Schools accused of 'sowing confusion' in children's minds by over-promoting transgender issues

Schools have been "sowing confusion" in children's minds by over-promoting transgender issues, a leading academic has claimed.

Dr Joanna Williams, a university lecturer and author of the book Women vs Feminism, claims that "time, effort and money" is being allocated to "monitoring" transgender policies that are "out of all proportion" to the number of children who identify as transgender.

Speaking at The Telegraph Festival of Education on Friday, Dr Williams said that feminists were attempting to reshape school policies on gender, adding that children were being forced to “unlearn” the difference between boys and girls. "We are increasingly reminded that schools are struggling financially. Yet the time, effort and money that goes into producing and monitoring Transgender Policies is out of all proportion to the tiny number of trans children currently in British schools,” she said.


“Research suggests that just one per cent of the population experience gender issues. The number of under 11s referred to The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the UK’s only centre specialising in gender issues in under 18s, rose from 19 in 2009-10 to 77 in 2014-15.

"Although the number of transgender children is small, it is growing rapidly. Children - encouraged by their experiences at school - are beginning to question their gender identity at ever younger ages.

"In doing more than just supporting transgender children, and instead sowing confusion about gender identity, schools do neither boys nor girls any favours."

Criticising “feminist campaigners” for attempting to use schools as a platform to challenge “sexist stereotypes” Dr Williams added that teachers are now “urged to see trans children as an opportunity to enrich the school community.”

“Despite the fact that girls do so well today, the influence of feminism in schools shows no sign of diminishing,” she added.

“Teaching subject knowledge becomes blurred with the promotion of particular values. At the forefront of this are political goals concerned with encouraging children to think about gender and sexuality in new ways.

“The role of the teacher becomes policing the values, thoughts and language of children to bring them in line with one particular ideological position.”

Her comments come as recently published figures show that one three-year-old and 12 children aged four were referred to a gender identity clinic between 2014 and 2015.

Dr Williams added that the growing number of young children being referred for gender counselling stemmed from new policies being adopted by schools, adding that schools were now “encouraging even the youngest children to question whether they are really a boy or a girl.”