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This article argues that gender issues are still seen by many youth work educators as having little, if any, direct relevance to youth work education and practice. There is a current assumption that age-based identity markers have more relevance to issues and practices in this area. However, the authors feel that greater emphasis should be placed on gender in the education of youth work practitioners. An examination of various curricula and studies of youth revealed that gender often is either ignored or male experience is generalised to supply an account of youth/adolescent development for both sexes. In advocating that gender hold a more important place in youth work curricula, the authors suggest a range of theoretical and practical competency outcomes for graduates and the running of staff development programmes for teachers in order to terminate institutional sexism. Such curricula could result in more sensitive, knowledgeable, and effective youth workers.