Overview

This book confronts an escalating crisis unfolding in Australian schools: the influence of manosphere-aggravated misogyny and the everyday gendered violences it produces. Drawing on interviews and testimonies from over 130 teachers, it examines the legacy of the profound harms caused by Andrew Tate, and the ways that other manosphere groups and ideologies are shaping boys’ attitudes and behaviour towards women in schools. The book argues that manosphere ideologies, amplified by powerful platform algorithms and galvanised by wider political shifts towards far-right populism and grievance-based politics, are contributing to misogynist radicalisation, increasingly surfacing in classrooms in boys' hostility towards gender equality, profound sexist behaviours and strengthened commitments to the idea of 'male supremacy.' Part I maps this terrain, centring teachers' accounts that show how misogynistic narratives take hold, how they reanimate long-standing patterns of sexism in schools and how institutions themselves often minimise or dismiss women educators’ experiences. Part II turns to solutions, offering practical, research-informed guidance for teachers, leaders and policymakers seeking to build safer school environments and enable effective violence prevention work to take place. It provides strategies for whole-school change along with complementary pedagogical tools, while grappling with the structural barriers that hinder progress towards just outcomes. Accessible yet deeply grounded in data and theoretical analysis, Schooling Misogyny is both a diagnosis and a call to action—an essential resource for anyone committed to addressing and preventing gender-based violence and creating more transformative educational futures.

Full Product Details

9781041048701

Table of Contents

Reviews

'A rare mix of prescient analysis, unflinching challenge, and practical solutions, Schooling Misogyny shows how schooling is an enabling environment for pervasive and rising misogyny and is simultaneously the best hope we have to confront it. Urgent, powerful, and an essential call to action: this is the book every educator needs right now.' Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss, School of Public Affairs and School of Education, American University, USA ‘Few academic texts manage the balance between readability, robust research and real-world remedies with the deftness of Schooling Misogyny. This book will be an essential tool for all educators hoping to tackle the dangers of structural misogyny in schools. Ultimately, Schooling Misogyny’s greatest benefits will be for all the students who depend on their schools to keep them safe, help them learn, and teach them how to build a better world for everyone.’ Jane Gilmore, award winning author of best selling book Fixed It: Violence and the representation of women in the media, and It takes a village to teach your children about consent ‘This excellent and urgently needed book addresses the growing influence of online male supremacism in schools today. Crucially, it avoids positing the manosphere as a problem that can be rooted out of an otherwise functional education system. On the contrary, it situates the impact of and responses to digital misogyny as continuous with a long and deep-rooted history of institutional misogyny in schools, demonstrating why and how successfully tackling this issue requires self-critique, honesty and long-term, whole-school approaches. Schooling Misogyny’s key message, that ‘unlearning misogyny’ benefits everyone in education, is a powerful call to action, and will resonate far beyond the Australian context.’ Professor Debbie Ging, Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities, Dublin City University, Ireland 'Amid growing concern about the influence of the manosphere in education settings, Schooling Misogyny is a timely contribution. Empirically grounded and practically focused, the book offers compelling accounts of the persistence and escalation of sexism and misogyny in Australian classrooms. It builds on this evidence to provide guidance for schools and policymakers seeking to foster more gender-respectful schooling environments. It is an important read for educators, leaders, and policymakers committed to preventing gender-based violence through education.' Professor Amanda Keddie, School of Education, Deakin University, Australia

Author Information

Stephanie Wescott, PhD, is Lecturer in Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. Her research examines misogyny and gender-based violence in school settings. Steven Roberts is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia. He has published widely in the area of critical masculinities studies, including on risky drinking, sexting, the manosphere, computer gaming, emotionality, violence, domestic labour and paid care work.

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