9 - Education

Question 1

Good student behaviours are things that ___ are socialized to be good at. Give examples of these behaviours. What does this entail?

Answer 1

Girls:
- p.ex: raising their hand, writing, reading, waiting their turn, sitting quietly, etc.
→ thus girls are getting higher marks in high schools and being more often admitted to universities because this environment makes it easier for them to succeed
→ this also means that girls aren’t being challenged as much (running around, getting their hands dirty, they don’t go to shop class, etc.)

Question 2

Gender stereotyping begins at ___ and continues at ___ and can intensify

Answer 2

Birth; school
- There’s perpetuation and reinforcement from peers at school because young kids have very strict ideas and rules of gender expression

Question 3

What are some facts about gender equity in the education system?

Answer 3

• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (U.S.A.) : prohibits gender discrimination in school programs that receive federal funds. Gender imbalance still exists, especially in athletics
  → p.ex: if you’re getting federal funds for a football team, there has to an accessibility for a girls team as well as a boys team BUT, very often most of the money goes to the boys team
• Gender equity is still given little attention in teacher education programs, curriculum, etc. This leads to teachers who mean well and who think they are being fair but have implicit biases. Teacher training can be effective in reducing these biases but without it, teachers continue to view their pupils through the filters they grew up with
  → Biases take conscious, specific efforts to counter

Question 4

True or false: In early education, there are many female and few male teachers.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

The American Association of University Women argue that grade school curriculums emphasize…

Answer 5

• Skills that are difficult for boys but that girls have already developed
  → Reading, writing, sitting quietly, listening to instructions
• Ignoring skills needing development in girls
  → Gross motor skills, investigatory activities, experimental activities
  → These tend to be considered forms of play, but there is already gender segregation, so the girls are not getting this kind of activity

Question 6

Why is girls’ achievement slightly higher than boys in grade school?

Answer 6

• Conformity to gender-stereotypical behaviours is a disadvantage for boys but an advantage for girls
  → Skills required in grade school: be responsive to social cues, listen to adults’ requests, self-discipline, ability to delay gratification, language skills, reading aptitude, fine motor skills

Question 7

What is the biggest predictor of grades in grade school? How does it interact with gender?

Answer 7

• The biggest predictor of grades is socio-economic status (SES) but there’s an interaction where lower income boys perform even worse than their SES would predict – among people who are in the lowest SES bracket, the values are more likely to emphasize gender roles even more among these boys
  → they fall into deeper gender roles of lower income behaviour
  → Gender roles are also more rigid in lower SES families, which may amplify the difficulty boys have in school
  → partly because parents have more time to help with school work, or can pay for a tutor or other types of help, they’re more likely to be signed up for extracurriculars as well

Question 8

Who between the genders is more likely to receive referrals for special education services? Why is this?

Answer 8

Boys: In a study of this kind of referral (Wehmeyer, 2001), results indicated that gender bias was a factor. But it wasn’t boys that were getting too many referrals: girls were not getting referrals that they ought to have been getting
→ we’re not overdiagnosing the boys, we’re underdiagnosing the girls which leads to further problems down the line (anxiety and depression) which get diagnosed, rather than ADHD
→ Boys are more likely to act out vs girls slipping under the radar

Question 9

What are some changes during middle school (3)?

Answer 9

1) Gender differences change
- Related more to attitudes than achievement
- By junior high, girls show less interest in math and physical science
→ Perception that these are “male domains”
→ Lack of encouragement from teachers and parents to follow through with these types of courses, lack of engagement
2) Athletic performance
- Becomes more gender-segregated
- Throw like a girl! That’s a sport for girls!
3) Confidence levels
- Both boys and girls experience a decline in confidence in their academic abilities

Question 10

What are some changes during high school?

Answer 10

1) Social as well as academic focus changes
- Students start to plan their futures. Careers, families, further education, and how to balance those
2) Physical appearance and athletic ability still confer status and prestige, though some changes over time have happened
- specific things that grants teens prestige varies through the decades
→ Fast cars less of a “thing” now than in the 70s for boys
→ Cheerleading less popular and sports are more popular for girls

Question 11

What are some gender differences in course enrollment in high school?

Answer 11

• Females: biology, social sciences
  → nurse, psychologist, teacher, etc.
• Males: physics, physical sciences, computer courses
  → Social pressure still exists to push women away from “hard” sciences, and push men towards them

Question 12

Give an example of how young women are subject to social pressures in high school.

Answer 12

• to adopt a traditional role that does not include preparation for prestigious careers
  → p.ex: it can be very subtle, “you don’t have to shoot for the A+, you’ll be fine with an A-”

Question 13

Define sexual harassment.

Answer 13

→ Any unwanted leers, comments, suggestions, or physical contact of a sexual nature, as well as unwelcome requests for sexual favours
→ Statements about the unsuitability of women for various jobs, derogatory remarks about one’s sex and abilities limited by sex

Question 14

True or false: Female enrollment in college and professional school is decreasing.

Answer 14

False: It’s increasing
- Women now receive more undergraduate degrees than men
→ tied into this idea that in the current school system, girls are better at being students, being the role of a student is inherently subordinate (as is expected from girls)
- In 2006, women received 60% of all master’s degrees, and 48% of all doctoral degrees

Question 15

Explain how, in a professional academic setting (college), women experience more feelings of gender bias than men.

Answer 15

Women and men receive different treatment:
- By professors, the majority of whom are men
- Women are mentored less often than men are
- Women are the more frequent targets of sexual harassment
→ By both professors and other students
→ Men are also harassed this way but are less likely to be strongly affected by it, more likely to be harassed by peers
- Female professors and staff are harassed by male students much more frequently than male staff by female students

Question 16

Explain McClelland’s need for achievement.

Answer 16

• A need for achievement was seen as a personality trait and will vary between people; people in competitive careers will typically have a high need for achievement
• Varies among people
• Stronger for achievement-oriented careers
• Ignores forms of achievement other than business careers
  → it didn’t look at other goals in life, only careers
• Based their construct only on men
• When they later researched women they discovered a “fear of success”
  → this became sort of an excuse for the question of “why aren’t women in higher positions of power”
  → the real effect wasn’t the fear of success, it was a fear of the negative consequences of this success; the things people would say about them (getting attacked, etc.)

Question 17

Explain the concept of fear of success and how it relates to gender.

Answer 17

• Definition: The anticipation of negative consequences for success
  → Fear of Success is a misleading title
• Applied to women’s achievement motivation
  → Women are not afraid of success
  → They do have an understanding the social consequences of competing with men in school and careers. Heilman (2004) found that women who succeeded in male-dominated fields tended to be put down for it instead of lauded
  → These attitudes are gradually fading and the “fear of success” has been proven not to exist as it was initially conceived (ie the reason that women weren’t in certain “high pressure, high stakes” fields)

Question 18

As ___ enter fields, ___ leave them, but ___ also get resistance when they try to enter “___” fields.

Answer 18

Women; men
Men; female

Question 19

What are some gender differences in self-esteem and self-confidence?

Answer 19

• Only slightly lower in women than for men
  → The drop in confidence that is supposed to occur in adolescent girls actually affects both boys and girls
• Gender differences in self-esteem
  → Males: physical appearance, athletics, self-satisfaction
  → Females: behavioural and moral-ethical self-esteem
  → p.ex: they want to be appealing and sexy but don’t want to be seen as a slut

Question 20

In relation to ethnicity…
→ ___ kids had the lowest self-esteem but highest grades
→ ___ kids had the highest SE but lowest grades
→ ___ children had lower SE but higher grades than children of the same background who were born in the States

Answer 20

• Asian american
• Black american
• Immigrant

Question 21

Men tend to __estimate their abilities and performance on tasks; While women tend to __estimate their abilities and performance on tasks

Answer 21

Overestimate; underestimate
- This underestimation in women is imposter syndrome

Question 22

Explain the difference between men and women when accepting / incorporating constructive criticism in school or the workplace.

Answer 22

• Women are much more likely than men to believe and attempt to correct a flaw that is pointed out to them
  → Pros and cons to accepting criticism: Pros, you get better at your job. Con: You can be too sensitive to criticism and also rely too much on others evaluations instead of your own (get in a people pleaser mode)
  → Pros and cons to ignoring criticism: Pro: Your self-esteem is great! Con: You don’t improve at your job
  –> p.ex: Women will focus on the one flaw pointed out and forget the positive notes, while men will focus on the positive notes and ignore the flaw

Question 23

What are the 2 types of attributions for success and failure?

Answer 23

1) Internal factors
→ Ability (a stable characteristic)
→ Effort (can vary from situation to situation)
2) External factors
→ “Bad luck” (which can change)
→ Difficulty of the task (stable for a given task)

Question 24

What are some other equity issues in education?

Answer 24

• Ethnic bias also presents problems in school
• The percentage of students who complete high school is high for all groups
  → However, Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, especially women, do not enter and finish college or professional training at rates comparable to Asian Americans and White Americans
  → Less likely to get into and complete university degrees, especially graduate degrees, which leads to a self-repeating cycle of lack of representation at the decision making and research-interpreting level
  → Faculty members from visible minority groups advance more slowly and leave the faculty sooner than white colleagues (Tune in next week for fun with jobs and career statistics)

Question 25

In terms of correlations, globally, when girls receive an education they…

Answer 25

• They are less likely to marry young
  → when a young girl gets married, she’s less likely to finish their schooling
  → and when they’re getting an education, they’re less likely to marry young
• They earn more for their families
• They provide better care for their children
  → both mothers and fathers are more engaged in childcare when the mothers are also educated
• They participate more in decisions that affect them
  → p.ex: attending town hall meetings
• They are more likely to have children who are also educated
  → they teach their children what they’ve learned
• Communities become more resilient and stable, benefiting everyone in them

Question 26

What happens when we invest in girls’ secondary education (in terms of general world happenings)?

Answer 26

• The lifetime earnings of girls dramatically increase
• National growth rates rise
• Child marriage rates decline
• Child mortality rates fall
• Maternal mortality rates fall
  → as younger moms are less likely (who are more prone to mortality during childbirth, as are the babies)
• Child stunting drops

Question 27

In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than ___ as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries

Answer 27

Twice

Question 28

What are 4 interconnected common barriers to girls attending school?

Answer 28

1) Poverty – poor families often educate boys, when they must choose. Child labor also affects girls; because the boys are more likely to later on get jobs while the girls stay home
2) Child Marriage – the right to enroll a girl in school transfers to the husband if she’s married young, instead of staying with the parents. Early pregnancy usually ends schooling (can be due to child marriage os simply from a relationship with someone her age)
3) Gender-based violence – attacks on schools, attacks on girls who are on their way to school, attacks on teachers, sexual exploitation
4) Sanitation – girls need to be able to go to school even if they’re on their period. They also need separate bathrooms from the boys

Question 29

In many countries, ___ ___ around ___ can lead to boys dropping out, child labor, and being recruited into armed groups.

Answer 29

Gender norms; masculinity
→ Having girls present in the school reduces the emphasis on gender norms
→ Education becomes seen as a universal thing, and boys are more likely to stay in school for longer

Question 30

What was COVID’s effects on girls education?

Answer 30

• COVID was a huge step back, especially for girls. At its peak in 2020, over 90% of the world’s children were affected by school closures
• When children stay home, boys are more likely to have time and access to distance learning technology, while girls are more likely to help with household chores and family care. Adolescent girls are more likely to get pregnant (while not at school)
• Girls are less likely to re-enroll in school after a crisis than boys
  → For example, in Kenya, only 84 percent of adolescent girls have re-enrolled compared to 92 percent of adolescent boys

Question 31

__ in __ adolescent girls from the poorest households has never been to school

Answer 31

1 in 3

Question 32

Following the COVID setbacks, what were some of the G7 goals to build back girls education?

Answer 32

Setbacks experienced:
- Millions of girls across the globe have paid the highest price of the COVID-19 school closures: dropping out because they may be caring for others, forced into child marriage, subjected to female genital mutilation at higher rates, or exposed to increased gender-based violence
- Girls who face conflict, displacement, and natural disasters have least access to school as a place of safety and protection
→ school is typically a safe space where they can be fed for example
- The learning losses from COVID-19 may equal the gains made by girls over the last two decades. This aggravates the existing global learning crisis and hampers our ability to provide inclusive quality education for all
Goals:
- 40 million more girls in school by 2026 in low and lower-middle-income countries; and
- 20 million more girls reading by age 10 or the end of primary school in low and lower- middle-income countries by 2026

Question 33

According to the UNs “Transforming education summit”, what are 3 keys to using digital learning?

Answer 33

1) Connecting children to digital learning irrespective of their gender identity, where they live or where they come from
2) Developing and adapting high quality learning content so that it’s context-specific, curriculum-aligned, and accessible to all
3) Equipping teachers with the capacity to use digital technology to improve learning as well as with gender-responsive pedagogical skills so they can support children in all their diversity to develop the skills they need for school, life, and work – including supporting girls and young women to develop digital literacy

Question 34

Successful health care outreach requires ___ of the community to be educated and empowered to provide the care that their community needs

Answer 34

Local members:
- This means educating women and promoting respect for educated women
→ nurses and educators for young kids are typically women