Final Paper Reflections

                 Paper two and three both were very different concerning the writing process. Paper two was much easier for me to write than paper three was. I think the main problem I had with the third paper was trying to research sources that I felt I could trust, and that made sense to use within the context of my paper’s topic. I also had a hard time digging through the source material to find what exactly I wanted to use to support any claims that I was making in the paper. I had a much easier time searching for ads and source material for the second paper, and I liked how the formatting of the second paper allowed me to be much more fluid with my writing. I feel like my third paper is definitely not as good as my other two, but I cannot seem to find a better way to write it without completely restarting with a new topic. I was excited to start the third as much as I was with the second, but my enthusiasm waned as I continued writing. The third paper is more formal and less personal than the second, and I prefer to make my papers warmer or to add more of my voice into the writing and I didn’t feel like I could with this paper. It was very frustrating for me to write the third paper, and it was a very different experience from the second where I was very comfortable and confident with what I was putting on to the page. Still, I value the experience that I gained from writing the third paper even through the struggles. It was made clear to me through the writing that this is obviously something I need to work on, and without this paper I would still be unaware of my lack of skills for a position essay. It was great practice, and I hope to be able to improve much further past the final product that I was able to complete. 

Riley Zook

Sonia Begert

English 101

02 December 2015

Women’s Education is Still Suffering from Gender Bias

           As we entered the twenty-first century, women in America were profiting in both monetary and emotional gains from the struggles of past generations. Women are allowed to vote in major elections, we hold positions in Fortune 500 companies, and Feminism is making its third comeback, with its largest group yet. One thing some might take for granted however, is education. Although college may still be a lofty dream for the average person, an education from kindergarten to twelfth grade is expected from every student. As students, we all share this common experience, but are our experiences identical? Are we all given the same chances to learn, are our accomplishments valued the same, does our work hold the same value? The short answer is no, but why? And how? The answer to the former question is incredibly complex, but at least part of the discrepancies can be attributed to gender. The latter, just as complex as the first, can be attributed not to women, but to the gender bias that permeates the field of education. It is these two factors, gender and gender bias, that intertwine and lead to the continuing underachievement of women in education.

           

           To understand the contributions that gender bias is making to this inequality, we must first know what the term means. “Gender Bias” is a sort of umbrella term that includes many forms of gender-based discrimination including macro aggressions like rape, or micro aggressions like gendered slurs and stereotypes. The best way to see how these aggressions, especially stereotypes, affect the education of women, is to look at how the people in power act towards women versus men in the classroom. In most cases, both female and male teachers interact more often and meaningfully with male students than their female counterparts (Duffy 591). This tells us that as a whole, male students are garnering more attention from their teachers than female students are. Face-to-face interaction is absolutely vital to the learning experience, and is why so many schools strive for low teacher-to-student ratios. As you decrease the amount of students in the classroom, the teacher is able to give more individualized teaching based on the student and their needs. What happens then, when female students are lacking interaction from their teachers, not because of large class sizes but their gender? Where does this gap come from? One answer may be gender based stereotypes. Teachers will call on male students more often to combat what they believe is a general lack of focus or interest that comes along with being male (Duffy 591). Unfortunately, the extra attention devoted to keeping the male students participating and learning, detracts from the female students in the class, and a gap is created.

           This gap can also be followed into the way that the educational achievements of male and female students are viewed. The differences in the education of women and men become especially clear when considering this topic. In general, female tend to attribute their failures in math to a lack of ability rather than effort, while for males, the opposite is true (Tiedemann 50). This trend continues to the teachers, and even parents of the students. The juxtaposition of these two views is shocking. Effort, or hard work and determination is seen to be the cause of most female students achievements, while with males, it is their ability. In this case, males are seen to be natural achievers who do not need to try in order to succeed. Not only does this downplay any actual work that male students may have done, but it also sends the message to female students that they have to try harder than males to succeed, because the ability is not natural for them. This subtle form of degradation can be a contribution to the underrepresentation of women when considering educational success. Would you want to try and achieve something if you knew automatically that the praise would be “Wow, you must have tried so hard”? This leads to even the simplest of tasks being presented to women as complex and difficult. What is even more concerning, is that confidence and achievement are linked, as confidence decreases, so do achievements (Tiedemann 50). While female students are not only losing confidence because of the way that their achievements are viewed, their actual educational accomplishments decrease along with it.

           We see through examination of these two aspects how the education of women may suffer from the effects of gender bias. We can also see the effects in test scores and performance. Although female students excel past male students in academics through high school and college, the test scores for women have historically always been lower than men. Here, in college admissions tests, are where we see the largest effect of gender bias in education. When looking at the SAT the scores of women are, on average, 33 points lower than males on the math section (FairTest). This score gap exists with students that take the same math course and attain the same grades. On the GRE, Males scored higher than women on all three separate portions of the test, with the largest difference of 97 points taking place in the quantitative section (FairTest).

Clearly, there is a problem with the tests if even the closest match of students has a difference of 33 points when taking gender into consideration. One reason we may find for this is shockingly, in the questions themselves. In the SAT, women scored higher than males in the verbal section, but lower on the math section. Seeing a discrepancy, the test makers changed the questions in the verbal section to better suit male test takers. After that point, men have consistently scored higher on than women on all portions of the SAT (FairTest). In this case, a discrepancy was fixed to allow men the same opportunity to answer the questions correctly. The math portion however, was never altered to allow women the same. At this level, where the tests may decide the outcome of our college education, it is acceptable for students to score lower only if those students are female. Not only do the questions themselves contribute to this problem though, but the format (Multiple choice vs. long-answer), timing, and guessing penalties partake in the larger issue in the same way (FairTest).

            Some educators and test makers however, do not attribute these differences to gender. For example, the gaps are sometimes explained away by the larger percentages of women who take college admissions tests versus men. Unfortunately, because of the way percentages work, if there were 1,000 women taking a test who scored an average of 33% lower than 1,000 men, the same would still be true if there were 1,000,000 women taking the test. Percentages fluctuate with the total, always holding the value as a part of the whole. You can have 33% by having 3.3/10, and also 33/100. The explanation behind this gap is unfounded in truth, and the gap between male and female test takers hold consistent even as the amount of women increases or decreases (FairTest).

            Another argument is that there is a gender bias in education, but most people simply are not aware of it to call for a change. In a recent poll out of 26 respondents, most respondents believed there was an overall gender gap in education that leans towards the benefit of males (Zook). Although the survey is small, it gives a valuable insight into actual students and past learners view on education and how it differs gender-to-gender from a first person perspective. As we see, people can be aware of a gender bias in education. What we cannot know however, is how much of it they are aware of. Are they aware of how it affects test scores? Do they know that is goes as far as perception of achievements? This lack of understanding may be what has led to the lack of any call to action against this.

            The continuing difference in the performance of women in educational settings even when presented with similar context, is what leads to the conclusion that gender bias has to play a part in the underachievement of women in education. The treatment of achievements, the interactions between teachers and students, and even tests that are supposed to be an unbiased look at academic standing of students, all show signs of being tainted by gender bias. These discrepancies not only help to widen the ever-expanding gap between men and women in academics, but also serves as an example of how gender bias specifically, leads to the suffering in quality of the education of women.

Jacob S. essay

1.       What is the claim?

a.       The main point the writer is trying to make, is that starting school later would benefit students, parents, and teachers.

b.      The thesis is clearly stated and there is no suggestion to dig through to try and find the thesis. The thesis is stated clearly at the end of the first paragraph.

2.       What support does the writer offer for the claim?

a.       Reasons to support the claim include teenager’s need more sleep than adults, a later start would lead to increased overall performance, and even safety benefits.

b.      Evidence used to support these reasons are testimonials from educators, and statistics in the form of percentages.

c.       The reasons are plausible, but might not be sufficient or sufficiently sourced. The writer is still lacking a third source.

3.       How evenhandedly does the writer present the issues?

a.       There are mentions of a counterargument, specifically one for cost, and the author acknowledges this argument and then gives an option to fix the problem while giving more support to his main argument.

b.      ^

c.       The author treats counterarguments respectfully, and explains their point of view sufficiently, allowing the reader to form an opinion about both sides.

d.      The writer does engage in generalizations without sources, and creates reasons that, while contextually appropriate, are not supported by evidence.

4.       What authorities or sources of outside information are used?

a.       The author uses each source to support reasons stated in a way that utilizes the subject matter appropriately. Each source is matched with a reason that makes sense, and there does not seem to be a disjoint in the sources and the reasons.

b.      The sources are credible, but the psychology today more so than the other from USA today.

c.       Each source is current, occurring within either this current year, or 2014.

5.       How does the Writer address you as a reader?

a.       The writer assumes that the audience is familiar with the experience of being a student in either high school or college.

b.      The language used by the writer mainly excludes the audience as they mainly use I, instead of we, but they do include the reader at certain areas that are appropriate.

c.       I do feel like the author and I share beliefs regarding the start time of schools. It is fairly clear how the writer feels that the start time of schools should be later for high school students especially, and I definitely agree with that stance, and how the writer states that a later start time would contribute to an overall better student performance.

Patrick K. essay

1.       What is the claim?

a.       The point the writer is trying to make is that video games do not cause violence.

b.      The thesis is stated clearly and firmly in the first paragraph.

2.       What support does the writer offer for the claim?

a.       The author gives reasons including how cooking in a game does not make you a chef, or acting as a lawyer in a game does not actually make you a lawyer, how when a popular game is released the players are actually playing the game and not outside committing violent crimes, and how game ratings should be taken into consideration and become more respected by parents when buying games for their children.

b.      The evidence provided by the author to support these reasons are visual elements like graphs, and testimonials by authorities.

c.       The reasons are plausible and sufficient, although the last reason concerning parents and appropriate game ratings feels disconnected partly, and may need some editing.

3.       How evenhandedly does the author present the issues?

a.       The author mentions a counterargument, but does not give any real specifics concerning the other arguments.

b.      The author mainly acknowledges that there may be a counterargument concerning a specific point and then goes on to refute the claims with reasoning and evidence.

c.       The author responds to counterarguments respectfully.

d.      The arguments are qualified and relevant especially with the current trend of gun violence in the United States.

4.       What authorities or sources of outside information does the writer use?

a.       The author uses each source in a way that relevantly ties them into the writing as a way to support each reason for the overall claim.

b.      Two of the sources are recognizable by name and are credible, while two others are more obscure and cannot bring to mind anything associated with them either positively or negatively concerning their credibility.

c.       Each source is extremely current, all from within the current year.

5.       How does the writer address you as the reader?

a.       The writer seems to assume that the audience or reader already has a position on the topic leaning towards disagreement with the author’s main claim.

b.      The language used by the author mainly excludes the reader, using mostly “I” rather than “we”. The argument reads more as a personal defense for video games rather than an unbiased collection of sources to support a claim.

c.       I don’t know though, if the author and I share any beliefs or attitudes toward the subject as I am inconclusive of my own position towards the topic, although I do tend to believe that games like “Grand Theft Auto”, and “Saints Row” contribute to violence and violent attitudes toward women and specifically sex workers. 

In the online publication Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests by FairTest, reviews of three separate college admissions tests are used to show a clear gender bias in each of the tests, with males consistently outscoring females. The writing then goes on to explain how there is no single reason for the gender bias in testing, but more a culmination of several different factors. It continues to dissect the tests and explain how each part contributes to the gender bias they already showed through data, including test questions, format, guessing, and “speededness”. the article then includes material from test makers who try to explain that the gap can be caused by the amount of females that take the tests, although as FairTest points out, the differences would be the same if looking at it from a percentage vantage if this was the case.

In the publication Attributional Gender Bias: Teachers' Ability and Effort Explanations for Students' Math Performance, published in the Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, the authors focus on the different attributions associated with achievements based on gender. They state that the attributions for females tend to be focused on effort, versus ability for males. The publication also goes on to study the teachers attitudes towards different genders and how they try to compensate for the discrepancies.

In the Publication Classroom Interactions: Gender of Teacher, Gender of Student, and Classroom Subject, published by Sex Roles, the authors focus on the genders of the teachers and students, along with the classroom subject, and how differing genders alters the interactions between the teachers and students. They also focus on how even though males were not more likely to create an interaction, teachers of all genders were more likely to interact with males.

Works cited

Duffy, Jim, Warren Kelly, and Margaret Walsh. "Classroom Interactions: Gender of Teacher, Gender of Student, and Classroom Subject." Sex Roles 45.9 (2001): 579-93. ProQuest. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Espinoza, Penelope, Arêas Da Luz Fontes, Ana,B., and Clarissa Arms-chavez. "Attributional Gender Bias: Teachers' Ability and Effort Explanations for Students' Math Performance." Social Psychology of Education : An International Journal 17.1 (2014): 105-26. ProQuest. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

“Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests” 20 Aug. 2007. FairTest.org. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Things About Sprigg’s Essay We Noticed

• Spriggs addressed the other points of views well and gave a bit of evidence even supporting the other side.
• She proved the evidence wrong, which built up her credibility.
• Sprigg’s argument didn’t have very solid facts, since her idea that she wanted to discuss is not something you can prove or disprove.
• Sprigg’s pictures added a good contrast for the farms.

Things About Our Essays We Noticed

• In Jacob’s essay, his author had a phD which made the author a bit more credible. His phD was in psychology (we think).
• In Jacob’s essay there is evidence and facts. There is a lot of solid facts, since the topic of school starting later is a tangible idea.
• Jacob’s essay had a very small counter argument. Same with Chloe’s. Same with Corben’s
• Corben’s essay was a very opinionated review, and there really wasn’t a counter argument for his paper. The counter argument would be not to buy it, but so far there hasn’t been a counter argument.
• Chloe’s essay didn’t have pictures, but if you had pictures of the topic “animal essay” it might be too graphic and scare people away.
• Riley did not have an essay, but has created a survey to collect personal responses.

Hey everyone. I recently made a survey to try and collect responses regarding the intersection of gender and education. It would be really helpful if you could take the time to respond and share your thoughts. It is pretty short, only 10 questions, so it wont take up a ton of time. Thanks.
 SURVEY LINK

AT&T commercial discussion

Both Corben and I watched and summarized the same ad.

• Both agreed there wasn’t really an appeal to logos, but mainly pathos.
• There was really only one example of ethos in this video, which is the police officer as he is in a position of power that most people respect.
• we both agreed that it was powerful because the interviewees were the family of the victims and in one case an actual victim impacted by distracted driving.
• we both watched the video and wrote the summary at the same time. Taking inspiration from what had been happening at the time in the video.
• we both thought that this would be the best way to write the summary as we would be able to capture the emotions and feelings that first came to us.
• Corben also said that it was interesting how the company that created the commercial was actually a phone carrier.
• I wrote about how the music in the beginning sets the scene for the rest of the video and almost foreshadows the tone of the ad.
• we also discussed how the last images of the relatives and victims holding up the last texts before the accident was powerful because of the clear negative effect that these simple messages had on the lives of these people.
• we both agree that it was an ad telling the audience and viewers not to text and drive and they support their position by giving examples and stories of how distracted driving can lead to accidents and deaths.