As a child I cant say that gender affected me. However I asked my grandparents how gender impacted them at school and I thought it would be interesting to see how times have changed. They said girls were separated from boys to do different classes. The girls learned sewing and cooking and boys learned more manual work. They said very rarely mixed with the opposite sex in the classroom or outside the classroom, and even encouraged to not mix with the opposite sex from teachers.

My experience at school however was completely different to this looking back now I can see that gender was present in my schooling experience however not to the extent were I would say it affected me. The girls did tend to play with other girls and the same for the boys. However I don’t see this as an inequality its more due to what interests you. I played in the boys football team and there were a few boys who came to the schools dance club. Within the classroom the groups we sat in were mixed and we were all treated fairly. There were times within the classroom that we were defined by our gender such as when lining up outside the classroom there was a boys line and a girls line. Or for example when it came to carrying the pack lunch box to the dining hall the teacher would look for a ‘strong boy’ ( I was always glad about this as it was far to heavy for me!). For me personally gender never stopped being able to do what I wanted to do. Maybe in the past this could have been a huge issue in the classroom but definitely not for me during my schooling experience.