Let’s talk about sex: gender norms and sexual health in English schools
Farah Jamal A C , Chris Bonell A , Kai Wooder B and Simon Blake B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A University College London, UCL Institute of Education, 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NR, UK.
B Brook, 50 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RT, UK.
C Corresponding author. Email: f.jamal@ioe.ac.uk
Sexual Health 12(1) 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH15010
Submitted: 21 January 2015 Accepted: 10 February 2015 Published: 3 March 2015
Abstract
The sexual health of young people in England is an urgent public health concern. While interventions to address young people’s sexual health have focussed on knowledge, skills and contraception access, amazingly none in the UK has explicitly addressed the effects of the social hierarchies of gender and gendered behavioural ideals that shape young people’s sexual expectations, attitudes and behaviour. The lack of attention to gender is a persistent gap in health research, practice and policy. A rigorous evaluation of such an intervention package would go some way to building an evidence base for challenging gender norms, which appear to be strongly associated with adverse sexual health outcomes.
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