Too many girls take ‘soft option’ psychology, says top head

It’s a cop out subject


Psychology is a soft subject that’s stopping girls from going further in life, according to a top headmaster.

Instead girls should ditch psychology in favour of harder sciences, or risk making life difficult for themselves.

Barnaby Lenon, chair of the Independent Schools Council, warned schools need to do more to make girls study physics and chemistry instead. According to the Daily Mail, He claimed girls are taking an easier subject when they could be doing better on a more rewarding one.

His comments have been called “unhelpful”.

Bunch of cop outs

The former headmaster at Harrow said: “It’s in the interest of the country as a whole that more pupils should be doing hard sciences and that there should not be a gender imbalance within individual subjects.

“Girls who should be doing physics are doing psychology.

“It’s a problem for the hard sciences and it’s a problem for the girls who might have the potential to become doctors or engineers.”

Professor Catriona Morrison of the British Psychological Society thinks Lenon’s claims will only enforce gender stereotypes more.

She said: ‘Discussions that continually polarise science subjects as gender-specific are unhelpful and reinforce stereotypes.

“Students chose different subjects for a range of reasons. It is complex and multifaceted.”