Education:Educators Urge End to Classroom 'Gender Wars'
By Sarah Stewart Taylor - WEnews correspondent
WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--Experts on the educational experiences of girls
and boys say the gender wars in the American classroom should be called off
and more emphasis should be placed on broader gender roles and expectations
for both sexes.
The findings and recommendations are contained in a report, "Beyond the
Gender Wars: A Conversation About Girls, Boys and Education," recently
released by the American Association of University Women's Educational
Foundation. The report is the result of a symposium that brought together
leading experts on the educational experiences of girls and boys.
The gathering's participants said that while the interests of girls and
boys have been pitted against each other, many of the conditions that cause
girls to fail in the classroom are the same ones that are detrimental to
boys. And while the fierce debate over the unique educational and social
needs of children of both genders has raged, scholars who study those needs
have rarely tried to find common ground.
"We seem to be debating who has it worse, boys or girls; we know in a way
that both boys and girls are being shortchanged in their education and in
societal support," said William Pollack, best-selling author of the book
"Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myth of Boyhood."
The so-called gender wars can be traced to the aftermath of a 1992 report
by the American Association of University Women entitled "How Schools
Shortchange Girls." After the association and researchers such as Carol
Gilligan, of New York University who conducted ground-breaking research on
girls while at Harvard and is the author of "In a Different Voice:
Psychological Theory and Women's Development," began highlighting the ways
in which girls have historically been overlooked in American schools, other
scholars countered that, in fact, it was boys who were being given short
shrift.
Dispel Myth of the Battle of the Sexes, Seek Justice and Equity for All
According to the report, "The ensuing fractious discussion of gender and
education often assumed the troubling zero-sum logic of a 'gender war,' a
classroom battle of the sexes that girls win only if boys lose and vice
versa."
So symposium organizers said they wanted to give the researchers a chance
to respond to the way in which the debate had been framed and how their own
work had been used in the debate.
The discussions were moderated by Barrie Thorne, a professor of sociology
at the University of California, Berkeley, co-director of the Center for
Working Families and author of "Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School."
"Some of us have studied mostly girls. Some focused on boys. Some have
focused on both," Thorne said. "But through all of these differences and
disagreements, we share a strong sense of dismay that our many years of
research and educational interventions on behalf of social justice and
equity for all children have now been framed with a metaphor of war."
One of the most prevalent myths about education, symposium participants
agreed, is that what works for girls in the classroom doesn't work for
boys. Participants argued for a more subtle analysis of what benefits
children, for example, focusing more on ethnic and racial differences than
on gender.
"One has to ask, which girls, which boys," commented Thorne. "For example,
the needs and problems of low-income African American boys and girls are
quite different in some ways from the needs and problems of white,
middle-class girls and boys."
For example, researchers said that while white girls do indeed suffer from
crises of self-esteem in early adolescence--a phenomenon highlighted in a
series of best-selling books in the early 1990s--African American girls do
not.
Girls Fear Math, Science, While Boys Call English, Art 'Girl' Subjects
The symposium also looked at research showing that girls suffer from
societal expectations that they shouldn't go into fields like math and
science. Scholars who focus on the experience of boys say that boys also
suffer from feelings that they shouldn't study English or art because they
are "girl" subjects. Therefore, creating more flexible gender roles and
broadening expectations for both genders helps boys and girls.
"Gender ideologies are harmful to boys and girls. Ideologies keep (boys and
girls) locked into roles and induce us as adults to create certain kinds of
educational opportunities for some and to block off other kinds of
opportunities and visions for others," said Susan Bailey, who heads up the
Wellesley Centers for Women and was a lead author of the 1992 American
Association of University Women report.
What is important, she said, is "to open people up to a full range of
possibilities, regardless of their gender, regardless of their background,"
she said.
"I can think of no trait whatsoever that only boys categorically have and
girls don't or that girls categorically have and boys don't," said Michael
Kimmel, professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and
author of "The Gendered Society" and "Manhood in America: A Cultural
History."
In order to redirect the debate over the treatment of girls and boys in
American classrooms, participants were unanimous that researchers need to
take a more collaborative approach. Though it can be difficult to achieve,
research must also look at ethnic, socioeconomic and racial
differentiations, the report states, so that educators can better address
the needs of specific children.
Participants recommended that schools address multiple learning styles in
the classroom, so that girls and boys can both benefit from active,
team-based lessons.Another priority should be creating safe schools where
bullying isn't tolerated and children have the chance to form male-female
friendships and learn to respect each other.
And all of the researchers said that they wanted to make more of an effort
to listen to girls and boys and find out from them what they'd like to get
out of their educations. "I don't think we know nearly enough about what
boys and girls think about their own lives and think about what they need,"
said Phillips.
Sarah Stewart Taylor is a free-lance writer in Washington, D.C., also
reporting on New England.
For more information, visit:
American Association of University Women: - http://www.aauw.org/
American Association of University Women reports: -
http://www.aauw.org/2000/research.html
Wellesley Centers for Women: - http://www.wcwonline.org/
Urban Institute: - http://www.urbaninstitute.org/
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