Ava Jeavons is in Year 10 and shares this high schooler’s perspective on the experiences of girls in schools in 2026. She wants to see a safe and equitable school experience for every student, starting with ending sexism in schools. Ava is also the Minister for Women’s Interests in the Y WA Youth Parliament.
A girl forgets her homework for the first time and gets detention even though she has the highest grade in her class.
Meanwhile, a boy in that class who also forgot their homework is given another chance, even though he sits playing computer games every lesson and is performing poorly in fortnightly tests.
A group of girls films a fun TikTok at their school ball and gets suspended for a week. The boys brazenly say every slur under the sun and get away with it.
The boys loudly discuss in class why abortion is wrong, declaring anyone who is pro-choice should be “slaughtered” without consequence. A girl disagrees with this, debates their position, and is called argumentative and disrespectful.
Boys sit in class and loudly watch videos of MAGA rallies instead of doing their schoolwork, but when a girl wears two earrings instead of one, she gets detention and an email home to her parents.
These are the kinds of experiences many girls recognise in high school, where expectations and discipline can sometimes feel unevenly applied.
It often begins at the start of every term where girls are communicated a long list of expectations: you can’t have two earrings, your hair must be tied back, your skirt must only be two finger-widths above the knee, your fringe can’t be longer than your eyebrows, you can’t wear jewellery other than a single gold stud or sleeper, but it can’t be too shiny!
Meanwhile, boys are often given fewer uniform reminders beyond basics like tucking in their shirts. They are less likely to be lined up outside classrooms for uniform inspections in front of their peers or to be publicly corrected for minor variations in dress.
When a girl reports an assault and feels she is not believed because male peers dispute her account, it can have a lasting impact on trust and safety. When a boy is found to have taken pictures up girls’ skirts and does not receive meaningful consequences, it raises difficult questions about what message is being sent to all students.
At what point do we draw the line? At what point do we stop accepting these experiences as an unavoidable part of school life, and start addressing the sexism that still exists in some school environments across Australia?
This is not to say all schools or all educators respond this way. The vast majority of teachers and school leaders work hard to create fair, safe environments and take these issues seriously.
We are lucky in Australia that girls have the right to go to school and have a voice, but if that voice isn’t heard, ‘do girls actually get a voice?’, is the question we should be asking. We need to keep fighting for girls to experience an equal and safe school environment.
Why do we accept anything less than a safe and equitable school experience for every student? We must put an end to sexism within schools, and we must start now.