Sad as it is, there’s still a lot of sexism in our society despite the decades of work to try and overturn it. From women being objectified, the glass ceiling in business (which many people prefix with “proverbial”, personally I wouldn’t), the list goes on. It’s quite sad to be honest that this discrimination still takes place.
It’s not always females who are being given the short end of the straw, though. Men too can suffer from sexism. I will say before I get any further that women do suffer the massive brunt of it. The point of this article isn’t to cry persecution, “woe is me” or to trivialise sexism against women in any way shape or form. It most definitely is a horrible thing that still requires a LOT of work to rectify in our society. I simply aim to raise awareness that there is also sexism against men.
The case in point and inspiration for this article is something that appeared in yesterday’s Courier Mail. A female Physical Education teacher received her sentence after being accused of grooming some year 12 students in to a sexual relationship with her. She has been reported as watching sexually explicit DVD’s in a classroom while lying under a blanket, providing fake ID’s and taking a girl to nightclubs.
This appears to have been an internal investigation by the Australian Rugby Union, with the results of … her being disqualified as a teacher and restricted to only coaching 18+ year olds. She can reapply as a teacher after 5 years, though.
Now, if she was a male teacher grooming students (male or female) in similar ways, not only would the teacher be struck off for life (rather than a mere 5 years), there would also be numerous civil and criminal charges with the male teacher facing massive fines, most-likely gaol, and definitely a horde of pedophilia accusations. They would be completely shamed, have to quietly move interstate just to set up a new life away from these accusations and vitriol.
This female teacher on the other hand, is still being allowed to play Rugby Union and coach teams as long as the students are 18 or older.
This isn’t the only case of sexism against men. I have heard countless anecdotes from male parents who are scared to take their own child shopping or to the park anymore without an escort from their wife’s or a female friend due to fear of pedophilia accusations. Numerous confrontations where police were called by other overly paranoid parents seeing a single male with a child, despite nothing being out of the ordinary nor any hint of poor treatment to the child.
As I said before, women do suffer from sexism to a significantly greater degree than men do. The degree to which men suffer from it is almost negligible, but it’s still out there. Sexism is discrimination based on sex, whether that sex is female or male, or whether that discrimination is negative (eg objectifying) or positive (eg chivalry).
Bastard Sheep 
Try being a male primary school teacher.
We are being told that primary schools are crying out for male primary teachers. Study after study is coming out saying that all students need both positive male and female education role models to have a better chance of achieving their potential at schools.
However mention that you are becoming one and you can see that appraising/questioning look. Even more so when you say that you would prefer to teach year one or year two.
Understandably I will struggle to get a job teaching kindergarten or year one students. There are times when those kids just need a hug and being male means that they just can’t get it from me.
I know of male teachers who say that they never consider teaching younger than year 3/4 because they don’t want to confront the stigma that is attached to it.