NEWSLETTER No. 125, FEBRUARY 2007

 

 

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JULIA GILLARD: TOO BAD FOR THE BOYS

BABETTE FRANCIS

The election of Julia Gillard as deputy leader of the Labor Party brought back unhappy memories of giving evidence in 2000 to a House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations of which she was a member. The Committee was examining the educational disadvantage experienced by boys and seeking recommendations to ameliorate their plight.  Members of the public  could make submissions, and, among others, Alan Barron, Institute of Men's Studies, and I, were subsequently invited to make a verbal presentation.

As a member of the Victorian Committee on Equal Opportunity in Schools (1975-77) the problems experienced by boys was a topic which I had researched. In my presentation I showed slides illustrating that it was not only in education that boys were disadvantaged but that males suffered disadvantage in all areas of life with the exception of monetary earnings. Male life expectancy was six years lower than that of females, and male infant mortality higher than  female infant mortality. Males are far more likely than females to be in prison, and to be victims of homicide, suicide, road accidents and drug or alcohol addiction. Male success rates at Year 12 exams are substantially lower than the female success rate, and boys outnumber girls four to one in requiring remedial or special education.

Alan Barron and I made some eminently reasonable recommendations, such as that educators should acknowledge the biological and psychological differences between the sexes and not uncritically adopt a feminist vision of an androgynous society; that schools could consider offering single-sex classes, and that the recruitment of more male teachers should be encouraged.

To our astonishment, Julia Gillard adopted a hostile attitude to our evidence, almost as if we were "the accused in the dock" required to provide alibis for our whereabouts. I complained to Dr. Brendan Nelson, Chairman of the Committee, that members of the public giving information  to a Parliamentary Inquiry are doing the nation a service as they offer their time and effort without pay and deserve to be treated with courtesy.

While I welcome debate, Julia Gillard turned the discussion into a totally different inquiry about 'why aren't there more women orthopedic surgeons or Members of Parliament'  - no doubt one of her pet peeves. I tried to explain that much of the discrepancy in male/female career outcomes and earnings are due to women's choices and the fact that women have babies and take time off from jobs to raise children. While numbers of males and females in medical courses are similar, after graduation, many women choose to work part-time. This may not be practical in orthopedic surgery which is a demanding specialty.

But Julia would have none of this - nor my explanation that the differential in male/female incomes was not so significant when one considers that males share their standard of living with their wives/partners/children and are not enjoying their "ill-gotten gains" in isolated splendour.

The last straw was her facetious comment in the transcript of the proceedings: "Sorry about our banter. It started this morning when we had Babette Francis here and our behaviour has gone downhill ever since. The quality of submissions has certainly gone up; our behaviour has gone downhill....."

Personally, as I wrote to Dr. Nelson, I would not have thought it possible for Julia Gillard's behaviour to have gone further downhill, not in a public venue anyway, but I guess with a feminist it can be done.

The sad irony is that I highlighted the serious disadvantages of boys in education in my Minority Report as a member of the Victorian Committee on Equal Opportunity in Schools in 1977. It took the Federal government 23 years to catch up to the seriousness of the problem, and even now any recommendations that might improve the outcomes for boys will be lost in the stranglehold the feminist lobby has on state school systems - as typified by Julia Gillard.

 

 

 

Babette Francis

National and Overseas Co-ordinator of Endeavour Forum

 

 

 

 

 

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN