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R/£ Mixed schools can crush girls' ambition, says head
November 21, 2009 Edition 2
LONDON: Girls who go to mixed schools can have their ambition crushed, leading them to be held back in male-dominated professions, a British headmistress warned this week.
Pupils at girls-only schools are more likely to be confident and aspire to enter fields such as politics, according to Elizabeth Allen, head of a girls' grammar school.
Single-sex schools allow girls to talk more freely and bolster each other's confidence, she said.
Allen, head of Newstead Wood School in Orpington, Kent, said there was growing evidence that girls were particularly successful if they attended single-sex schools.
"Girls are naturally competitive and they don't like that about themselves; they can be uncomfortable with it," she told the Girls' Schools Association conference in Harrogate.
"In an all-girls environment they share their concerns about being competitive. In a mixed environment their concern about being competitive becomes subdued, they cease to be competitive.
"They just say that that boys are going to be more dominating and therefore 'I'll sit in the background'.
"Really able girls will be successful wherever they are. The thing that gets crushed is their career and professional aspirations." She said a girl taught at a single-sex school was more likely to aspire to be a minister rather than a minister's personal assistant.
Research has suggested girls are more likely to do well in the sciences if they attend a single-sex school.
Despite perceptions that they are ahead of boys, many are still failing to reach their potential, she said.
Allen went on to criticise a government initiative to give one-to-one tuition to pupils who are falling behind, saying that funding should also be available to those who have the ability to achieve highly. - Daily Mail
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