An advertising campaign from an exclusive boarding school in Sussex UK has garnered international attention online, for all the wrong reasons.
The ad, from Ardingly College, depicts a male and female student surrounded by possible career opportunities for both.
The male student was given careers including “lawyer”, “swimmer” and “politician”, however, the suggested careers for the female student were “vocalist”, “writer” and “actress”.
The furore from the online community was swift.
One Twitter user posted: “Is this not entry level sexism?”.
Another said: “Really disappointed at your advert. Wouldn’t send my daughters here.”
Meanwhile, user Tanya Taylor wrote: “#everydaysexism shame on you Ardingly College”, accompanied by a photo of the ad on a bus.
However, the school’s headmaster, Ben Figgis, said the careers were the aspirations of the students featured.
He claimed: “the personal ambitions of the students pictured in the billboard”.
“The key point about our ads is that the children themselves have chosen the career ambitions that feature alongside them. As a school we have not put words into their mouths, nor would we want to.
“We have featured girls aspiring to become scientists and surgeons as well as boys becoming writers and linguists.
“Among our girls, one is the head of our engineering project Ardingly Solar, while another recently became a finalist in the UK Space Design competition.
“But we also celebrate girls succeeding as artists, musicians and any other ambition they pursue.”
