Gender Inequality in Education

2004

Department for Trade and Industry, (1997), Breaking the mould-an assessment of successful strategies for attracting girls into science, engineering and technology. Department for Trade and Industry, (2001), Get with it! Adopting a creative approach to engaging girls in science, engineering and technology: Promoting SET for Women Unit.

Journal of Chemical Education

Women are increasingly present in the field of engineering, and despite a significant female presence, it has been found that the programmes continue to make no reference to women scientists. In chemical engineering, for example, all the names of scientists mentioned in the programmes belong to men only. To test this hypothesis of the overrepresentation of men in the programmes, a series of random opinion surveys were launched among 600 students from 5 universities to find out whether they had noticed this over-representation and what they thought about it. The results showed that the vast majority did not realize that the scientists presented as examples in classes were all men. In fact, 90% of the student panel were unable to identify a woman in the chemical engineering field, and the remaining 10% could cite only one or two-who were among the most recent and had received most attention from the media. The issue of inequalities between girls and boys and between women and men in education remains central to understanding and combating gender inequalities and to enabling people to develop as persons free from the limitations imposed on them by gender stereotypes. However, these inequalities cannot be explained exclusively by the issue of access to education but must also take the type and content of education into account. This article is a call for reflection on the content of university curricula and has a twofold objective: on the one hand, to raise awareness of this imbalance in representation among students, both male and female, and, on the other hand, to launch reflection on this "invisibility of women" and to propose some avenues for debate.

Over the years, education has focused on access and parity—that is, closing the enrollment gap between girls and boys—while insufficient attention has been paid to retention and achievement or the quality and relevance of education. Providing a quality, relevant education leads to improved enrollment and retention, but also helps to ensure that boys and girls are able to fully realize the benefits of education. The primary focus on girls’ access to education may overlook boys’ educational needs. This approach also fails to confront the norms and behaviors that perpetuate inequality.

Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2011

Any country wishing to be an integral part of the 21 st century financial, academic, and social community needs to reach full participation of women in science and technology at all learning stages and all advanced positions. When this is not the situation, 50% of the work force is not fully contributing to the modern world, which is in a constant need for more highly qualified professionals. Participation of young girls in math and science classes, as well as in computer competence, has already been improved in many countries that started studying the problem of under-presentation of females in so-called "masculine" areas. In many more countries young females excel in math, science and technology in high school and college (e.g. the United Kingdom, The United States, Israel). Other countries invest a lot of effort in order to reach equity in achievements of girls and boys (e.g. the Scandinavian countries), but in spite of their affirmative action regarding many aspects of public life, and their laws helping to reach gender equity in the private arena, gender gaps in educationaachievements still exist. On the other hand, in the ex-USSR new republics there has been a long tradition of full participation of women in all professions, and without any special intervention areas such as medicine and engineering have been equally divided between males and females for many decades. In this lecture I am to present the situation regarding gender inequity in math, science and technology at all educational and professional levels and to suggest effective ways to close existing gender gaps in school, university and "real life".

Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l …, 1993

1994

This document reviews literature on gender equity in U.S. schools. The paper reports that there is an unconscious ignorance on the growing achievement gap between male and female students. Young women in the United States today still are not participating equally in the education system. A 1992 report found that girls do not receive equitable amounts of teacher attention and that they are less apt than boys to see themselves reflected in the materials they study. The problem seems archaic, but the idealized family of a working father and homemaking mother is a reality in only 6 percent of U.S. households now. As technological advances allow businesses to reduce the number of hours employees work and the number of employees required to do a job, two incomes will usually be necessary to provide basic necessities. By the year 2000, 88.5 percent of new entrants to the work force will be women and minorities. Equity in education must be achieved for the United States to compete effectively in the global marketplace. Many curriculums, which are seen as the central message-giving instrument of schools, are often guilty of ignoring the importance of gender equality in education. Strong messages are being sent to boys and girls about what is important, valued, and acceptable in terms of sex role stereotypes. A 1984 study concluded that females are less likely to be studied in history and read about in literature, mathematics and science problems are more likely to be framed 'n male stereotypic terms, and illustrations in most texts depict a world populated and shaped mostly by males. A 1982 study suggested that the worst effects of a sex stereotyped curriculum has been to make children, especially boys, feel that sex discrimination is a natural process that everybody follows. Another study reports that girls are the only group who enter school scoring ahead, and 12 years later leave school scoring behind. (DK)

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender

Gender Bias in Education is an insidious problem that causes very few people to stand up and take notice. Over the years, the uneven distribution of teacher time, energy, attention and talent with boys getting the lion's share, takes its tolls on girls. Whatever be the cause there is a gap in enrolment. The social barriers standing in the way of girls attending schools-poverty, compulsions of older girls in family having to look after the home and siblings, the conceptions or misconceptions that girls don't need education and that what is taught in the schools is irrelevant to them, parents seeing limited economic benefits in educating daughters, lack of women teachers and separate schools for girls, supportive facilities and transport facilities, all these inhibit parents from getting the girl child enrolled. There is also a gap in retention of girls in schools even if they enrol at the primary stage. The gender discrimination in schools is an extension of what we think in the family, in society and the community in which we live. The gender bias in education reaches beyond socialization patterns: bias is embedded in textbooks, lessons, language and teacher interactions with students. This type of gender bias is a part of the hidden curriculum of lessons taught implicitly to students through the everyday functioning of their classroom. The present paper intends to highlight these issues and challenges which need attention and suggests appropriate strategies so that the gender positive environment is reinforced in educational system.

1991

Although most women are now working outside the home, gender equity in the labor force has not been achieved. Women are still concentrated in low-paying, traditionally female-dominated occupations (such as clerical and retail sales), while most jobs in the higher paying, more prestigious professions are held by men. Despite attempts to reduce discrimination in the workforce, the occupational structure seems unlikely to undergo any substantial change. The continued segregation and underutilization of women in the workforce can have serious consequences in terms of women's psychological and physical well-being; it also has direct economic and income-related implications for women. A large wage gap between men and women still exists, and female-headed households are among the poorest in the country. Cultural expectaticns and gender-role stereotypes, self-esteem and self-confidence, family and life planning, parental influence and fear of success, and problems and solutions are considered. It is the responsibility of teachers, parents, counselors, and school administrators to address gender stereotypes and occupational inequities that negatively influence female students. The following are possible strategies for providing an equitable, gender-fair education to all females: (1) mentor programs; (2) non-traditional role models; (3) curriculum revision; (4) curriculum innovation; (5) teacher/counselor training; (6) parental-male peer awareness; and (7) mathematics and science emphasis. (RLC)

This paper will examine the link between education and gender equality, focusing on three main areas. Firstly, it will examine the problems with current gender education in schools. Secondly, it will address the biased representation of men and women in professional roles, often due to a lack of gender education. Finally, the article will discuss the importance of proper gender education in schools, specifically in promoting gender equality within the classroom, from the perspective of functionalism. The study gathered data on gender-related ideas and perceptions in both educational and professional settings. The results revealed that textbooks still perpetuate gender stereotypes regarding masculinity and femininity. Additionally, women in the STEM field often receive lower salaries than their male counterparts, which can be attributed to a lack of education on gender equality. A number of statistical sources indicate that there is still a difference in pay between men and women. To promote gender equality, schools must prioritize genderneutral education to instill positive gender attitudes in children. School education plays a significant role in shaping gender stereotypes, reinforcing gender roles, and promoting gender equity.

Teachers College Record, 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school-wide gender equity efforts and seventh grade girls' and boys' educational outcomes and psychological functioning. In this paper, we detail the components of the study, which included documenting that this school did in fact have a gender equitable environment; measuring students' perceptions of gender equity in their school experience, academic achievement, self-esteem, and gender ideologies; and conducting classroom observations, focus groups, and individual interviews with a subset of this sample. Our findings from these efforts yielded an unexpected and intriguing contradiction. Overwhelmingly, teachers and students reported in surveys that they perceived their school to be gender fair. Yet classroom observations and interviews with students bring into view serious differentials in how boys and girls experienced, behaved and were treated in their classrooms. The students read these differences in classroom behaviors as reflecting inherent or natural differences between boys and girls; thus, these differences were experienced as equitable. The article concludes with a discussion of how these findings raise questions about, and issue challenges for, current conceptions of gender equity in schools.