Classroom Reflection

The event that I attended was a Panel Discussion on Gender and Workplace sponsored by the Feinberg Family Fund the Gender and Women’s Studies Program. The presentations were put on by Elizabeth Schmitt who is a Professor of Economics at SUNY Oswego, Farhana Sultana who is an Associate Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, and Joanna Goplen who is the Director of the Women’s Studies Program at SUNY Oswego. In three completely different ways, all three of the speakers presented the audience with ways that women are discriminated against and or given less opportunities when compared to men. Professor Schmitt addressed gender earnings inequality in the United States, Professor Sultana discussed the ways that women in third world countries struggle to obtain water, and Goplen

Professor Schmitt’s presentation stands out mostly to me in this aspect because I think about the earnings of male teachers compared to female teachers. Additionally, it also makes me think about how I, as a future educator, will integrate these themes and social injustices into my everyday curriculum. Not only do these themes, ideas, and institutional structures and/or injustices have an impact on current teachers, but also on today’s students. In my opinion, I do not think the education system addresses issues such as these so it is not as obvious to the students. I feel that if there were students were exposed to institutional injustices such as institutional sexism, then they would be more apt to do something about them and make a change. Overall, I thought this event was extremely interesting and I am glad that I attended it. There were many things that the presenters addressed that I have never thought about before, and it caused me to think about how these social injustices truly do affect us both directly and