Riley Zook
Sonia Begert
English 101
02 December 2015
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.
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.
“Gender Bias in
College Admissions Tests” 20 Aug. 2007. FairTest.org. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Tiedemann, Joachim.
"Teachers' Gender Stereotypes As Determinants Of Teacher Perceptions In
Elementary School Mathematics." Educational Studies In Mathematics50.1
(2002): 49-62. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2015
Zook, Riley. “Gender
gap in education” 2015. Survey Monkey. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
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