Exclusive:'Boys call me love': Rising misogyny crisis in Scotland's schools
Female teachers are reporting feeling intimidated and undermined by a rising tide of misogyny in Scottish classrooms
Female teachers report being called “love” and intimidated by boy pupils as new figures show a rising misogyny crisis in Scottish schools.
The number of women reporting discrimination in the classroom has nearly doubled in the past four years.
Reports of sexist, racist and misogynistic language are also now higher in Scotland than south of the border.
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Matt Wrack, general secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, said teachers need mandatory training that helps them identify, challenge and safely de-escalate behaviour rooted in online radicalisation, sexism and hate.
“We have a masculinity crisis brewing in our schools,” Mr Wrack said.
“Teachers desperately need increased support to deal with this new frontier of behaviour management – it affects the wellbeing of everyone in the classroom.
“This generation of teachers faces an unprecedented task that requires urgent action from policymakers.”
The percentage of female teachers in Scotland who have experienced misogyny from pupils in the last year has dropped slightly on 2025.
In 2023 the number was 18 per cent, rising to 29 per cent in 2024, a total of 35 per cent last year and 33 per cent this year.
However, a survey of teachers is still open and ongoing so the union said that figure may well still rise.
More than a quarter of all teachers - 26 per cent - report being subject to discriminatory language from a pupil in the last year, including sexist, racist and homophobic language.
This is higher than for the UK as a whole – where 22 per cent reported experiencing discriminatory language.
In response to a NASUWT survey in Scotland, one woman teacher said a “pupil tried to push past me in a doorway as I was exiting a room and then shouted at me for objecting to his behaviour.
“He later challenged me verbally and left me feeling very threatened and upset.”
Another told how she had been “referred to as 'love'” while being spoken to in a patronising and condescending manner by a male pupil.
“I felt humiliated, demeaned, and disempowered.”
A young female principle teacher said pupils disrespect her authority.
She said: “I’ve had pupils undermine my authority and tell me to ‘do my job’ when dealing with behaviour in other classrooms and I've had young boys rage baiting me by constantly calling on me.
“This makes me feel extremely frustrated and upset.”
Women teachers have also said students had made naked images using artificial intelligence (AI) of them and others, while others reported being called misogynistic names regularly and being meowed at by male students.
Many female teachers reported that pupils say misogynistic things to them after they attempt to address concerns about their behaviour, the NASUWT said, and some say male pupils do not listen to them because they are female.
Mr Wrack said: “If female teachers are reporting that they cannot contain gender-based aggression in their classrooms – and that is exactly what they are telling NASUWT – then we have a ticking time bomb on our hands.
“These pupils are the same boys and young men who will go on to be husbands, fathers, and colleagues in the workplace.
“They may eventually develop influence in the public sphere.
“We must help them and their victims – including teachers – before it is too late.”
He said social media and artificial intelligence companies must be held responsible for misinformation spreading on their platforms, and face sanctions if they do not.
Mr Wrack added: “Our young people are being exploited to feed tech billionaires’ endless appetites for profit and power, and our education system is under attack as a result.”
It comes as the UK government considers measures to limit the social media use of under-16s, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised to “fight” social media firms over addictive content.
Teachers in the National Education Union in England have also warned of a similar picture down south where pupils are being influenced by racist and misogynistic extreme social media content.
The Scottish government has been contacted for comment.
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