Fashion and Brain

Fashion not a betrayal of feminist ideals, says leading headteacher | Education | guardian.co.uk

Girls interested in fashion and their appearance are not betraying feminist ideals, a leading headteacher said today.

Jill Berry, president of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), said a desire to look attractive and intelligence are not "mutually exclusive".

Speaking ahead of the GSA's annual conference in Harrogate today, she said: "A lot of us are interested in fashion, it doesn't mean it's a betrayal of our intelligence or feminist principles."

Every girl should feel confident about the different aspects of their character, she added.

Citing recent reports about female Cambridge undergraduates posing in their underwear for an online magazine, The Tab, Berry said that although some believed it to be "a little bit distasteful", there was a need to be careful about "pigeonholing" intelligent women.

Addressing delegates at the conference, she said: "You may have read recently a story about Cambridge female undergraduates posing scantily clad, which led to media stories about 'bluestockings and bimbos'.

"Girls can be highly intelligent and interested in being seen to be attractive – the two aren't mutually exclusive.

"I love shoes but it doesn't make me shallow. Girls can have fun and also be taken seriously."

Berry, who is headteacher of Dame Alice Harpur school in Bedford, defended cheerleading – seen by some people as "low" – by saying that the activity is actually skilful, using gymnastics and dance.

She said that women are sometimes judged "harshly" for their choices, and women are often guilty of judging other women.

"We must resist the impulse to judge women, to judge them harshly and judge them narrowly," she said.

Berry said that "it is ok for girls to have fun and work hard", adding that sometimes women take themselves "too seriously".

Girls' schools want their pupils to have a "balanced life", she said.

Last week, Berry said that girls should not feel guilty for taking time out of future careers to raise children, and expectations that women can "have it all" may be overly ambitious.

Today she said that while it was right that there should be women at the top of every profession, many are choosing not to be.

"I think sometimes women choose not to do these things," she said. "It's not that they can't, not that they have tried and failed.

"There are some women who say at this stage of life, 'this is not what I want for myself, my family, my life'."

The GSA represents 187 fee-paying girls' schools in England, Wales and Scotland, collectively teaching 110,000 girls.