An Austrian state-run high school has sparked controversy after making feminism a subject that students can choose for their oral graduation exams. The curriculum includes topics such as “toxic masculinity” and the creation of a “feminist alphabet”—using the ABCs to list ‘empowering,’ equality-focused, or feminist-themed words and ideas instead of traditional examples.
At the Reithmanngymnasium in Innsbruck, students will be able to take their oral Matura exam in feminism starting the next school year. The subject has already been offered as an elective module for the past five years and has now developed into a two-part progressive course that meets the requirements for inclusion in the final examinations.
According to Anja Duschek, one of the co-founders of the module, students are taught topics including the female body, toxic masculinity, relationship violence, and catcalling. Among the reported classroom assignments is the creation of a feminist alphabet.
The development has reignited concerns that schools are moving beyond education and increasingly promoting a specific ideological worldview to young people. Such schools force young students to adopt a predetermined political perspective rather than fostering independent thought and open debate.
Duschek teaches students that the negative experiences they may have had in or outside the classroom is to be blamed on “the patriarchy as a system.” That approach has already raised eyebrows among parents and critics of the course.
The Innsbruck school is not the only one forcing leftist propaganda onto students. Reports say students at a high school in Vienna can also choose feminism as a subject for their oral graduation exams.
For those concerned about the increasing politicization of education, the introduction of feminism as an examinable graduation subject represents another example of schools moving away from academic neutrality and toward the promotion of ideological narratives.
Arguably, encouraging teenagers to interpret society primarily through concepts such as patriarchy and toxic masculinity risks replacing critical thinking with a worldview that many regard as fundamentally ideological and potentially indoctrinating.
