and the males in the class tried hard to "get it." But since most males don't identify the words and actions of other males as dangerous for them, they had to work extra hard to see how the females in class saw those same words and actions, and why they fought them or adapted to them. It was hard for both to see their gender training, but they learned.
Our tackling the gender training issues did some good, but I also learned that saying one "gets it" is one thing, and applying it to their lives is completely different. The males had no incentive to work toward "mere equality" with the females. They tended to say the problem is not one of their making and excepted themselves from "the work," until the females made them realize how much they suffered financially, emotionally and socially from their gendered privilege training.
And another experience helped. Once some of my students returned from college (around Thanksgiving), they told the high schoolers how well the work of that class served them later.
What you say is true about curricula realignment. I'd add that even if this is done, this work seems to have to be done anew with every generation, and every teacher should have to be formally teacher-trained in schools of education (in both content and methods) to enlarge their own capacities to do that work in their classrooms.
Schools are the last standing institutions of democracy, and when right wing forces want to privatize and defund public schools, we see the rise of gendered inequality. So fighting for funding all levels of public schooling, and funding the broadening of public school teacher training are good first steps.
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