1950's Equality

Since the 1950s, the equality of education has certainly improved in regards to race/ethnicity, socio-economic status and/or gender/sexual orientation. However, we still see major gaps in education especially in racial and ethnic populations. Title IX 1972 has absolutely improved the equality of education for females since the 1950s. Women have even surpassed males in obtaining degrees which is a major difference than in the 1950s when women hardly attended college. Gaps in certain areas, especially in STEM fields, still exist between genders. In 2006 women made up 51% of the population but only 20% of science and engineering careers. This would suggest that there are still inequalities in some fields between genders even with major improvements

In reading 16 ,Becoming a Gendered Body, we read about how our movements, postures, and gestures are gendered and how this starts in Kindergarten. For example, boys were restrained physically more than females, which specialist suggest increases disruptive behavior from boys. It was found in multiple classrooms that around 60% of girls in preschool were found to wear pink everyday wile boys would not wear it at all. Little girls were already aware of how act in dresses which restricted movement. Formal behavior was also encouraged in girls while relaxed behavior was more encouraged with boys. These differences, although small, shape children gender and how they perceive

Although we still see issues in education with race/ethnicity, opportunity and inclusiveness has certainly improved from the 1950’s after minorities were desegregated around 1954. In 2012, around 51% of black males graduate high school nationally. However, in some places such as Newark New Jersey, white and black male graduation rates in high school have become similar, with black students even surpassing white male students. However, the gap between black and white males has slightly increased from 2009 to 2013. White males are still generally placed in gifted and talented programs three times as much as black male students. In the 1960s black students accounted for one percent of students in predominantly white schools in the south. By 1986, black students accounted for around 40 % of students. However, this number dropped to about 30% by 2000. These trends show that even with major improvement in racial equality in education, there are still major issues impacting minority’s success in education and opportunities when compared to Caucasians. Nationally there is around a 20% difference in graduation rates between African-American students and white students. Under represented minorities made up around 30% of the population in 2006, but only accounted for less than 20% of engineering and science