Let’s not fixate on co-ed v single-sex. Both can elevate our kids – or fail them

Schools are complex organisations with many confounding variables. For example, while the remaining NSW all-girls government schools produce solid academic outcomes, it is rarely noted that most of these are in middle-class areas. Class is seldom raised in debates about co-education, despite decades of evidence of correlations between family wealth and academic success.

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Another common defence of all-girls schools is that they shelter girls from the broader gendered climate, providing them a space to flourish free from the stereotypes that might otherwise restrain them. Some girls’ schools pitch themselves as helping to break gender barriers by offering more opportunities for leadership and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Implicit also, perhaps, is a sense that girls’ schooling provides respite from everyday sexism. This concern is understandable, given the disproportionate rates of gender-based violence experienced by girls and LGBTIQ+ youth, and troubling reports of the influence of popular misogynist influencers among young men.

However, girls’ schools do not necessarily protect their students from harsh gender norms or gender-based violence. There is a long history of girls’ schools reinforcing the social limitations of gender. Many of the girls’ high schools in NSW were originally founded as domestic science schools, established in the 1930s to prepare girls for a future as housewives. Girls’ schools before the 1970s typically offered very limited career advice, and many still speak to their students about the importance of “lady-like behaviour”. Girls themselves will often reinforce limiting norms to do with sexuality, gender and femininity.

It is not the gender enrolment so much as the gender culture and values of a school that make the difference. Many girls’ schools have embraced a mandate fpr supporting girls to overcome limitations placed on them by culture, but co-ed settings are just as capable of taking up that mantle. By opening their doors to all children, co-ed schools are well placed to support and extend students, regardless of gender. Students’ learning can be approached beyond segregated gender groups, focusing instead on shared interests and aptitudes.

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To be clear: this is not an automatic outcome of co-education. Schools are part of the broader gendered world we all live in, and all schools will reproduce that culture if they do not actively work to change it. A whole-of-school approach to gender equality and diversity ensures that all facets of a school prioritise equity and challenge stereotypes and norms, from daily teaching to a school’s ethos, policies and partnerships. These types of schools – and they do exist – are places where all children can thrive.

Kellie Burns is a senior lecturer in education, Jessica Kean is a lecturer in gender and cultural studies, and Helen Proctor is a professor in education, all at the University of Sydney.