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Daisy and Dylan walk to school carrying smart school bags. Threads are attached to Daisy’s bag – which is bulging at the seams – threatening to trip and slow her pace. Less visible threads are attached to Dylan – pulling him forward at a pace he struggles to maintain…¹

This image with its storied caption illustrates the insidious influence of patriarchy, with its scripts of masculinity and femininity outlining normative societal expectations. Tempting though it is to think things have improved, the recent resurgence of patriarchy – for example, enabling the re-election of President Trump in the United States, the case in France, and increased concerns about – highlights the need for a concerted ‘feminist resistance’ (Gilligan & Richards, 2018). In this blog post, we draw on the ��ɫ���� Brian Simon fellowship fund research project, Far away from the ivory tower, and reflect on individuals’ lived experiences as first-in-family to attend university to illustrate the insidious nature of patriarchy, calling for you to join us in taking action.

‘Being silenced and silencing ourselves weaves an insidious “hidden” social curriculum, policing thoughts, movements and communications, and reinforcing existing inequities and creating new ones.’

Gender, in binary form, is essential to patriarchy, imposing a hierarchy elevating masculine at the expense of feminine. Forty-five years ago, Giroux & Penna (1979, p. 27) argued that schools should be viewed within ‘the context of the larger society … the ideological messages [threads] embedded in both the content of the formal curriculum and the social relations of the classroom encounter’. Threads that are ignored become lines to the detriment of personal and professional lives. Being silenced and silencing ourselves (Gilligan, 2023) weaves an insidious ‘hidden’ social curriculum, policing thoughts, movements and communications, and reinforcing existing inequities and creating new ones. By making threads visible, we can do things with them – weave, sew, knit, creating new fabrics and supportive networks. If we ignore them, threads constrict our movements – hold back and silence us. We need to be vigilant in an intersectional and inclusive way.

I had a gendered upbringing, married at 19, mother at 20, full-time mother for 16+ years, I often felt silenced and restricted by others’ expectations. During the Brian Simon fund project, I listened as a participant shared he had met his wife while they were at university – she’d had to leave early when she gave birth to their child. He’d never questioned if this had been her/their choice. Other female participants shared challenges encountered through juggling a combination of being first-in-family to university, caring and work responsibilities. —T��������

Throughout my education girls were prevented from doing the same activities/subjects as boys. Boys were directed towards pedal cars, climbing frames and tools – activities considered unladylike for girls. Thirty years later, I witnessed how my daughter’s generation was still confined to the shadows of the playground, squashed into the perimeter of the large space allowed for boys’ football. More recently, of girls wearing shorts under school dresses to combat sexual harassment and bullying remind us there is much still to do. —B������

Prior to the general election, Keir Starmer was quoted saying he wanted to finish work by 6 p.m. on Fridays – which isn’t even early – immediate uproar claiming he wasn’t dedicated enough for the job of Prime Minister. As a working mother, this attitude is my everyday reality – am I seen as an equal, able to meet academia’s expectations? Starmer’s well meaning gesture can be critically explored in the context of feminist resistance to patriarchy (Gilligan & Richards, 2018), as we ask: who is picking up his children from school the rest of the week? Their mother? A nanny? A friend? —K���پ���

Working and studying involves negotiating the movement you have to create spaces, as opposed to moulding yourself into gaps and spaces accessible to you. The Cross Model of Learning Barriers (Cross, 1981) highlights three key barriers to adult learning: situational, dispositional and institutional. For many – especially mature female learners with caring responsibilities, who might also be disadvantaged in other ways – situational barriers are particularly challenging when caring responsibilities leave little time for personal development, limiting career advancement and perpetuating gender inequality.

It is institutional and dispositional barriers of Cross’s conceptual model that we have the most power to change. We urge leaders to embrace informal (and formal) ways to show caring for others doesn’t make you unreliable or incapable of doing your job. It makes you human, relatable – an ally in a world where caring is often seen as feminine weakness. Small actions can lead to big transformations, if enough of us take them – such as the following simple example:

Out-of-office reply: ‘Thanks for your email. I’ve finished by 3:00 p.m. today to collect my grand/child/ren from school. Have a good evening.’

[1] The image was drawn by Lucy Parsons and enhanced using AI.

References

Cross, P. (1981). Adults as learners: Increasing participation and facilitating learning. Jossey-Bass.

Gilligan, C. (2023). In a human voice. John Wiley & Sons.

Gilligan, C., & Richards, D. A. J. (2018). Darkness now visible: Patriarchy’s resurgence and feminist resistance. Cambridge University Press.

Giroux, H. A., & Penna, A. N. (1979). Social education in the classroom: The dynamics of the hidden curriculum. Theory & Research in Social Education, 7(1), 21–42.