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Gender issues and education
Gender issues and education
Gender equality in education in contemporary society free essays
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In the past the education has been dominated by the male, but as of late the female has become the new face of the scholar. In the feminist push for gender equality the male has been left to fend for himself in the public school environment. There is evidence saying that women are reading more than men, the first part of the problem. Another underlying cause is that the public school system is not geared to promote male interest in reading or education. Also with the spotlight being shined on female success the males are often left in the dark. These factors have contributed to the large gap in education between genders in the public school system.
Today our culture encourages the fact that boys read less than girls.In the early beginnings of writing, stories of wild adventure and long journeys were prominent in culture, with the classic hero's journey being a symbol for a male on a quest. But books focus on heroines such as Bella Swan from Twilight, Bella’s narrative is a love story with many an intricate plot that includes the issues of body image, moral predicaments, and near death experiences. As a male I can say nothing would interest me in the least if I was forced to read it in a class. Books such as this prove how the popular texts of late are geared for the female mind. “ It has long been known that the differences are strong between boys and girls in literary proficiency”(Bauerlein). In public schools especially there has been a growing gap between boys and girls, and how much they are reading. Girls have been noticed to be determined to read significantly more, this may be a factor in why in 2002 a study was published that said girls on average score nearly 3 times as high as boys in a reading proficiency test(Bauer...
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...imply put boys are being behind in school.
It seems that in the age of equality we have an unequal balance in the public school system. The male has lost his drive to stay up all night reading the latest narrative, instead the female between the sheets with the latest love story. With girls outperforming boys in each class as a whole, guys are . The boys are alienated with few exploring the wonderful world of academic excellence.It seems that the classic image of the scholar has changed, pop culture has forged the image of the female in favor of the male.
Works Cited
Baurline, Mark, and Sandra Stotsky. “Why Johnny Won’t Read.” The Language of Composition. 1st ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Brooks, David. “Mind over Muscle” The Language of Composition. 1st ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Hulbert, Ann. “Boy Problems.” The Language of Composition. 1st ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
“In the United States and several other countries, women now actually surpass men in educational achievements” (Josh, “Harvard Summer School”). Some women are more educated and qualified for most
Munro, Alice. “Boys and Girls.” Introduction to Literature. Ed. Isobel M. Findlay et al. 5th ed. Canada: Nelson Education, 2004. 491-502. Print.
The once male dominated, corporate, "white collar" America has seen a phenomenal influx of women within the last thirty years. Although a female lawyer, physician, or CEO is no longer considered a rarity in our times, women still face quite a deal of oppression in comparison to their male counterparts. In retrospect, some professions have always been controlled by women, and men have not made a noticeable advance in these fields. In 1970, finding a female lawyer to represent you would be a difficult task, since less than five percent of the profession were women. Today, that number has risen to almost thirty percent. The percentage of female doctors has almost tripled in the course of thirty years. African Americans have not made such a conspicuous progression within the last fifty years, while women have made a tremendous impact on the corporate world. One may wonder, how did women make these extraordinary advances? For the most part, it is due to the education they receive. At the present time young girls are encouraged to enroll in classes dealing with math and science, rather than home economics and typing. As pointed out by Nanette Asimov, in her essay "Fewer Teen Girls Enrolling in Technology Classes", school officials are advocating the necessity of advanced placement, and honor classes for teenage girls, in both the arts and sciences. This support and reassurance than carries over onto college, and finds a permanent fixture in a woman’s life. While women are continuing their success in once exclusively male oriented professions, they are still lacking the respect and equality from their peers, coworkers, and society. The average male lawyer, and doctor make twenty-five percent more money than their female equivalent. Women have always lived with the reputation of being intellectually inferior to, and physically submissive to men. This medieval, ignorant notion is far fetched from the truth. In 1999, high school men and women posted similar SAT scores, being separated by a only a few points. In addition to posting similar scores on the SAT, the average males score was a mere two-tenths of a point higher than an average females score on the ACT. Even though a woman maybe as qualified as a male for a certain occupation , women receive unwanted harassment, and are under strict scrutiny. A good illustration of this would be the women represented in "Two Women Cadets Leave the Citadel.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
Education is for boys as well because they are the husbands who will lead the communities. This time, the women want to choose their husbands, go to school, don’t want to be cut anymore, make their decisions for themselves, to be involved in politics and to be equal.
The rate at which women are graduating college today has taken a dramatic turn. Nowadays, researches show that women enroll more in college and their graduation rate is far higher compared to males. Women aspire to go to college more than males starting from middle school. Not only do they aspire, they work towards their goals. Research suggests that male students are not putting in the effort and are not getting engaged in things that will help them get in college and graduate. Women are more like the primary caregiver of a child in the house. They want to be role models to their children and will put in much effort to make it a reality. They understand the long term value of education, compared to most males who just want fast jobs to put money on the table.
Education was sex segregated for hundreds of years. Men and women went to different schools or were physically and academically separated into “coeducational” schools. Males and females had separate classrooms, separate entrances, separate academic subjects, and separate expectations. Women were only taught the social graces and morals, and teaching women academic subjects was considered a waste of time.
Imagine living in a time when your only role is to get married, bear children, and take care of your house and husband. Adrienne Rich proposes an ulterior idea in her essay “Taking Women Students Seriously” Women should not only question the gender standards but discuss the gender norms that society has created; by discussion and attention to the matter we can eliminate it all together. Women are not represented in school curriculums enough and have a large misrepresentation in society. Rich draws attention to: What women have working against them in education, how women are perceived in the world by the media and advertising, and the gender roles that society pressures young children to contort to. By striking up a discussion
conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
The kinds books children and young adults read today are read because they offer either important lessons or qualities that the children and young adults should portray. Books that children read reflect on the social structure on our world. A significant social issue today is one of gender inequality where men and women are still not seen as equals at home or in the workplace. This inequality reflects the sexism that occurs against women. Sexism is discrimination and stereotyping based on sex, most commonly against women.The sexism between men and women that exists today reflect the female stereotypes often seen in literature new and old. Literature published in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century, like Little Women and Peter Pen, and even
Walpole, S. (1995). Gender equity in education: A view from outside the classroom. In Proceedings of the Promoting Gender Equity Conference (pp. 5-11). Canberra: Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.
The right for women to be educated has been long sought after. The history of women education started the beginning of feminism. Education, over the last two hundred years, has changed women lives in America according to Barbara M. Solomon. In the early years of American history women were discouraged from getting a higher education it would be considered unnatural for women to be educated, and women were only taught domestic skills such as sewing, cooking and child-rearing. American women began to seek opportunities for further education, as well as equal rights. The history of women’s education has evolved through events that have shaped the culture of America today. To better understand the women’s education movement, it is important to know the background of its history.
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
The first all female schools began in the early 1800’s. These academies favored more traditional gender roles, women being the home makers and the men being the bread winners. The first generation of educated women was the result of single-sex colleges in 1873. Wendy Kaminer, an investigative journalist, states that “single-sex education was not exactly a choice; it was a cultural mandate at a time when sexual segregation was considered only natural” (1). Women of this time were technically not allowed to attend school with males. Feminists of this time worked hard to integrate the school system and by the early 1900’s, single sex classrooms were a thing of the past. In 1910, twenty-seven percent of colleges were for men only, fifteen percent were for women only and the remainders were coed. Today, women outnumber men among college graduates (Kaminer 1). After all the hard work of early feminists, there are thousands of people today who advocate bringing back the single sex classroom.