Sir, - In response to your coverage of the new "Exploring Masculinities" project in single-sex boys' schools, Noreen Coveney O'Beirne (January 15th) alleges that, standing alone, the initiative does not promote gender equality because a similar, progressive programme has not been established for girls. She is critical of The Irish Times for failing "to challenge such blatant sex bias emanating from the Department of Education and Science in collaboration with the ASTI".
As someone who believes that the "Exploring Masculinities" project deserves our unequivocal support, I was hugely relieved to read Catherine Foley's fine, balanced article (Education & Living, January 19th) which elaborated further on the aims of the new project and set it in the contextual of the broader work on gender issues that has been going on in some schools. This makes it clear that programmes on gender and equality issues have been used in girls' schools since the early 1980s. No doubt, more could be done in this area and Ms Coveney O'Beirne is, of course, correct to say that it is also crucial to provide education programmes which meet girls' needs to explore femininity and identity. But given that a strategic focus on gender issues for boys has been so studiously ignored, and that we now know that the cost for young men of not being able to deal more openly with issues such as vulnerability and power can be so potentially disastrous, it should be patently obvious that programmes like "Exploring Masculinities" are an absolute priority.
Anyone who has tried to initiate personal development work with men knows that, because of the traditional reluctance of males to reflect openly together on our gender identity, this can be a challenging and often thankless task. What an absolute delight it is, then, to see positive images of male principals, such as Paul Fields of St Mary's Academy, Carlow, exploring with his male students the changing role of men in Irish society and to know that the project is being positively received by the boys themselves.
Maureen Bohan, senior psychologist at the Department of Education and Science, says that finding single-sex boys' schools that were willing to take equality issues and the social construction of masculinity seriously, and to take part in the pilot programme in 1995, was "the hardest battle of my life". I, like many others who unequivocally welcome this initiative, are delighted that she won that battle. We congratulate her and her colleagues on the project on a success which can only help boys and girls and change Irish society for the better. - Yours etc., Harry Ferguson,
Department of Applied Social Studies, University College, Cork.