Gender and education, from a sociological perspective, refers to the idea that the educational system does not offer the same type of opportunities for upward mobility to both genders equally. This is a type of sex discrimination being applied in the education system affecting both men and women during and after their educational experiences.
At all levels women are achieving higher representation and success. At the post-secondary level women are earning most of the degrees awarded.
Statistics
School girl in Honduras
Worldwide, men are more likely to be literate, with 100 men considered literate for every 88 women. In some countries the difference is even greater; for example, in Bangladesh only 62 women are literate for every 100 men.
In an OECD study of 43 developed countries, 15-year-old girls were ahead of boys in literacy skills and were more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs.. In the United States, girls are significantly ahead of boys in writing ability at all levels of primary and secondary education. However, boys are slightly ahead of girls in mathematics ability.
In some countries within the last generation, there has been a significant increase in women accessing tertiary education compared to men. In the United States in 2005-2006, women earned more Associate’s, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees than men, but men earned more Doctorates. This is repeated in other countries; for example, women make up 58% of admissions in the UK and 60% in Iran.
Forms of Sex Discrimination in Education
Sex discrimination in education is applied to women in several ways. First, many sociologists of education view the educational system as an institution of social and cultural reproduction. The existing patterns of inequality, especially for gender inequality, are reproduced within schools through formal and informal processes.
A recent study published in Time Magazine showed that when comparing young, unattached women against similarly situated men, women tend to earn up to 20% more than their male counterparts.
Another way the educational system discriminates towards females is through course-taking, especially in high school. This is important because course-taking represents a large gender gap in what courses males and females take, which leads to different educational and occupational paths between males and females. For example, females tend to take fewer advanced mathematical and scientific courses, thus leading them to be ill-equipped to pursue these careers in higher education. This can further be seen in technology and computer courses.
Also, cultural norms may also be a factor causing sex discrimination in education. For example, society suggests that women should be mothers and be responsible for the bulk of child rearing. Therefore, women feel compelled to pursue educational pathways that lead to occupations that allow for long leaves of absences, so they can be stay at home mothers.
Furthermore, the idea of a hidden curriculum further adds to the discrimination of women in the educational system. The hidden curriculum refers to the idea that teachers interact and teach each of their students in a way that reinforces relations of gender, as well as race and social class. For example, teachers may give more attention to boys, resulting in them becoming more social, whereas girls become quieter and learn that they should be passive and defer to boys. Students are also being socialized for their expected adult roles through the correspondence principle of sociology through schools. For example, girls may be encouraged to learn skills valued in female-dominated fields, while boys might learn leadership skills for male-dominated occupations.
Consequences of Sex Discrimination in Education
Discrimination results in a substantial gender gap in pay towards women (.75 cents for every dollar that men make), for the most part, being in low status, sex-stereotyped occupations, which in part is due to gender differences in majors. They also have to endure the main responsibilities of domestic tasks, even though their labor force participation has increased. Sex discrimination in high school and college course-taking also results in women not being prepared or qualified to pursue more prestigious, high paying occupations. Sex discrimination in education also results in women being more passive, quiet, and less assertive, due to the effects of the hidden curriculum.
However, in 2005, USA Today reported that the “college gender gap” was widening; stating that fifty-seven percent of U.S. college students are female. By 2010 nearly 60 per cent of bachelor’s degrees in the US went to women.
Gender Gap in Education: Literacy Specific
The Issue
Today’s gender gap in education often focuses on the advantage males have over females in science and math, but fails to recognize the falling behind of males to females in literacy. In fact, the latest national test scores, collected by the NAEP assessment, show that girls have met or exceeded the reading performance of boys at all age levels. The literacy gap in fourth grade is equivalent to males being developmentally two years behind the average girl in reading and writing. At the middle school level, statistics from the Educational Testing Service show that the gap between eight-grade males and females is more than six times greater than the differences in mathematical reasoning, mathematical reasoning favoring males. These findings have spanned across the globe as the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) found gender to be the most powerful predictor of performance in a study of 14 countries.
Studies have attributed these disparities to several main factors. First of these is an innate difference in the brain function of males and females. Females have the advantage in their left hemisphere with speaking, reading and writing. Their right hemisphere allows females to feel empathy and to better understand and reflect on their feelings and the feelings of others. Both hemispheres are actively contributing to necessary literacy practices. On the other hand, boys use their left hemisphere to recall facts and rules and to categorize, while their right-hemisphere is used with visual-spatial and visual-motor skills, which enables them to excel in topics like geography, science, and math. Additionally hindering literacy instruction for males is an unwritten “Boy Code” society has placed on males keeping them from feeling and/or expressing their emotions. Males are therefore less likely to share opinions about literature and less likely to express to a teacher when having difficulty, feeling frustrated or just plain not understanding the material. Instead, males fidget, get distracted, receive reprimands and often quit all together.
This gap for males with literacy proves hindering as the abilities to read, write and speak fluently are crucial to success in society, higher education and the workplace. Inadequate literacy skills reduce employment prospects and limit participation in society. With one of the goal’s for education being the providing of a base for a successful and rich future for all students, it is important for the education system to make the changes necessary to “close the gap” between males and females in literacy instruction.
Possible Solutions & Implementation
One attempted change made to literacy instruction has been the offering of choice in classroom gender populations. In Hamilton, Ontario, Cecil B. Stirling Elementary/Junior School offered students in grades 7 & 8, and their parents, a choice between enrolling in a boys-only, girls-only or co-ed literacy course. Single-gender classes were most popular, and although no specific studies have shown a statistical advantage to single-gender literacy classes, the overall reaction by boys was positive: “I like that there’s no girls and you can’t be distracted. . . . You get better marks and you can concentrate more.”
With boys-only classrooms not always possible, it then becomes the responsibility of the literacy instructor to broaden the definition of literacy from fiction-rich literacy programs to expose students to a variety of texts including factual and nonfiction texts (magazines, informational texts, etc.) that boys are already often reading; provide interest and choice in literacy instruction; expand literacy teaching styles to more hands-on, interactive and problem-solving learning, appealing to a boy’s strengths; and to provide a supportive classroom environment, sensitive to the individual learning pace of each boy and providing of a sense of competence.
Other everyday practices, attempting to “close the gap” of literacy, for the classroom can include, but not be limited to:
- Tapping into visual-spatial strengths of boys. (Graphic Organizers, Filmstrips/Comics)
- Using hands-on materials.
- Incorporating technology. (Computer Learning Games, Cyberhunts)
- Allowing time for movement. (Reader’s Theaters/{lays, “Active” Mnemonics)
- Allowing opportunities for competition. (Spelling Bees, Jeopardy, Hangman)
- Choosing books that appeal to boys. (“Boy’s Rack” in Classroom Library)
- Providing male role models. (High-school Boys Tutoring Younger Boys in Reading, Reading/Speaking Guests)
- Boys-only reading programs. (Boys-only Book Club)