I struggled to find information regarding gender and education issues that involved the United States and present day. A lot of the information was for other countries and from awhile back in time. There was also information about higher education and gender differences that pertained to that. On common theme I noticed was a difference in technology between boys and girls. The ratio of boys and girls using computers was 4 to 1. The website also explained that girls were less likely to be successful in math and science than boys. Many different websites also agreed with this information. I have heard this information repeated many times in the past. Boys excel in math and science. Girls excel in writing, English, and history. There are statistics that support these theories but I can not say that I agree with them. I have had more male history teachers and more female math teachers throughout my schooling.
"Title IX mandates that schools not deny any students participation in any educational program or activity on the basis of sex." The introduction of this website gives great information about how schools follow the legal rules of Title IX but not offer the same educational opportunities to girls. Also, it goes through gender issues in education like:
- Girls at risk of dropping out of school.
- Gender bias in teacher/student interactions.
- Gender bias in standardized testing.
- Gender difference in learning styles.
- Teen pregnancy and parenting.
- Self-esteem of girls in adolescence.
I found some of these to be interesting and read further into them within the website. I always wondered about college issues pertaining to gender differences. I know RIC is something like 60 percent women to only 40 percent men. I wondered if that was true with other institutions and if women were going to college more than men.
This chart shows that the gap is increasing between females and males over the years in college enrollment. I was not at all shocked to see this for many reasons. In the end I was not surprised by the information that I found during my search. There is most definitely a gender bias throughout education but not many people notice.
I think the reason there is a much higher percentage of women at RIC than men is because o the type of college it is. RIC is known for being great in Education, and most of the people in the education program are women. I am in El. Ed and I have very few guys in my classes. FNED 346 actually has the highest amount of guys than all of my previous classes thus far. Usually, there are only one or two men. Education is a field traditionally pursued by women and RIC reflects that. On the other hand, my husband's graduate level business adm. classes were 60% male. Not every college is majority female, although that does seem to be the growing trend.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree as well with some of the statistics. I know a whole bunch of girls who love and do excellent in math and science, and a whole bunch of boys who love and do good in English and history. I, myself, love math and was thinking about having it as my major. Also, all my history teachers have been male, and almost all my math teachers have been female. This is how come I was sort of surprised to read the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThat website you found had great information. I actually bookmarked it. The 'key questions' sections really helped me think of ways in which gender difference effects education beyond the basic 'girls subjects' and 'boys subjects'. I was having a hard time seeing that because most of the information I found was relating to sports, so thanks for that.
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