A group of girls in a Cabra primary school have succeeded in getting a sexist Irish workbook changed.
The fifth class pupils at Mary Help of Christians in Cabra were annoyed by the lack of diversity in the Folens book 'Fuaimeanna agus Focail.'
via maryhelpofchristians.ie
School principal Renee Moran has told 98FM News that "most of the professions allocated to women weren't representative of women today. The men were things like doctors and pilots and the only woman was a nurse. While the girls have nothing against the nursing profession, they felt that there are plenty of female pilots, doctors etc."
After writing to Folens, the publisher said its review of the workbook in question came to the same conclusions. They're endeavouring to include more female sports players and working women when they next update the series.
"The lifecycle of school books can be very long, so sometimes the content can be a little out of step with the times. We have agreed that when we next update this series, Fuimeanna agus Focail, we will ensure the books better reflect gender equality and that the illustrations include a wider range of ethnicities and people with disabilities, as we have already done with our more recent publications."
Principal Moran says the girls have learned a valuable lesson about being agents of change. She says the school is very proud of them and the pupils themselves are delighted with the results.
