Gender/Sex in Higher Education.

Hi everyone!

I am going to be discussing Gender and sex in higher education on Thursday. I'm going to be discussing the role gender and sex plays in higher education alongside, how can sexual violence plays a part in this gender gap between men and woman in the work force.

As you read chapter 8, I want you to keep in mind the phrase "feminization of higher education" as this plays a huge role in today's society and a couple of questions to keep in mind while you read the article.

Sexual assault and it's threat is a barrier to gender equality.


-Did you get to see students being treated differently when they were female than from when they were male? 


- Career choices are influenced by gender roles, Do you think that this is what is effecting the gender gap we have in today's society? 


- Why do you think men are paid more than woman?

Here is the link to the article

 http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/nwlcharassbullying_titleixfactsheet.pdf

*UPDATE*


On Thursday, we discussed Gender/Sex in Higher Education. I first started by explaining the phrase "Feminization of Higher Education" Which is  when more young women than men, across race and ethnicity are entering college and also completing degrees. This is interesting, especially because given the gender wage gap, women still need more education to reach the same average income levels as a man. One of my questions during the discussion was "Why do you think women are paid more than men?" One of you commented that "it's just the way it's always been" which made me realize that is very true. Unfortunately. it always has been that way since the 1960's. A woman and a man could have all of the same credentials and work experience, but still get paid way less than a man (72 cents to a dollar to be exact). Woman are actually not going to earn the same annual earning as a man until around 2059, according to my research. I also spoke about how career choices are effected because of gender and education. One of you commented that "even careers are being separated by gender". Some jobs are being considered more "masculine" jobs and some are considered more "feminine". I related this back to the two culture approach, with the way that we communicate is being sectioned off to gender. Family communication is also effecting gender and sex in higher education. The OECD PISA survey shows that girls lack the same self confidence as boys in science and math. The survey declared that parents are actually much more likely to expect their sons to work in STEM careers than their daughters, even if they show that they have the same ability. I also discussed higher education employment. And how a lot of professors are male. One of you commented that in your classes majority of professors are female. Which I thought was very interesting. After reading that in the textbook, I began thinking about how many professors are female or male in my major. I think that it also depends on the major and the classes. More professors are male especially in STEM fields. The textbook touches upon that female teachers are actually being evaluated much harsher than men. Woman have to prove they are competent whereas men have to prove that they are not.  Scholar Jackson Katz discussed that masculinity has changed in definition tremendous ways.
The article touches on sexual assault and how it effects the gender wage gap. It also discusses how not only women but also children are effected by the sexual or gender harassment.

Some questions I came up with are,

• Why do you think parents are encouraging with boys to go into STEM careers?
• Why do you think certain careers are associated with certain genders? 
• Micheal Messor discusses how masculinity is becoming associated with "being aggressive and is perpetuates violence against women, LGBTQ person, and other men. Why do you think masculinity is developing a negative connotation?
• In what ways is sexual assault effecting the gender wage gap? (The article touches upon this)

Key Concepts for Peer Pressure, Bullying, and Harassment

Hey Everyone,

This is the article to read for next class, as it does a good job in delving into a lot on Bullying and harassment: http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/nwlcharassbullying_titleixfactsheet.pdf

Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Harassment, has become a big issue among all age groups, cultures, and religions. Especially among students throughout elementary, middle, and high school and young adults in the United States, the suicide rate has skyrocketed due to bullying. As of 2013, about 28 percent of students aged 12-18 reported being bullied at school. It is a major issue facing the world and needs to be addressed.

The article that I have posted comes from the National Women’s Law Center website, and focuses on Title IX (which we looked at last class). As you are reading, I’d like you guys to pay close attention to the sections entitled The Road Traveled and Cyberbullying (don’t worry, they are only a few paragraphs). When reading The Road Traveled section, please look at the statistics they use when describing the amount of bullying and harassment that goes on among these groups. I’d also like you guys to pay even closer attention to the ways in which people cyberbully and the ways in which schools and classrooms can deal with cyberbullying. Keep these questions in mind while you read:

1)                                         Why do people bully or harass others?

2)                                         Other than the ones already mentioned, what can a school community do about bullying in general?

3)                                         What can parents do to promote safe use of the Internet?

4)                                         Consider times you were bullied or even perceived as a bully. What, if anything, do you think could have been done to prevent it?

5)                                           Consider times in which you have seen or heard someone being bullied? As a peer, what could you have done or do to prevent it?

We can see bullying, harassment and peer pressure apply to many situations outside or a classroom setting. It can happen in the workplace, at home, at college, and really anywhere. One example, in which I can identify with, was the Tyler Clementi case. Clementi was a freshman at Rutgers, who unfortunately took his own life after his roommate live streamed with a hidden camera, Clementi having sexual relations with another male student. Clementi, who happened to attend my high school, was harassed and bullied for his sexual orientation, and it just happened to be executed by his roommate who he did not know that well. Please keep these ideas in mind when we meet up in class!


 Updated 11/21/16

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Hello everyone,

I thought that the discussions we had in class last Thursday was very eventful, interesting, and enlightening. I went through what the textbook had to say about bullying, harassment, and peer pressure in school, college, and between males and females. From the questions I posed, we talked about the norms that boys and girls have in school and whether they were similar or not. We talked about how peer pressure affected us in schools and everyone provided pretty good examples of that, as well as times we were bullied. We concluded that both women and men are peer pressured into being masculine or feminine and that really bullying affects everyone and we all have experiences where we were bullied off of appearance, identity, or so on.                                                               

                                                                                                                                                          Instead of mentioning an author that could enhance our conversation, I would recommend seeing or re-watching the movie Mean Girls. I feel that bullying and peer pressure are topics that are more powerfully grasped while seeing in action rather than reading about it. Mean Girls, which was brought up in class, is a great movie that encompasses what bullying is like and the consequences it leads to. Lindsey Lohan’s character says it best when she claims “Calling somebody else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.”

                                                                                                                                                                So to continue our discussions I wanted to reiterate the question I posed in class since we did not have that much time to get into it:

                                                                                                                                                            What do you recommend parents, teachers, and even other students should do about bullying?

                                                                                                                                                                   What other movies, songs, books, and articles have you found where bullying or peer pressure is incorporated?

                                                                                                                                                                       Thanks again everyone for participating!

Key Concepts for Title IX

As you are reading about Title IX in Chapter 8 of your textbook, think back to your experiences through your educational life of gender and sex discrimination in the school system.

Title IX ensures that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”.

Title IX:

• Governs all educational practices regardless of grade level.

•  Promises all students the right to an education free of bullying, sexual harassment, and any other forms of violence.

•  The goal is for the United States to be more inclusive to gender and also race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and sexual orientation.

•  Research shows that the law has made improvements in this subject area with sports/ extracurriculars, and student conduct.

•  Has shown a role in the cultural shift to more flexible and fluid gender roles where there are more socially accepted options.

https://www.naesp.org/resources/2/Principal/2005/M-Ap18.pdf

When reading the supplemental reading, keep in mind the following:

• Teachers fail to see discrimination based upon sex, it becomes “natural”

•  Gender/sex bias may be difficult to identify in the school system

•  No Child Left Behind Act encourages single-sexed schools and classes where children are separated on the basis of gender

•  What teachers/principals can do to implement gender equity

Based off these concepts, review the following questions:

1. Why do you think that discrimination in the school system has become so naturalized/accepted?

2. Do you think that the No Child Left Behind Act is beneficial towards our society? Can you see any positive/negative outcomes of this act?

3. Do you think that teachers can make changes in their school systems? Is it easy, difficult, etc.

4. Do you agree that Title IX has positively changed the way gender is normally perceived? 

An example of when gender and sex discrimination occurs outside of the classroom environment is when men and women in the workplace get paid different salaries while having the same educational background and are equally qualified. There are many different examples of how this issue persists in the world today, the workplace just being one of them. Think of the concept of sexual discrimination and how it is evident in other situations.

***Update on 11/14/2016***

Many of you contributed personal experiences of sex and gender discrimination; some key points that we spoke about were in middle school when boys would play activities such as basketball and girls would hoola-hoop, separate gym activities for boys and girls, and different types of classes for different genders. Students on sports teams spoke about the difference between women's sports and men's sports and how there are different expectations regarding uniforms for these two genders. I figured that some people were familiar with Title IX through SUNY New Paltz; however, I was surprised that there were a couple of students that had never heard of Title IX. A key point that I took away from our discussion was how Title IX was portrayed in previous school administrations. There were some people who said that there school system did a good job of incorporating and making students aware of Title IX. One student brought up how because his school was big on sports, Title IX was a phrase very well known to all of the students because it had to be. Oppositely, there were some individuals who had not experienced Title IX in their high schools, middle school, or even college. Another key point was when we spoke about the shift of thought regarding gender due to Title IX. Students spoke about how because Title IX encompasses the idea of inclusion and equity, that it makes sense that different genders other than the traditional binary would be more accepted because of this law. 

With all that has been accomplished with Title IX, there are still aspects that slip through the cracks and that are hard to identify as discrimination. The fact that we see sex and gender discrimination in the schools, evident from the classes personal experiences, shows that Title IX isn't reaching it's full potential. A different way to promote gender equity that we discussed is to lay out all of the information to a student, leaving nothing out. In this way, it is up to the students what they deem as important or relevant to their life, not the administrators. 

As a whole, we spoke about how we do not think that the No Child Left Behind Act would be beneficial. This act encourages single sex schools and classrooms. In general, we said how this would only promote the different types of classes/values encouraged for the different genders, not benefit them. Also, teachers usually only teach what is required and what is going to appear on tests, and ignore the other material. This is not worthwhile to any student because the ignored material will still be important. 

Some more questions to think about as we progress further are:

1. Furthering our discussion on what teachers can do to promote gender equity, do you think it would be difficult or easy for teachers to make changes in their schools systems?

2. How do you feel, overall, about Title IX? What are the benefits, and what are some areas that still need to be worked on?

3. Do you think there is a way to actually ensure that Title IX is doing what is says it is doing in the education system? 

A scholar that can further guide our conversation is the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. They state "Girls are more likely than boys to want to learn co-operatively and collaboratively. Boys tend to be more competitive and to get something good from being competitive", in regards to why single-gendered schools could be beneficial to focus on the different way that these genders learn. Here's the link: 

http://www.ourkids.net/school/together-or-apart

Thanks for a great discussion! Feel free to answer the questions from the initial post as well :)