French students will learn something new from September: gender, gender stereotypes and consent.
After the French government passed laws mandating (but never implementing) legal requirements for sex education for each student, it finally developed and approved courses on sex education courses and developed plans for teacher training and course materials.
“We’ve been waiting for 25 years,” said Sarah Durocher, president of the LE Planning family, a family planning for the French, one of three nonprofits that sued the government in 2023 for not enforcing their own laws.
The lawsuit has not been settled in court. But the government has pushed the curriculum itself to criticize protests from opponents who are “ideological brainwashing” and who are harmful to children’s growth.
More than 100 senators from the Conservative Party’s Les Républicains signed a column published in the Le Figaro newspaper, opposing the plan’s “wake ideology” and demanding that all references to “gender identity” be removed.
But Education Secretary Elisabeth Borne called the new plan “absolutely necessary”.
She highlighted the findings of an independent committee that showed that a child in France was sexually abused every three minutes, mostly by their family members. She notes that many children now learn sex from online porn sites.
Although the course is scheduled to take effect in September, the opponents are still fighting. A coalition of several groups has filed a lawsuit to stop it in France's Supreme Administrative Court.
Activists and experts say that since the #MeToo movement, France has changed its attitude towards sex, adopting the adoption of the curriculum.
“Public opinion now knows it's necessary to talk to children about this kind of thing because otherwise they'll remain silent,” said Yves Verneuil, a professor of education at the University of Lyon. “So the ministry sees this change in mindset.”
Experts say that last fall, dozens of men's highly publicized trials were convicted of rape of a woman named Gisèle Pelicot, who was deeply calmed and effective. The case sparked a nationwide discussion about the accidental calm of rape, the objectification of women and the understanding of what is consent and how to give before sex.
“How could those men say they saw a woman who was drugged and passed away got consent?” Ms Durocher said. “This raises the question of how we teach consent.”
The French government has received sex education since 1973, the professor said. But these courses are optional and parents can pull their children from them.
In 2001, the government introduced a law that specifically required three years of sex education for each student. Mr Verneuil said the subsequent government extended the course content to include not only the courses for STDs and the risk of pregnancy, but also the concepts of gender discrimination, homophobia, sexual violence and consent.
However, Audrey Chanonat, leader of the French Union, said no specific courses were developed, no budget or professional training was proposed, and no staff was taught.
At the middle school in Burgnak, she is a principal, and these courses require more than 100 hours of staff time.
“I don’t have staff,” she said, noting that staff did cover some topics in ninth grade biology.
“A real educational program, three hours a class, and there is almost no place,” Ms Chanonat said.
The 2021 report from the Audit Department of Education, Sports and Research confirms Ms. Chanonat’s view that only 15% to 20% of French students offer these three classes each year.
“It is obvious that many students have not benefited from a class throughout their education,” the report said.
French feminist philosopher Camille Froidevaux-Metterie said the failure to put sex education into schools revealed France's deep social conservatism.
“Education of sex, as well as education of emotional and sexual relations, is learning to respect others and the differences between gender and gender,” she said. “This drives a conservative tradition that has always existed in France.”
Ms Froidevaux-Metterie said the government has indeed been working hard to enforce its laws, but it has been subject to fierce opposition every time.
In 2014, after the government trained teachers in 10 school districts to detect gender stereotypes and help children overcome pilot programs, some parents organized boycotts and pulled their children out for two days. Activists against gay marriage say the plan will undermine the traditional heterosexual family model and teach children that children can choose their gender.
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who was then the country's minister of women's rights, said a teacher was brought to social media and the plan was cut.
The same opponents protested and circulated petitions over the past fall and winter, opposing teachings on gender identity.
Ludovine De La Rochère, co-founder of the major anti-gay marriage movement in France, led the anti-sex education program in the early 2010s, told Catholic Radio that the program would introduce children to the possibility of a gender transition. Her organization is part of the alliance that has sued to stop the first sexuality education program this fall.
The new curriculum published last month in the official communiqué of the Ministry of Education focused on the theme of gender equality, against discrimination, agreeing to principles and the fight against gender discrimination and sexual violence.
Although they considered the reasons for the celebration, activists who fought for it did not withdraw the lawsuit against the government. They say it is crucial to its success – up to 620 million euros per year, with 52 euros per student, estimated at about $67 million and about $56 per student.
So far, the Ministry of Education has no money.
“We know that implementation will be difficult,” Ms. Durocher said. “It will be a new feminist battle.”
Ségolène Le Stradic Contributed to the research.
