Gender and education, from a sociological perspective, refers to the idea that the educational system does not offer the same type of opportunities for upward mobility to both genders equally. This is a type of sex discrimination being applied in the education system affecting both men and women during and after their educational experiences.[1]
At all levels women are achieving higher representation and success. At the post-secondary level women are earning most of the degrees awarded.
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Worldwide, men are more likely to be literate, with 100 men considered literate for every 88 women. In some countries the difference is even greater; for example, in Bangladesh only 62 women are literate for every 100 men.[2]
In an OECD study of 43 developed countries, 15-year-old girls were ahead of boys in literacy skills and were more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs.[3]. In the United States, girls are significantly ahead of boys in writing ability at all levels of primary and secondary education.[3] However, boys are slightly ahead of girls in mathematics ability.[4]
There has been a significant increase in women accessing tertiary education compared to men. In the United States, the 2005 averages saw male to female university participants at a 43 to 57 ratio (Marklein, 2005). Also, in 2005-2006, women earned more Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees than men, but men earned more Doctorates.[5] This is repeated in other countries; for example, women make up 58% of admissions in the UK[6] and 60% in Iran[4]. In Canada the 15% gender gap in university participation favoured women (Christofides, Hoy, and Yang, 2006)
Sex discrimination in education is applied to women in several ways. First, many sociologists of education view the educational system as an institution of social and cultural reproduction. The existing patterns of inequality, especially for gender inequality, are reproduced within schools through formal and informal processes.[7]
A recent study published in Time Magazine showed that when comparing young, unattached women against similarly situated men, women tend to earn up to 20% more than their male counterparts.[8]
Another way the educational system discriminates towards females is through course-taking, especially in high school. This is important because course-taking represents a large gender gap in what courses males and females take, which leads to different educational and occupational paths between males and females. For example, females tend to take fewer advanced mathematical and scientific courses, thus leading them to be ill-equipped to pursue these careers in higher education. This can further be seen in technology and computer courses.[9]
Also, cultural norms may also be a factor causing sex discrimination in education. For example, society suggests that women should be mothers and be responsible for the bulk of child rearing. Therefore, women feel compelled to pursue educational pathways that lead to occupations that allow for long leaves of absences, so they can be stay at home mothers.[10]
Furthermore, the idea of a hidden curriculum further adds to the discrimination of women in the educational system. The hidden curriculum refers to the idea that teachers interact and teach each of their students in a way that reinforces relations of gender, as well as race and social class.[11] For example, teachers may give more attention to boys, resulting in them becoming more social, whereas girls become quieter and learn that they should be passive and defer to boys.[12] Students are also being socialized for their expected adult roles through the correspondence principle of sociology through schools. For example, girls may be encouraged to learn skills valued in female-dominated fields, while boys might learn leadership skills for male-dominated occupations.
Discrimination results in a substantial gender gap in pay towards women (.75 cents for every dollar that men make), for the most part, being in low status, sex-stereotyped occupations, which in part is due to gender differences in majors.[13] They also have to endure the main responsibilities of domestic tasks, even though their labor force participation has increased. Sex discrimination in high school and college course-taking also results in women not being prepared or qualified to pursue more prestigious, high paying occupations. Sex discrimination in education also results in women being more passive, quiet, and less assertive, due to the effects of the hidden curriculum.[14]
However, in 2005, USA Today reported that the "college gender gap" was widening; stating that fifty-seven percent of U.S. college students are female.[15] By 2010 nearly 60 per cent of bachelor's degrees in the US went to women.[5]
Since the 1990's, enrollment on university campuses across Canada has risen significantly. Most notable is the soaring rates of female participants, which has surpassed the enrollment and participation rates of their male counterparts (Christofides et al., 2006). Even in the United States, there is a significant difference in the male to female ratio in campuses across the country, where the 2005 averages saw male to female university participants at 43 to 57 (Marklein, 2005). Although it's important to note that the rates of both sexes participating in post-secondary studies is increasing, it's equally important to question why female rates are increasing more rapidly than male participation rates. Christofides, Hoy, and Yang (2006) attempt to explain the 15% male to female gap in Canadian universities with the idea of the University Premium. Drolet (2007) further explains this phenomena in his article, "Minding the Gender Gap": "A university degree has a greater payback for women relative to what they could have earned if they only had a high-school diploma because men traditionally have had more options for jobs that pay well even without post-secondary education". From a sociological standpoint it is the gender issues of society that are pushing more women towards higher education at a faster rate than men. It is not a gender issue in education against men that results in higher female participation at the university level, but a gender imbalance in society that requires women to acquire more education in order to obtain well-paying jobs.
Booth, Johns, and Bruce (2004) draw attention to the facts that at both national and international levels "male students do not do as well as girls in reading and writing and appear more often in special education classes, dropout rates and are less likely to go to university” (7). Boys face a multitude of difficulties when it comes to literacy and the article lists some of the possible areas of literacy education where these difficulties could stem from. These include, but are not limited to, their own gender identity, social and cultural issues, religion, technology, school cultures, teaching styles, curriculum, and the failures of pre-service and in-service teaching courses (8). It is also important to consider two aspects of boys and literacy education as raised in the Booth article that draws from the work of Smith and Wilhelm (2002). The first is achievement. Boys typically take longer to learn than girls do, although they excel over females when it comes to “information retrieval and work-related literacy tasks”(9). It is important, therefore, for the teacher to provide the appropriate activities to highlight boys' strengths in literacy and properly support their weaknesses. Also, boys tend to read less than girls in their free time. This could play a role in the fact that girls typically “comprehend narrative and expository texts better than boys do”(9). In his book "Grown Up Digital" Tapscott (2009) suggests that there are other methods to consider in order to reach boys when it comes to literacy: “Boys tend to be able to read visual images better... study from California State University (Hayword) saw test scores increase by 11 to 16% when teaching methods were changed to incorporate more images” (106). In countries where the standard university course is taught lecture-style, with the bulk of learning done within independent studying and reading, it may not be so surprising that not as many males are participating at the undergraduate level. By simply understanding how boys learn best, and catering to those needs, educators at all levels should be able to close the literacy gap between boys and girls. The second aspect to consider that is of importance to boys’ literacy education is attitude. Smith and Wilhelm (2002) highlight that boys typically have a “lower estimation of their reading abilities” than girls do. Boys value reading less and, as previously stated, spend less time in leisure reading. At the elementary level more boys than girls labeled themselves as “non-readers” and by high school 50% of male students designated themselves as such. (Booth Johns, and Bruce 2004, 9). This lack of esteem when it comes to reading could coincide with certain societal and cultural values that feminize literacy and push boys towards subjects deemed more masculine like physics, math, and technology. Martino (2008) states the importance of “challenging social expectations about what it means to be male and understanding how these expectations impact on boys’ participation in schooling” (2). It is often society, through the creation and sustaining of gender norms, that creates these gaps and causes boys to shy away from femininity in order to guard their masculinity.
(1)Booth D., Bruce F., Elliott-Johns S. (February 2009) Boys’ Literacy Attainment: Research and related practice. Report for the 2009 Ontario Education Research Symposium. Centre for Literacy at Nipissing University. Retrieved from Ontario Ministry of Education website: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/research/boys_literacy.pdf
(2) Chapman, Amanda. “Gender Bias in Education.” 15 Apr. 2008 <http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html>.
(3)Christofides L., Hoy M., Yang L. (2006). Participation in Canadian Universities: The gender imbalance (1977-2005). Elsevier: Economics of Education Review, 29-2010, 400-410.
(4)Droulet, D. (2007, September) Minding the Gender Gap. Retrieved from University Affairs website: http://www.universityaffairs.ca/minding-the-gender-gap.aspx
(5)Jacobs, J. A. (1996) Gender Inequality and Higher Education . Annual Review of Sociology (22) : 153 85.
(6)Marklein, M. (2005, October) College Gender Gap Widens: 57% are Women. USA Today. Retrieved from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm
(7)Martino W. (April 2008) Underachievement: Which Boys are we talking about? What Works? Research into Practice. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. Retrieved from Ontario Ministry of Education website: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/Martino.pdf
(8)Pearson, Jennifer. "Gender, Education and." Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Ritzer, George (ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Blackwell Reference Online. 31 March 2008 <http://www.blackwellreference.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/subscriber/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g978140512433113_ss1-16>
(9)Smith, M., and Wilhelm, J. (2002). "Reading don't fix no Chevys": Literacy in the lives of young men. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
(10)Tapscott, D. (2009) Grown Up Digital. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.