Australian survey reveals one in four girls feel unsafe at school because of boys’ behaviour

One in 10 high school girls feel so threatened by the misogynistic behaviour of their male classmates they resort to carrying a weapon for protection, alarming new research has found. The national YouGov survey also revealed that as many as one in four girls felt unsafe while at school because of hyper-masculine behaviours being pushed by social media influencers such as Andrew Tate. Tate, a British-American former kickboxer turned online entrepreneur, has attracted widespread condemnation for misogynistic comments such as he “would not let a female drive” a car and that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. Nearly one in three girls reported the way boys treated them was having a negative impact on their own behaviour, pushing them to take extreme measures such as carrying a knife (10 per cent) or turning to alcohol or substance abuse (3 per cent) to cope. Paige Campbell, who heads women’s advocacy group Tomorrow Woman, said the results were “heart breaking and unsettling” because school was meant to be a safe place. The group commissioned the survey of more than 500 students across the country because it believed the voices of young women were being lost in media coverage of rising rates of gender-based violence. “We knew it would be impacting them,” Ms Campbell said. “But some of the results have been pretty alarming, so it’s probably impacting them more than I think we even realised.” “What we found was that the female students are being impacted academically, so they’re either not showing up to class or skipping class. “They feel as though they’re losing their voice, they’re unable to speak up as much. “And that they’re having trouble concentrating in class, which is obviously leading also to them feeling, anxious or stressed about going to school.” Surprisingly, the rate of feeling unsafe was higher at all-girls private schools than at co-educational public schools. Ms Campbell said that although the most common male behaviours were not physical, as many as one in five girls said they had experienced physical (22 per cent) or sexual abuse (21 per cent) from their male peers. Around 36 per cent reported reduced class participation, 30 per cent had trouble concentrating, 24 per cent avoided extracurricular activities and 20 per cent skipped classes altogether. Tomorrow Woman has worked with nearly 60 schools across WA since 2019, running 500 workshops in the past year.