When it was founded over 450 years ago in 1572, women were expected to be submissive second class citizens in a patriarchal society. 

But in 2026, Harrow School, one of the oldest and most famous all boys' schools in the world, has vowed to fight against a new wave of men trying to subjugate women. 

Its Head Master Alastair Land says the school is tackling the growing problem of toxic masculinity and how its messaging has spread to young men with a new education programme for its pupils to look at its causes and address them.   

Speaking exclusively to the Mail on Sunday after announcing the £63,000 a year school was officially partnering with an all-girls school for the first time in its history, Mr Land said: 'We are tackling toxic masculinity head on and clear eyed by looking at the manosphere and misogyny with our pupils.' 

The school whose alumni include Winston Churchill and a host of prime ministers along with more creative old Harrovians like Lord Byron and more recently Richard Curtis, James Blunt and Benedict Cumberbatch is famously situated 'on the hill' in Harrow on the Hill in north west London. 

Mr Land said that he was now 'striving to make boys on the hill in 2026 values-driven and the best possible version of themselves'. 

'We don't take it for granted that those values would just seep in but we give them the handrails for them to do so.'

Groups of the school's 830 pupils will also collaborate with girls from its new partner Downe House School in joint sessions. 

Speaking at Downe House's annual Education Conference, Mr Land confirmed the two schools would hold 'joint events and workshops to add value to boys and girls from the time they start their respective schools'. 

But despite the school's partnership with the Princess of Wales's former school near Newbury, Mr Land insisted both schools would remain resolutely single sex, saying: 'Single sex education has never been more relevant than in the 2020s and going into the 2030s.' 

He said educating the sexes separately was 'a wonderful thing' and was needed in order for children 'to become the best version of themselves'. 

And he said he believed it helped boys and girls to stave off 21st century pressures from technology as well as the 'pressure to be something, to look something and to conform to some recurring narrative of what a girl has to look like or a boy has to look like'. 

Downe House Head Emma McKendrick said both schools would be placing 'an emphasis on building respectful relationships, something we have already seen between our boys and girls in our joint activities with further opportunities to come'. 

The prestigious school, whose famous alumnae include broadcaster Clare Balding and actresses Miranda Hart and Geraldine James, has already trailblazed in joint initiatives with other famous single sex boys' schools including Ludgrove, the prep school attended by both Prince William and Prince Harry, and Radley College. 

Downe House and Ludgrove launched a joint project in 2024 to tackle the effects of online misogynists including Andrew Tate on boys' attitudes. 

Boys aged 11-13 from the school joined with girls from Downe House to candidly discuss their thoughts and feelings as part of 'The Respect Project'. 

Both sets of pupils were asked about what they thought about issues including online behaviour, gender and sexuality, social media, body anxieties, consent and online influencers like Tate before they discussed them together. 

At the time Ludgrove Head Master Simon Barber, whose father Gerald was William and Harry's Head Master, said boys were being influenced at younger and younger ages by what they saw online. 

Harrow's PSHE (personal, social, health, and economic) education programme already covers topics including gender inequality, sexism, positive masculinity and sexual consent

It says on its website: 'Today, in the 21st century, we seek to inculcate in boys the right skills, responses and attitudes in a societal context where expectations surrounding the place of men and privilege are changing.' 

The school says it also invites high-profile female speakers who encourage boys to challenge their own world views and has steadily increased its female teacher ratio to 'around one in five'.