Bold Voices Project

Last year, DCGS partnered with award-winning social enterprise group, Bold Voices to combat gender inequality and gender-based violence within our school community. The Ambassador Programme (AP) forms the central pillar of this partnership, providing participating student reps with the requisite knowledge and skills to inculcate meaningful change around gender inequality in the school. For example, the AP challenges student reps to consider the continuum of gender based violence, which highlights that misogynistic attitudes underlie the experiences of gender inequity faced by women. Knowing this, student reps can tailor their projects to target misogynistic attitudes formed by boys earlier in life, so that those attitudes do not later manifest themselves as, for example, violence against women and girls enacted by the same boys later in life. This example is one of a kaleidoscope of insights, from intersectionality to the power of language, which have informed the content and strategy of the projects undertaken by student reps, including the most recent ‘boys will be boys’ podcast.

In the podcast, we look at tackling the use of stereotypes, commonly referring to the phrase ‘boys will be boys’, and how gender stigma can negatively impact everyone. In particular, we discussed the use of certain harmful everyday language and the role it plays in often reinforcing dangerous gendered attitudes. We also look at what the school has done to combat this problem and what we could do in the future to raise awareness and understanding around the topic.