Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity.

I personally never felt being a female effected my education. I was always in a mixed group for classes and spent just as much time building bridges from junk as I did going to a calligraphy group. Interacting with boys in the classroom was easy and encouraged but as soon as we stepped out onto the playground the segregation happened. Boys ran off to play football as the girls huddled to do handstands and gossip. I wasn’t aware that this was inequality or an injustice against me because it was my own choice. Is it innate that we group according to gender? Do hormones play a roll in our interest or interaction with the opposite sex and was I treated in a more gentile manner because of my gender?

I found this document from 2007 highlighting the links between gender and inequality…

Although I have found reflecting on my own primary experience (way back in 1993-2000) has magnified the drastic social changes that children are relating to more and more. Gender confusion in younger children, the need to use gender as a form of identification i.e. transgender and how this must impact upon their lives. I believe as a teacher I will have to be aware of how I refer to a child, that should be as a person and as an individual. So, “boys line up first”, “can the girls all put their coats on” and “pick a girl to dance with” will become antiquated language.