728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Back to School Headquarters › Gender Equity in Schools

Gender Equity in Schools

Is Your Daughter Being Forced to Choose Between Pretty and Smart?

By Paul Hartwick

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

Karen Finter, a science teacher at a Rochester, N.Y. area junior high school, sees the same scenario play out nearly every day. "Boys at the level I teach are rewarded for their aggressive and assertive behavior," she says. "The boys yelp, 'Oh-oh!' when they know the answer or they just shout it out. They're not afraid to speak their minds and they're picked as captains on teams or in lab groups. Girls are programmed already at this age that they are to be submissive, that their assertiveness might be held against them. It seems that somewhere they decide which girl to be, the pretty one or the smart one ... and nine times out of 10, it's the pretty one, even though they could be both. The sexes are treated differently because they act differently, despite the efforts made at school to reverse this."

These days, schools are a battleground for gender politics. And it's a battle that is clearly well worth fighting.

The Research Shows
Reports proclaim the education system is shortchanging girls. Study after study concludes that girls receive less attention in schools and, essentially, become classroom spectators. At the same time, studies show that girls are frequently steered away from math, science and technology courses.

Other reports tell us that the system is failing boys. Studies show that boys repeat grades and drop out of school much more often than girls. They're less likely to take language, fine arts and sociology and psychology classes. At the same time, emotionally detached boys are acting out with violence, sometimes resulting in the school shootings with which we've become all-too-familiar.

Regardless of their gender, studies say children are getting a raw deal from the education system. "Unlike the T-shirt industry, one size doesn't fit all," says Alice Ann Leidel of the American Association for University Women Educational Foundation. "America can no longer afford to ignore this valuable lesson." Leidel's organization blew the roof off the subject of gender inequity in schools through its 1992 report "How Schools Shortchange Girls" and followed up with a 1998 report called "Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Shortchange Our Children," which revealed new gender inequities in areas such as technology and career preparation programs.


Pages:  1  2  3  4