Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to
change the world.
—NELSON MANDELA
8
Gendered Education:
Communication in
Schools
Knowledge Challenge:
• What challenges do girls and boys face in schools?
• How has Title IX affected men’s and women’s college athletics?
• How influential are gender and economic standing on students’ academic
success?
• How does invisible hand discrimination affect female faculty?
America’s schools are failing boys.
Fewer men than women graduate
from high school, college, or
graduate school. That is largely
because schools are hostile
environments for boys
and men.
America’s schools are failing girls.
Although girls and women exceed
boys and men in grades and
graduation rates, they get less
prestigious jobs and make less
money than men because schools
don’t prepare them to succeed.
Which of the above claims seems more accurate to you? If you believe schools
are biased against boys, there’s evidence to support your belief. Particularly in the
early grades, the demands of school— sit in your seat, be quiet and still, focus on
lessons— frustrate many young boys whose developmental stage makes it
difficult for them to be calm and to concentrate.
Or perhaps you think that schools discriminate against girls. If so, there’s
evidence to support that belief too. Persisting biases discourage women
from studying science, math, and technology, and there is less support for
female athletes than male athletes. It’s also the case that education confers
greater economic benefit on males than females.
The two claims, like many that media spotlight, contain some truth and much
exaggeration. They also advance a falsely dichotomous sense of the issues by
pitting males against females and suggesting one sex is better or worse off in an
165
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166
CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
absolute sense. In actuality, both males and females face challenges in schools
starting with kindergarten and going through professional degree programs.
In this chapter, we want to gain an accurate picture of how schools support—or
fail to support—students of all sexes and genders. We will consider expectations
and pressures that are based in academic structures and practices, athletics, and
peer cultures. Second, we will more briefly discuss gendered expectations and
pressures that faculty face. As we will see, although schools in the United States
no longer discriminate blatantly based on sex, gendered biases and issues
continue to infuse educational institutions.
As you read this chapter, keep in mind that a great deal is at stake. Schools do
more than instruct us in various subjects. They are also powerful agents of gender
socialization. They teach us what each sex is expected to be and to do and which
careers are appropriate for women and men. As social views of gender have
changed, so have educational opportunities for women and men. As social views
continue to change in the years ahead, so will educational practices.
Gendered Expectations and Pressures
Facing Students
To understand the range of gendered dynamics facing students today, we’ll examine academics, athletics, and peer cultures.
Academics
Both males and females encounter gendered expectations and pressures in schools
from kindergarten through graduate and professional school. We’ll consider gendered expectations affecting boys and men, girls and women, both cisgender and
transgender students. We will also note the ways in which economic standing
affects academic success.
Males Compared to same-aged girls, young boys tend to be more restless, have
more physical energy, and have less impulse control. In addition, boys’ verbal skills
mature later than those of girls, so young boys may be understandably frustrated
by the strong emphasis on reading and writing that is central to the first years of
school.
These developmental differences make it difficult for many young boys to adjust
to school contexts where they are supposed to sit quietly, follow instructions, and
not deviate from lesson plans (Garloch, 2009; Whitmire, 2011). In other words,
many elementary classrooms may not be boy friendly, which can render the early
years of school a time of frustration and often of failure for boys (Sommers, 2013;
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
167
Tyre, 2009). Elementary teachers may reward girl students for their good classroom manners by giving them higher grades than their test scores alone would justify (Cornwell, Mustard, & Van Parys, 2013).
The mismatch between young boys’ developmental stage and the demands of
school contributes to difference in the sexes’ academic success at all levels. Boys
are less likely than girls to attend college (Sommers, 2013). Currently, women comprise 57% of undergraduate enrollment and earn 60% of master’s and 52% of doctoral degrees in the United States (Mangan, 2012).
Personal choices also affect academic performance and success. From elementary school through college, male students spend less time preparing for classes
and more time on leisure activities such as sports, video games, and watching television than female students (Baenninger, 2011; Sander, 2012). Choices of how to
spend time—studying or relaxing—influence academic accomplishment.
Females Now let’s consider biases and pressures that girls and women face in
schools. Despite much effort to eliminate discrimination against women, not all
barriers have disappeared. Women still face prejudice in particular fields such as
technology and natural sciences. In addition, what enables girls’ and women’s success in school may not prepare them for success in professional life.
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
Would single-sex schools or programs
solve some of the problems we’ve discussed? If there were no girls in reading
classes, teachers might be able to give
young boys the help they need to
develop reading skills. Might courses in
science and computer technology be
developed to tap into girls’ and women’s
interests so that they are more likely to
enter STEM fields? Would faculty be
more likely to mentor female students at
schools that don’t admit male students?
From elementary school through college, heterosexual males and females are
more likely to make academics a priority in
single-sex schools. If students aren’t
focused on impressing members of the
other sex, won’t they study more without
worrying about seeming like nerds? The
facts on graduates of women’s schools are
persuasive: Although women’s colleges
produce only about 5% of all female
Single-Sex Educational
Programs
college graduates, a disproportionate
number of women in the U.S. Congress
and running top businesses graduated
from women’s colleges (Salome, 2007;
Scelfo, 2006; Spielhagen, 2013). When
the citadel was all male, its graduation
rate was 70%— much higher than the
48% national average (AAUW, 2001).
But critics of single-sex education
argue that sex-segregated education
isn’t the answer to gender inequities in
schools. They think a better solution is to
make sure that schools support all students equally so that males and females
have the same educational opportunities
and support. Also, single-sex schools
tend to be private and too expensive for
most families. Thus, although single-sex
schools may benefit children from wellto-do families, they are unlikely to help
the majority of students (Rivers &
Barnett, 2011; Spielhagen, 2013).
TAKE A STAND: What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of
single-sex schools? Would you want to attend one?
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CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
The long-standing belief that females have less innate ability in math and science
erects barriers to women’s study of science and math, not to mention barriers to
careers in those fields. But the belief that girls are innately less gifted at science and
math is not well supported. In fact, in most nations, girls outperform boys on a science test given to students in developed countries. Girls outscore boys in a majority
of countries including China, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Uruguay, Argentina, and
Indonesia, whereas boys outperform girls in a minority of countries including
Canada, Chile, Peru, and the United States (Fairfield, 2013). The fact that girls in
most countries score better than boys on science tests raises doubt about significant
innate sex differences in scientific aptitude or ability.
Yet, in the United States, females progressively drop out of math and science curricula as they advance in school. One reason is persisting bias in the United States
against female students in math and science (Riegle-Crumb & Humphries, 2012;
Why STEM Fields Still Don’t Draw More Women, 2012). This bias is manifest in
various ways such as an advisor counseling a female not to take an advanced math
course because it is very rigorous, a physics teacher who never calls on female students, and assigning female students to marketing and male students to engineering on Robotics teams (Why STEM Fields Still Don’t Draw More Women, 2012).
Evidence of faculty bias against female students in science comes from a recent
study published by National Academy of Sciences (Moss-Racusin, Dovidio,
Brescoll, Graham, & Handelsman, 2012). In this research, science professors were
asked to review applications from students seeking a lab assistant job. The applications were identical except that they were randomly attributed to either a male or a
female student. Science professors who believed the applicant was male were more
likely to hire the student, propose a higher salary, and offer mentoring than professors who believed the identical application was submitted by a female. In a similar study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania emailed professors with
identical requests for mentoring meetings, but the email authors were assigned different names, such as Brad Anderson, Lamar Washington, Juanita Martinez, Sonali
Desai, and Mei Chen. There were large disparities in response rates. Women and
minorities were significantly less likely to receive a response or a positive response,
and the likelihood differed according to school type—the largest disparities were
noted at private schools and in fields that led to lucrative positions such as business
schools and the natural sciences (Vedantam, 2014).
SCARLETT
I always liked science. Right from the first grade, it was my favorite subject.
The older I got, though, the more I felt odd in my science classes. Especially in
college after the required courses, I felt odd. Sometimes, I was the only woman in
a class. I was majoring in early education and just took science electives for fun.
That changed when I had a woman professor in a course about unsolved problems in biology. She was really good, and so was the course, but to me the main
thing was seeing a woman teaching science. That’s when I decided to change my
major and become a science teacher.
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
169
Another reason young women may drop out of math and science courses is stereotypes of both the fields and the sexes. There is a precipitous drop in the number of
females seeking training in computer science as girls move from middle school to high
school (Gose, 2012). It’s not coincidental that this is precisely the time at which efforts
to meet gender ideals peak. In other words, as they pass through puberty and become
more aware of themselves as gendered and sexed beings, many young women shy away
from being geeky or seeming overly smart. In addition, women place a higher priority
than men on helping others and making the world better, which are not goals many
associate with careers in technology and math (Sander, 2012). And yet the health
and growth of society depend deeply on a work force skilled in sciences, math,
and technology. Recognizing this problem, a number of schools have begun to
revise curricula to emphasize the social goods that science serves and to be more
inviting to women students (Gose, 2012; “Why STEM,” 2012).
Females in math and sciences may face another gender-related barrier. Because
cultural stereotypes of femininity do not include being skilled at science and math,
social disapproval may greet women who excel in those fields. Further, the drive
and assertiveness required to succeed in historically male fields is inconsistent
with social prescriptions for femininity. Consequently, women in the sciences
often face a double bind: If they are not extremely successful, they are judged
incompetent, but if they are successful, they are often perceived as cold and manipulative and unfeminine (Williams & Dempsey, 2014).
In addition to faculty biases against females in math and science, girls and
women face other challenges in academic environments. The very behaviors that
facilitate girls’ success in school, particularly the early grades, may work against
them later in life. The praise girls earn for completing work, following directions,
being neat, and minding the teacher don’t teach girls to think and act independently, take risks, and consider when it might be useful to bend or break rules, all
of which can be facilitate career success.
ALLIE
My grandmother is really smart, but she wasn’t able to go to college. Her father sent
her four brothers to college, but he said girls didn’t need an education. When she
was 34, her husband died and she had three kids to support on her own. It surely
would have been easier on her if she’d had a degree so she was qualified for a good
job instead of the one she had to take.
Another form of academic gender bias is curricula that misrepresent or erase
women and their impact on cultural life. Consider how history is taught. Accounts
of wars focus on battles and military leaders. Seldom noted are the contributions of
women either on the battlefields or at home. Who kept families intact and food on
the table while men fought? Who manufactured supplies for troops on the front?
Chronicles of important events such as the civil rights movement focus on male
leaders’ speeches and press conferences and obscure the ways in which women
contributed to the movements. We are taught about the leadership of Stokely
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CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
In the following columns, name
10 famous women and 10 famous men
in U.S. history who made significant
Write the names of 10 famous men:
Name That (Wo)man
contributions to economic, political,
scientific, or social progress.
Write the names of 10 famous women:
TAKE A STAND: Compare your experiences generating names for each column.
What does this comparison tell you about gender bias in curricula?
Carmichael, Malcolm X, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., but few of us
learn about Ella Baker’s pivotal work in organizing neighborhoods in support of
civil rights (Parker, 2006; Ransby, 2003), Pauli Murray’s courageous defiance of
discrimination against blacks, or the activism that took place in African-American
beauty shops during the Jim Crow era (Gill, 2010).
If women are included in curricula, they tend to fall into two categories. First,
there are women who fit traditional stereotypes of women. For example, most of us
learned that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag and Florence Nightingale
nursed soldiers. A second group of women included in curricula distinguished
themselves on men’s terms and in masculine contexts. Mother Jones, for example,
was a powerful organizer for unions, Amelia Earhart was a skilled aviator, and
Annie Oakley could outshoot most men. Women in this category tend to be represented as exceptional cases—as atypical of women in general. This implies that
most women can’t do what a few notable ones did. Yet, throughout history,
women have made extraordinary contributions to political, social, educational,
and domestic life. Women such as Mary White Ovington, Jessie Daniel Ames,
and Myrtilla Miner who changed the world on their own terms, remain invisible
in most history curricula (Arneson, 2014; Spitzack & Carter, 1987).
Historical epochs tend to be taught in terms of their effects on men while
neglecting their impact on women and minorities. For instance, textbooks represent the Renaissance as a period of rebirth and progress in human life because it
expanded men’s options. The Renaissance is not taught in terms of its impact in
reducing the status and opportunities of most women. The Enlightenment is taught
as a time when reason ascended as the surest route to truth and human progress.
The Enlightenment is not taught as a time when women were considered inferior
because they were assumed to have limited capacity to reason. The Industrial
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
171
© STONE SOUP 2005 Jan Eliot. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL
PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved.
Revolution is taught as a time when mechanization of production systems enabled
mass production, which propelled factories as the primary workplace for men. The
Industrial Revolution is not represented in terms of how it changed women’s lives,
work, and relationships with their husbands and children.
Even science, which we might assume is a highly objective field, has gender
stereotypes that can distort how science is taught (Rosser, 2012). For instance,
until recently science textbooks routinely misrepresented the process of human
reproduction by describing vigorous sperm as invading the passively waiting egg.
When research proved that the egg is actually quite active in controlling which
sperm enter it, many science books revised their description of the process
(Hammonds, 1998). As this example shows, gender stereotypes can be corrected
when evidence disproves them. For this reason, curricula, including those in science, are less gender biased than in the past.
Sexism in education intersects with other forms of discrimination: racism,
classism, and heterosexism. Not just any males are presented as the standard:
White, heterosexual, able-bodied, middle- and upper-class men continue to be
depicted as the norm in textbooks. How often have you studied contributions of
lesbians and gays or people with disabilities? How frequently did you learn about
the lives and contributions of economically disadvantaged people? Have you
learned about black women and men in journalism, Asian women and men in
music, Hispanic scientists, or African writers? Along with women, minorities
continue to be underrepresented in educational materials, where the reference
point has been and remains white, cisgendered, heterosexual, able-bodied,
middle- and upper-class males.
Gender-stereotyped curricular material diminishes education for all students.
When students learn primarily about straight, white, economically advantaged
men and their experiences, perspectives, and accomplishments, they are deprived
of understanding the perspectives and contributions of most of the population.
On a more personal level, biases in instructional content encourage straight, white,
able-bodied, middle-class men to see themselves as able to fulfill high ambitions
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CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
and affect the course of events, and discourage women and minorities from those
self-perceptions (Smith, 2004b; “Why STEM,” 2012).
LGBTQ Students Students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,
intersex, or genderqueer also face challenges and discrimination in school settings.
Despite some schools’ efforts to eliminate barriers to LGBTQ students (Misner,
2014) many schools still have practices and policies that range from unintentionally offensive to blatantly exclusionary or hostile.
Many of the challenges faced by LGBTQ students stem from the gender
binary norm that infuses schools, as well as society overall. The gender binary
assumes that people fit neatly and completely into either the male or female category, but that isn’t the case for everyone. Is a transwoman eligible to attend
and/or graduate from a single-sex women’s college? Bathrooms are often labeled
with signs for boys and girls. How do gender-segregated bathrooms compromise
the rights and/or safety of trans and genderqueer students? Most sports are
divided by sex. On which teams should trans athletes compete? Which locker
rooms should they use?
The assumption of cisgendered heterosexuality also pervades schools as it does
other institutions. Books to teach reading in the first grade often involve a family
of characters: Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear. Snow White falls for the cismale Prince Charming. In elementary school, children often make cards for
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, despite the fact that the traditional nuclear family
is no longer the majority family form in the United States (Baxter, in press). How
do such heterosexual, nuclear family models make children with two mothers or
two fathers feel? Novels assigned in literature classes in more advanced grades usually feature heterosexual romances and traditional nuclear families, again proclaiming heterosexuality as normal and right.
The presumption of heterosexuality continues throughout education. The process of assigning roommates in single-sex dormitories assumes students are cisgendered and heterosexual. For example, if a transman applies to a university and is
required to do so with his legal name and sex, whether those match his gender
identity or not, what are his options in applying for housing and/or a roommate?
Given the persistence of homophobia on campuses, to what extent should gay and
lesbian students feel safe in disclosing their sexual orientation to assigned roommates? Should gay or lesbian students be expected to disclose their sexual orientation to strangers when straight men and women aren’t expected to announce their
sexual orientation? Does the student health insurance plan cover the physical and
psychological needs of LGBTQ students (DeSantis, 2013)? As these questions demonstrate, the personal experience and identity of students who are gay, lesbian,
bisexual, or transgender are at odds with some campus cultures.
V
Maybe I have just been chased out of too many bathrooms, but gender-segregated
bathrooms are the worst! Why do you have to assign it a gender? Especially when
so many bathrooms are just one stall. I always have a small amount of anxiety
walking into a women’s bathroom. It’s that moment when you are walking to the
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
173
stall, or just standing in line, that I find myself trying to make my chest stand out or
avoiding eye contact to make it seem like I belong, even though I don’t feel like I do.
I think most people are concerned with what they do in the stalls, but for me it’s
what happens before and after that is stressful.
The unspoken norms of the gender binary and heterosexuality aren’t a problem
for most students. In fact, most students don’t even notice that those norms shape
numerous school policies and practices. However, if you aren’t a straight, cisgendered male or female, the disconnect between your identity and the normative
practices of educational settings can be a source of discomfort, alienation, and even
danger.
Gender Isn’t the Whole Story Before ending this section of the chapter,
we should note that academic challenges are not exclusively tied to gender or sexual orientation. Arguments over whether education is more challenging for women
or men miss a larger point. By far, the biggest divide in educational achievement in
the United States is between the rich and poor (Noah, 2012; Stiglitz, 2012). The
gap between female and male success in schools, while worthy of attention, is
dwarfed by the gap between rich and poor students (Duncan & Murane, 2011;
Tavernise, 2012). On standardized tests, the gap between low-income and affluent
students’ scores has grown by 40% since the 1980s (Travernise, 2012).
The growing chasm between educational achievement by rich and poor students
is due, in large measure, to the greater investments of time and other resources that
economically well-off parents make in their children. Affluent parents have the luxury of spending more time with very young children. They read and talk to them
more than working- and poverty-class parents. It’s no surprise that children who
are immersed in language from birth develop better language and conceptual skills.
Affluent parents also provide their children with enrichments—summer camp,
tutors, travel, and SAT preparation classes—that less wealthy parents cannot afford
(Brooks, 2012; Noah, 2012). All of those investments in children pay off in schooling where affluent children are more comfortable, better prepared, and, ultimately,
more successful.
Athletics
Today’s female students enjoy unprecedented opportunities to participate in athletics. In large part, that is due to Title IX. There are three basic parts of Title IX as it
applies to athletics (Title IX Q & A, 2008):
1. Women must be provided an equitable opportunity to participate in sports
(not necessarily the identical sports but an equal opportunity to play).
2. Colleges must provide female athletes with athletic scholarship dollars proportional to their participation. For instance, if there are 100 male athletes and 50
female athletes at a school that has a $150,000 athletic scholarship budget,
female athletes must receive $50,000 in scholarships.
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CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
3. Equal treatment includes more than playing time and scholarship. Schools are
also required to provide female and male athletes with equivalent equipment
and supplies, practice times, travel and daily allowance, tutoring, coaching,
locker rooms and facilities, publicity and promotions, recruitment programs,
and support services.
Despite Title IX, the playing field still is not exactly even. Girls who play fierce
baseball in elementary school too often are told they can’t be on the middle-school
or high-school baseball team and are routed instead to softball (Ring, 2013). At the
college level, male athletes and coaches of men’s teams continue to have more support, financial and otherwise, than female athletes and coaches of women’s teams.
More full scholarships go to male athletes (Hattery, 2012). In addition, male athletes are more likely than female athletes to get academic tutoring and prime schedules and venues for practice. Also, before passage of Title IX, more than 90% of
coaches of women’s sports were women. Following Title IX’s passage, fewer
women’s sports are coached by women, and all Division I colleges pay male
coaches more than women coaches.
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
Straddling Two Cultures
First-generation college students make
up at least 20% (Housel, 2012) of
undergraduates in the United States. In
addition to negotiating all of the challenges that face other students, firstgeneration undergraduates often have
the extra challenge of learning how to
navigate the social context of college
life. These students find themselves
trying to straddle two cultures— the
working-class culture in which they
grew up and the middle- to upperclass culture of academic institutions.
Consider these examples of the disconnects experienced by firstgeneration college students (Housel,
2012; Stephens, Hamedani, & Destin,
2014):
•
Listening to peers talk about
upcoming summer vacations or study
abroad opportunities, which their
families could not afford
•
•
•
•
Going to symphonies and museums,
neither of which they had ever
attended
Going to restaurants that served
international foods, which they had
never encountered at home
Having to rely on advisors more than
peers because parents cannot provide advice on other aspects of college life such as which classes to take
When first-generation college students
go home, they often experience a different and equally unsettling set of
disconnects:
•
•
Being accused of acting “stuck up” or
“too good” for family members
Ridiculed for revealing what they have
learned at college or for vocabulary
that is unfamiliar to family members
Feeling resentment from family and
former friends
TAKE A STAND: If you are a first-generation college student, which of the above
experiences is/are familiar to you? Would you add anything to this list? If you are not
a first-generation college student, which of the above experiences can you identify
on your campus?
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
175
HEATHER
This school claims to go by Title IX, but the support for women athletes doesn’t
even come close to what men get. The school is fair about the number of women
it recruits and funds with scholarships, but that’s where the equity stops. The men
have tutors who basically babysit them through their classes. We are expected to
earn our own grades. They have the best practice times on the field; we get the
leftover times. They get more travel allowance than we do, and they get a lot
more publicity.
Not all colleges and universities receiving federal support actually meet the spirit
of Title IX. In fact, the New York Times (Thomas, 2011) reported a number of
deceptive practices that colleges and universities use to appear to comply with
Title IX while actually undermining gender equity in athletics. Some schools
require women who are cross-country runners to join the indoor and outdoor
track teams, which allow the schools to count each runner three times in tallying
up the number of women athletes it has. Another deceptive practice that occurs at
some Division I schools is counting male players who practice with women as
female athletes. Other schools pad the rosters of female athletes by including
women who have returned their scholarships or who don’t play or by adding
players to teams when the numbers are counted and then cutting the players after
the count is done.
Inequities in supporting athletics have consequences beyond the school years.
Girls and women who participate in sports are more likely to pursue additional
education and have higher earning power in their 20s and 30s (the latest ages for
which data are available). They are also more likely to be healthy on many measures, including weight (Parker-Pope, 2010a).
Gender Pressures from Peers
The power of peer pressure is no myth. To be accepted by peers, many students
work hard to conform to prevailing expectations for their gender. Schools are a
training ground for adulthood, and peers are primary agents of gender
socialization.
SCOTT
On this campus, Greeks are cool. It took me just a few weeks on campus to figure out
that if I wanted to be popular in college, I had to join a fraternity. So I rushed and
pledged my first year. I like being part of the group and being considered cool, but I’m
still uncomfortable with some of what goes on in the house. Some of the brothers talk
about girls like they’re all sluts, and if you don’t go along with that talk, you’re a jerk.
Same with drinking—you have to drink a lot to be in with the group.
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CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
Although Title IX has been around for
more than 30 years, it is still widely misunderstood. Check your understanding
of Title IX (Messner, 2002; Neinas, 2002;
Suggs, 2005a; Title IX Q & A, 2008).
Fiction: Title IX focuses on athletics.
Fact:
Although Title IX has become
almost synonymous with athletics, that is a very small part of
what the legislation addresses.
Fiction: Title IX is binding on all schools
in the United States.
Fact:
Title IX is binding only on
schools that accept federal
funds.
Fiction: Title IX bans sex discrimination
only in athletics.
Fact:
Title IX bans sex discrimination
of all sorts in federally supported
schools. This applies to academics as well as athletics.
Fiction: Title IX has reduced opportunities for male college athletes.
Fact:
Since the passage of Title IX,
college men’s sports opportunities have actually increased.
Some schools have cut specific men’s teams, but overall
Title IX: Fiction and Fact
male athletes have more
opportunities.
Fiction: Title IX requires identical athletic
programs for males and females.
Fact:
Title IX does not require that
men’s and women’s teams
receive identical support. Instead,
it requires that they receive comparable levels of service, supplies,
and facilities. Variations between
men’s and women’s programs
are allowed.
Fiction: Because of Title IX, colleges that
receive federal funds provide
fully equal support to women’s
and men’s sports.
Fact:
Compared to male athletes,
female athletes receive fewer
scholarship dollars, and their
teams get fewer dollars for
recruiting and operating teams.
Fiction: Most Americans are opposed to
Title IX.
Fact:
In a recent poll, 82% of Americans
said they support Title IX. The
poll included all political parties
and people with and without
children.
TAKE A STAND: Are you satisfied with Title IX as it is currently implemented? If so,
why? If not, how do you think it should be modified?
Pressures to Conform to Masculinity As young boys grow into adolescence, male peer groups reinforce masculine identification. Males often engage in
drinking and sexual activity to demonstrate their masculinity, and they encourage
the same in peers (Cross, 2008; Kimmel, 2008). To be accepted by their peers,
some men say and do things as part of the group that they would never consider
doing as individuals.
Male students often enjoy athletic activities since the field and the court are primary social venues where male students find companionship and camaraderie. Yet
even if male students don’t want to play sports or don’t have time, they may perceive peer pressure to play sports either on school or club teams or intramural
teams.
Students of color, especially black males, often encounter obstacles that other
students seldom face. Fewer black men graduate from high school, attend college,
graduate from college, and receive advanced degrees than white men, white
women, or black women (Patton, 2012). Financial circumstances make it difficult
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
177
or impossible for some black men to attend college (Patton, 2012). Additionally,
according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education, black males
often face harsher forms of discipline than do white males. For example, black
males are more likely to be suspended from high school for minor issues such as
tardiness. In addition, black males, along with black females, are more likely than
white students to attend high schools that provide less rigorous coursework, offer
fewer classes necessary for college admission, and have less experienced teachers
than white students (Toldson, 2014). According to Dennis Morgan (Sander,
2012), these issues are compounded by stereotypes that equate black men’s academic success with being gay, nerdy, or “acting white.”
Pressures to Conform to Femininity Female peer groups tend to
encourage and reward compliance with feminine stereotypes. Girls often make
fun of or exclude girls who don’t wear popular brands of clothing or who weigh
more than what is considered ideal (Adler, 2007; Barash, 2006; Spar, 2013).
SPENCER
Tuition is nothing compared to what you have to spend to dress well! At this school,
it’s almost like there is a competition among girls to dress in the latest styles. If you’re
not wearing the cool boot or not layering the way models do in Marie Claire, you’re
just out of it. It takes a lot of money to buy all of the clothes and pay for haircuts and
manicures. It also takes huge amounts of time that I could spend other ways.
In addition, girls and women are particularly targeted for sexual harassment and
assault. From the earliest years of school through college and graduate school, girls
and women report that they experience jeering, lewd suggestions, and unwanted physical contact from other students. In a national study of girls in 7th to 12th grades, 56%
report being harassed (Anderson, 2011). And boys are not exempt: 40% of boys in
the same national study reported being harassed at school (Anderson, 2011). While
both sexes report being subject to sexual comments, gestures, and jokes, harassment that includes touching or forced sexual activity is more commonly experienced by girls than boys. Yet, the recent Penn State scandal reminds us that boys
can be victims of atrocious sexual harassment and assault (Wolverton, 2011).
Sexual discrimination and harassment are not confined to peer interactions.
Faculty and coaches may harass and discriminate against women. Ranging from
comments on appearance instead of on academic work to offers of higher grades
for sexual favors, these actions make women students’ sex more salient than their
abilities and aspirations. In treating women as sexual objects, such actions tell
women students that they are not taken seriously as members of an intellectual
community.
BAILEY
It’s so unfair how professors treat women. I’m a serious student, and I plan a business career, but my professors have never asked me about my career plans. Even
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178
CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
when I bring the subject up, all I get is really superficial stuff—like they really don’t
want to talk to me. One of my boyfriend’s teachers invited him to have coffee and
talk about graduate school. My boyfriend didn’t even have to ask! They spent over
an hour just talking about what he would do after undergraduate school. And my
grades are better than his!
An increasing problem for all students is bullying, which is behavior intended
to hurt, embarrass, shame, or intimidate another person. Bullying behaviors
include words, physical actions, and nonverbal behaviors that can cause emotional,
sexual, or physical harm. Bullying is often directed at people who do not conform
to gender prescriptions.
For women, peer pressures often increase during the college years. Studies of
women students at colleges and universities report that they feel two sets of pressures: to be successful as women—attractive, fun to be with, and so forth—and to
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
When the term schoolyard bullying was
coined, it referred almost exclusively to
a belligerent male student who beat up
other male students on school
grounds. Today, bullying in schools
comes in many forms including but not
restricted to beating someone up.
Anonymous apps such as Yik Yak,
Streetchat, and Secret allow students
to post comments and photos without
revealing their identities (Williams,
2014). Below is a partial listing of
common types of bullying; many of the
types can be perpetrated face-to-face or
via social media. You’ll note that the
types are not mutually exclusive. For
instance verbal, physical or sexual
bullying may also be emotional
bullying and most types of bullying may
be perpetrated via social media at least
as easily as through face-to-face
interaction.
Physical Bullying
! Hitting
! Shoving
! Kicking
! Pinching
! Pushing
! Beating
Schoolyard Bullying
Sexual Bullying
! Uninvited
touching
! Rape, including
group rape
Emotional
! Spreading hurtful rumors
! Ignoring (the
silent treatment)
Degrading
! Forced stripping
! Any coerced or
nonconsensual
sexual activity
! Excluding individuals from groups
! Teasing
Ridiculing
Verbal
! Cursing at ! Name
! Making fun of
calling
appearance
! Insulting a person’s race,
ethnicity, or sexual orientation
! Slander (lies)
! Belittling
Nonverbal
! Circulating embarrassing photos that
may be photoshopped
! Public displays of photos that disparage
particular groups (ethnic, sexual
orientation, etc.)
TAKE A STAND: What forms of peer bullying have you observed or experienced?
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Students
EXPLORING GENDERED LIVES
Young people, particularly young
women, are having more casual sexual
contacts than ever before and at earlier
and earlier ages, often as early as middleschool. On many college campuses dating has been largely replaced by “hooking up,” short-term or even one-time
sexual encounters between people who
are not interested in romance or commitment (Freitas, 2013; Stepp, 2007).
Those who have studied this trend
identify several contributing factors:
•
Fewer men than women attend college, which leads some women to be
more competitive in heterosexual
interaction (Whitmire, 2008).
179
Hooked Up
•
•
Some women feel they must postpone love in order to prepare for and
launch careers. Hooking up allows
contact without commitment (Freitas,
2013; Stepp, 2007).
Media increasingly teach women—
and even very young girls— to view
themselves as sexual objects for men.
They see these sexual encounters not
as sources of experience for themselves, but as sources of sexual pleasure for men. The result is that many
young women say sex is something
they do to fit in more than for their
own pleasure (Freitas, 2013; Levin &
Kilbourne, 2008; Levy, 2005).
TAKE A STAND: To what extent do you think the factors identified by researchers
account for hooking up?
be smart and academically successful. Women feel compelled to achieve effortless
perfection: to be beautiful, fit, popular, smart, and accomplished without any visible effort (Dube, 2004; Hinshaw, 2009). Many undergraduate women say they feel
enormous pressure to be perfect—to earn high grades, have leadership roles in
campus groups, and excel in sports while also being nice, kind, caring, and pleasing
to others (Girls Incorporated, 2006). These pressures encourage young women to
“equate identity with image, self-expression with appearance, femininity with performance, pleasure with pleasing, and sexuality with sexualization” (Orenstein,
2011b, p. 8). In a blog post about effortless perfection, undergraduate Amy Yao
(2013) writes that “the race to become ‘effortlessly perfect’ is still a very significant,
albeit unspoken, part of our reality.”
JACQUIE
College is supposed to be a place for thinking and education, but the bottom line
here is that you have to be really attractive if you want to be liked. Brains may get
you good grades, but they won’t get you friends or dates. Most of the girls I know
spend as much time shopping for clothes and fixing their hair and nails as they do
studying.
Peer groups on campus may also propel college women into a culture of
romance (Holland & Eisenhart, 1992). First, many women in college become
discouraged by barriers to their academic achievement, such as lack of intellectual mentoring from professors and required readings and class discussions
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180
CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
that emphasize important men and men’s achievements and give little or
no attention to important women and their achievements. The second factor
propelling college women into a culture of romance is intense peer pressure
that emphasizes attracting men as more important than anything else women
can do.
MARIA
My sorority is a great example of the culture of romance. When a girl gets engaged,
we throw her in a cold shower and then give her the “warm shower,” which is lots
of gifts and good wishes. Our newsletter lists alums’ marriages and births of children. What it doesn’t list and what we don’t celebrate is academic achievement or
alums’ career moves. Aren’t those important too?
Gay, lesbian, and transgender students are not exempt from peer pressure. In
fact, they are often subjected to more and more strenuous pressures to conform
to conventionally gendered identities than are straight students. They are also
more likely to be bullied for living outside of the standard identity categories. Bullying of LGBTQ students can be particularly vicious. In 2010, 18-year-old Tyler
Clementi committed suicide after discovering that his roommate Dharun Ravi
had sent out Twitter and text messages inviting others to watch a sexual encounter
between Clementi and another man. Ravi was tried on 15 charges including hate
crime; he was found guilty of a bias crime and using a webcam to spy on Clementi.
His sentence was 30 days in jail, three years on probation, and 300 hours of community service (Zernike, 2012).
Clementi is not an isolated case. Estimates are that 53% of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender) youth experience abuse and bullying, including cyberbullying (Burney, 2012). Despite the frequency of LGBTQ bullying, not even 1 in
10 colleges and universities in the United States has LGBTQ-inclusive policies
(Burney, 2012).
Gendered Expectations and Pressures
Facing Faculty
In addition to being educational institutions, schools are also workplaces, so we want
to examine gendered attitudes and practices that affect the faculty who work there.
As you will discover, gender dynamics faced by faculty often affect students as well.
Women faculty members often experience some of the same pressures faced by
women students. They may be stereotyped into traditionally feminine roles—for
instance, appointed to the social committee. In addition, many women faculty
have to deal with sexual harassment and sometimes sexual assault. In a recent
survey (Aschwanden, 2014), a majority of women faculty in the sciences reported
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Gendered Expectations and Pressures Facing Faculty
181
having been sexually harassed. Most frequently men in supervisory positions perpetrated the harassment.
The more advanced the educational level, the greater the ratio of male to female
faculty members. In elementary schools, the vast majority of teachers are female, but
most superintendents and assistant superintendents are male. In high schools, female
teachers still outnumber male teachers, but the imbalance is less pronounced. On
faculties at colleges and universities, men significantly outnumber women, especially
at the higher faculty ranks (Differences between Male and Female Full-Time
Professors, 2014; Curtis, 2011; Misra, Hickes, Holmes, & Agiomavritis, 2011). In
addition, male faculty still earn more than female faculty, regardless of professional
achievement (Curtis, 2010). At doctoral universities, men outnumber women
three to one, and women average 90 cents per dollar earned by male faculty
(Differences between Male and Female Full-Time Professors, 2014). At two-year
colleges where the salaries are lower overall, female faculty outnumber men.
Only 26.4% of chief administrators of colleges are female, and only 12.6% are
members of minority groups (How College Leaders’ Traits Have Changed over
5 Years, 2012).
Limited numbers of female and minority faculty mean that women and minority students have fewer role models among faculty. Recall cognitive development
theory, which we discussed in Chapter 2. This theory notes that we look for
models—preferably ones like us in sex, race, and so forth—to emulate as we
develop identities. If more men than women are principals and full professors,
students may infer that it’s normal for men (but not for women) to rise to high
levels in education.
MORGAN
With so many male professors, I think it is difficult for some students to feel comfortable getting to know their professors and asking for help. Women are more likely
to connect with a female teacher; minorities are more likely to connect with a
teacher of their race, and so on. Colleges always make a big deal about having a
diverse campus, but what about the professors? Where are the female professors?
Where are the LGBTQ professors? Where are the professors from other cultures and
races? If colleges want to have a diverse student body, they should also have a
diverse faculty that correlates with the students.
Women faculty experience gender biases in hiring and promotion. Researchers have identified three major sources of gender bias in the evaluation of faculty. First, women’s performance tends to be more closely scrutinized and
judged by stricter standards than men’s. Second, men have to give more convincing demonstrations of incompetence to be judged by others as incompetent.
Third, male candidates tend to be judged on whether they show promise,
whereas female candidates tend to be judged on accomplishments, a form of
bias that is particularly likely to affect hiring and promotion decisions (Wilson,
2004). All in all, different standards are used to evaluate men and women, and the
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182
CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
way in which those standards are applied results in men being judged as more
competent.
The subtlety of gender bias in evaluation of faculty explains why it is called
invisible hand discrimination (Haag, 2005). Invisible hand discrimination is
unwitting discrimination in applying policies that are not inherently biased
(Haag, 2005). It does not happen because a person consciously intends to discriminate or because a policy or practice is inherently discriminatory. The largely
unconscious nature of invisible hand discrimination makes it particularly difficult
to eliminate.
Consider a few examples of how invisible hand discrimination works. Collegiality is a criterion many universities use when deciding whether to promote faculty
members. There is nothing inherently biased about the criterion, as it is reasonable
to expect all faculty—men and women—to be civil, courteous, and reasonably easy
to work with. So, how might a tenure committee evaluate the collegiality of Professor Smith, who is known to be very assertive? Assertiveness in male faculty is likely
to be taken as a sign of confidence and intelligence, whereas assertiveness in female
faculty is often regarded as confrontational and non-collegial (Haag, 2005). That’s
invisible hand discrimination.
Another example is gender-typed assignment of service work. All faculty are
expected to perform some service work to maintain the intellectual and social
culture of their academic units and schools. A department chair might assign
tasks involving social events to female faculty without realizing that he or she is
acting on the unconscious assumption that women know how to organize receptions, parties, and so forth. More substantive service assignments are given to
male faculty also without conscious intention to be biased (McMurtrie, 2013).
That’s invisible hand discrimination. Gender biases in evaluation have material
consequences, including discrepancies between the salaries paid to women and
men faculty.
During the early years of an academic appointment, faculty members have
probationary status—they are not permanent faculty until and unless they earn
tenure. Thus, the early years require particularly long hours and heavy investments. For women, those years usually coincide with the ideal years for bearing
children, a pressure that affects women faculty in ways it does not affect male
faculty. The tenure schedule is at odds with the biological clock, which creates
tensions for faculty who are also parents (Hayden & O’Brien Hallstein, 2010;
O’Brien Hallstein & O’Reilly, 2012). The fact that this incompatibility affects
female faculty more than male faculty may be another form of invisible hand
discrimination.
The limited number of women faculty generates another problem: excessive
responsibilities for service and mentoring. Faculty committees are ubiquitous
at universities, and committees are expected to be diverse—that is, to include
women, men, and people of different races. Because there are fewer women
and minority faculty, they are routinely asked to serve on more committees
than their white male peers. The same goes for advising students, particularly
women and minority students. If there is only one minority woman on the
faculty of a department, she’s likely to be besieged by requests from the majority of graduate and undergraduate students who are women of color.
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Gender Online
183
SUMMARY
Today both sexes face gender-based issues, expectations, and biases in educational
institutions. Males, especially boys in the early years of schooling, are disadvantaged by a system that doesn’t accommodate their developmental status. As males
progress through school, they are more likely than women students to attract faculty mentors, particularly in graduate and professional school. For female students,
the reverse sequence is more common. They tend to be quite successful through
high school and perhaps college, but they often hit barriers when they enter graduate and professional school, particularly in math and sciences.
Peer culture on college campuses further encourages male and female students
to conform to particular gender ideals, which can limit personal and professional
development. Male peer cultures tend to link masculinity with drinking, aggression,
and sexual activity. Female peer cultures too often encourage campus women to
participate in a culture of romance and to attempt to meet the impossible ideal of
effortless perfection. In addition, both males and females may be bullied by peers,
and students who are not cisgendered are especially at risk for bullying.
Faculty also experience gender biases and pressures. Discrimination in hiring,
promotion, and pay continues to be a problem at colleges and universities across
the nation, as does the disparate expectations for service that women and men faculty members face. Further, invisible hand discrimination affects women faculty,
typically in ways that are both subtle and insidious.
Our examination warrants a mixed report card for schools in the United States.
Discrimination and disadvantage based on sex and gender have been greatly
reduced for students, but gendered dynamics persist at all grade levels. The same
is true for faculty.
KEY TERMS
The following terms are defined in this chapter on the pages indicated, as well
as in alphabetical order in the book’s glossary, which begins on page 281. The
text’s companion website also provides interactive flash cards to help you learn
these terms and the concepts they represent. You can access the site at www
.cengagebrain.com.
bullying 178
culture of romance 179
effortless perfection 179
Invisible hand discrimination 182
Title IX 173
GENDER ONLINE
1.
Learn more about Title IX by visiting: http://www.titleix.info
2.
Information about the United Nations’ education initiative for girls can be
found at: http://www.ungei.org/
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184
CHAPTER 8
Gendered Education: Communication in Schools
3.
Online search terms: “effortless perfection,” “peer pressure,” “single-sex education.”
4.
Learn about the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, an
organization dedicated to the mentoring and success of underrepresented
faculty, at: http://www.facultydiversity.org/
REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, AND ACTION
1. Talk with male and female athletes on your campus to find out the extent to
which they perceive that your school complies with Title IX.
2. If you could make three changes in elementary schools, with the goal of making them work better for boys and girls, what changes would you make?
3. Follow up on the Exploring Gendered Lives box on page 170 by asking students on your campus to name 10 men and 10 women who have had substantial impact on U.S. culture. You might want to use a stop watch to see how
long it takes students to generate 10 names of each sex.
4. What is your opinion on the desirability of single-sex schools? What do you see
as the advantages and disadvantages both for students in the schools and for
society?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
1.
Peg Tyre (2008). The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons,
Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do. New York:
Crown. This book, which was a reference for the chapter, gives a thoughtful
summary of barriers boys and men face in educational institutions. The book
is written for general audiences.
2.
Jennifer Ring (2013). Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press. This well-written book provides an interesting history of women’s involvement in baseball and also shows how
young women today are discouraged from playing hardball once they enter
middle school.
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