread sexism that is affecting youths in particular, amid concern that the country’s education system is failing to foster gender equality from a young and vulnerable age, reports FRANCE 24.
While online exposure to pornography is cause for particular alarm, experts say the sexist “backlash” is also evidence that feminist themes have made important inroads, stirring vibrant – if often acrimonious – debates.
Five years into the #MeToo movement, and almost six years after President Emmanuel Macron declared gender equality the “Grand Cause” of his first mandate, France’s main equality watchdog has offered a scathing assessment of the country’s progress on the matter.
According to the High Council for Equality between Women and Men (HCE), sexism is far from retreating in France. In fact, some of its most violent manifestations are getting worse, the council warned in its annual report this week, noting that French society remains “highly sexist at every level” and that “younger generations are the most affected”.
The watchdog flagged a sexist “backlash”, amplified by social media, that seeks “to reduce women to silence”. It called for a national “emergency plan” to combat what it described as ”the massive, violent and sometimes lethal consequences" of sexism in a country with stubbornly high rates of gender-based violence.
The HCE’s scathing report is only the latest to flag major shortcomings in fostering gender equality in French schools. In August last year, the HCE’s head Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette had already panned the government over its failure to “treat equality and respect between men and women as an educational priority for children.”
Pierre-Brossolette expressed particular concern about the failure to provide adequate sex education at a time when youths face unprecedented exposure to pornography on social media. She warned that failure to protect young boys from pornographic content would “sow the seeds of future violence and femicides”.
Sex education classes are mandatory in France, but a report released by the Education Ministry’s General Inspectorate last year found that only 15% of high-school students and 20% of middle-school pupils received proper tuition. A separate study by the feminist group #NousToutes concluded that French pupils on average attended one in seven such sessions throughout their schooling – most of them taught by their biology teachers rather than trained specialists.
“Reproduction and sexuality are not the same thing – it’s not enough to know where the fallopian tubes are!” said Margot Fried-Filliozat, a sex therapist who gives sexuality classes to pupils aged 12 to 15 in the Paris region.
Fried-Filliozat said sex education classes are a key component of the fight against sexism and sexual violence, allowing teachers to introduce the notion of consent while fostering “genuine and uninhibited” exchanges with students.
“When they see that I use real words and that I don't hesitate, they speak much more freely,” she said, adding that the #MeToo movement had helped raise awareness and loosen tongues. She noted a growing outspokenness among young girls, citing one pupil who shouted in class, “Of course girls masturbate – it’s important!”