3. EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION

Education historically has had a large role in teaching and reinforcing
gender identity

Assumptions of gender differences and white male hegemony still
effect educational institutions today

Education can maintain stereotypes, inequalities, and privileges.
“Education is political.
Knowledge is not value
free, nor is the process of
acquiring it.”

4. INTERLOCKING INSTITUTIONS


Education effects
and is effected by
other institutions like
workplaces, govern
ments, family, and
media.
Governments in
particular effect
education. Title IX
makes educational
discrimination based
on sex illegal.
Title
IX, Brian
Rea

5. LOOKING BEYOND GENDER DIFFERENCES

Education has the power to
challenge stereotypes and
hegemonic, binary views of
gender and sex.

Learning can be oppressive
or empowering.

Western culture values
rationality, scientific
objectivity, and statistics.

Feminist epistemology offers
a different perspective based
on a theoretically-inclusive
approach that embraces
collaboration.
“The institution of education
is a creator and keeper of
socially sanctioned and
respected knowledge.”

6. How did your education
shape your values?
What impact does
education have on
families? On
workplaces?
What are the benefits to
an intellectual
approach that is
inclusive rather than
strictly rational?

9. TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS
Teachers and administrators
can, intentionally or
unintentionally, make sex
distinctions part of children’s
identities through
rhetoric, segregation, and
oppositional activities.
Lessons that emphasize
competition or unfair
attention/compensation given to
one gender group can also
reinforce these ideas, especially in
young children.

10. GENDER AND SCHOOL SPORTS



Sports have generally been
considered a masculine activity
throughout history. Boys are able to
define their masculinity through
motion.
Since the passage of Title
IX, women’s athletics have become
more widespread. Sports can
improve girls’ performance, social
skills, confidence, and more.
Still, sports can be unwelcoming to
students who don’t identify with
narrow gender binary distinctions.
Some female athletes face pressures
to behave in a more traditionally
feminine way.

11. EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND
CURRICULA



Title IX led to a review of
educational materials
and eliminated many
stereotypes, but some
sexist tropes persist.
Sex typing of subjects like
shop or home
economics, or even
language arts and
math, still occurs.
Some professions like
nursing or teaching are
attached to certain
genders in culture as well.

12. HIGHER EDUCATION
 Men continue to hold more teaching
positions at the college level and have a
better time getting hired, receiving positive
evaluations, and being promoted.
 Professorship continues to be gendered as
masculine. Professors who perform
femininely may receive more negative
feedback.

14. GENDER WARS IN EDUCATION



Many have argued that
educational institutions
have failed either boys or
girls, but these are based
on suppositions that
learning needs differ by
gender.
Both boys and girls are
shortchanged in the
classroom. A viewpoint
that shows boys and girls
as competitors is not
constructive.
Sexism still does exist in
schools, which can be
disadvantageous to girls.
Percentage of 8th grade students
attaining writing achievement
levels (NCES)
Male
Female
100
80
60
40
20
0
Below Basic
At or
Above
Basic
At or
At
Above
Advanced
Proficient
“The gender gap in education exists for
both girls and boys, but because they
tend to be socialized in different ways
and because observers have gendered
expectations, the gender gaps tend to
be manifested in different ways.”

15. SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION




Some education programs
segregate boys and girls in
classes, grades, or buildings.
Single-sex education has a
foundation of stereotypical
assumptions about gender.
Most of the documented
improvements reported by
single-se education proponents
can be attributed to smaller
class sizes and improved
teaching strategies.
This methodology can reinforce
out of date ideas about gender
and sex, promote male
privilege, and exclude students
who may not fit into a strict
gender binary perspective.

16. PEER PRESSURE



Students exert pressure on
those who don’t join samesex social groups. Boys tend
to enforce notions of
masculinity on other
boys, and girls enforce
notions of femininity for other
girls.
Peer groups have
considerable influence over
adolescents.
As teens construct their
identities through
interaction, sexuality and
gender/sex become linked.

17. BULLYING AND HARASSMENT

Bullying is usually perpetrated by older
children against younger/weaker
children or by boys against girls and
effeminate boys.

Uncorrected, bullying can lead to more
serious forms of abuse. It can create
an environment that is hospitable to
sexual harassment.

Girls experience sexual harassment
more often than boys. 4 out of 5
students reported having been the
target of harassment.

Female harassment tends to be less
physical, and more verbal and social.

At the college level, females are the
targets of sexual
jokes, comments, gestures and
looks, and males are the targets of gay
and homophobic monikers.

An atmosphere of harassment and
bullying is not conducive to learning.
Bullying:
Physical, psych
ological, and/or
verbal
intimidation or
attack that is
meant to cause
distress and/or
harm to an
intended victim.

19. SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON COLLEGE
CAMPUSES



Between 1/5 and 1/4 of
college women will be the
victims of an attempted or
completed sexual assault.
Part of the problem on
campuses is the abuse of
alcohol. At least half of all
violent crimes involve alcohol
consumption by the
perpetrator, the victim, or
both.
Aggressive language and
competitive sex stories are a
part of the masculine
university culture.
“The predominant culture’s definition
of masculinity as
aggressive, virile, and dominant
perpetuates violence against
women, LGBT persons, and other
men.”

20. Do you remember ever
playing boys vs. girls
games in school?
Have you had more male or
female professors?
What might be some benefits
to single-sex education?
Have you ever witnessed
bullying or sexual
harassment in school?
What about sexual
violence?

22. EMANCIPATORY EDUCATION
Gender Sensitive Education: An inclusive, non-stereotypical
environment, coupled with creating a community that welcomes
diversity and directly addresses stereotypical assumptions about
gender.
Connected Teaching: Teaching is more effective when topics are
linked to a learner’s actual experience and when a teacher is
willing to engage with the class and recognize teaching moments
when they occur.
International Education of Girls: Global education programs look to
counteract oppression by giving girls around the world
unprecedented access to education. Illiteracy is linked with
poverty, illness, unemployment, and violence and it is a problem
that women face in particular. Investing in women is investing in
entire families and communities.

23. What are some teaching
strategies that could
generate a more
gender sensitive
learning environment?
Compare your teachers:
does a connected
teaching perspective
help your learning?

25. BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Basic Education and Gender Equality." UNICEF. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web.
25 Nov. 2013.
Cantoral, Eduardo. "News on Relevant Science." : 10 College Majors With
the Biggest Gender Gap. News on Relevant Science, 2 July 2012. Web.
26 Nov. 2013.
DeFrancisco, Victoria L., and Catherine Helen. Palczewski. "Education."
Communicating Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach. Los Angeles:
Sage Publications, 2007. 175-97. Print.
"Percentage of Students Attaining Writing Achievement Levels, by Grade
Level and Selected Student Characteristics: 2002." Percentage of
Students Attaining Writing Achievement Levels, by Grade Level and
Selected Student Characteristics: 2002. National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), 2002. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Rea, Brian. Title IX. 2012. Brian Rea. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.