Something is Missing from Teacher Education: Attention to Two Genders

Abstract

Assumptions about gender roles continue to limit children's aspirations and achievements. If we are to overcome those limitations, Ms. Sanders argues, gender equity must become a standard part of the curriculum of preservice teacher education. EDUCATORS may have noticed the recent disputes between Christina Hoff Sommers, author of The War Against Boys, and such advocates of gender equity as David Sadker and Carol Gilligan about whether boys or girls are being more shortchanged in the classroom. If it achieves nothing else, the debate should remind us that we need to talk about the educational well-being of both sexes, not either one separately. For example, here is a sampling of what's going on in our schools today that affects both girls and boys: * There were more than nine boys for every girl who took the highest- level Advanced Placement test in computer science last year.1 * Eighty-five percent of eighth- through 11th-grade girls report having been sexually harassed at school; for boys, the figure was 76%.2 * All but one of the fatal school shootings reported in recent years were committed by boys -- in fact, by white boys.3 * The average 11th-grade boy writes at the same level as the average eighth-grade girl, and boys read worse than girls at all grade levels. Moreover, these data have been unchanged for the past 30 years.4 In addition, there are still plenty of gross imbalances among adult men and women: * Women make up 18% of the U.S. Senate and 13% of the U.S. House of Representatives. * According to a recent study by Catalyst, women fill just 11% of the seats on the boards of Fortune 500 companies. Fourteen percent of the companies have no female board members at all.5 * More than 93% of inmates in our prisons and jails are men.6 * The life expectancy of men is 73 years, as opposed to 79 years for women.7 Where do these peculiar imbalances come from? Let me answer with a few more questions. Why is it considered masculine to be violent and aggressive? Why is it considered feminine to be nurturant and intuitive? Why are art, languages, and music considered feminine subjects in school, while math, science, and technology are considered masculine subjects? How many of our assumptions about gender are truly essential? All these imbalances -- dilemmas, problems, tragedies, limitations, injustices -- have a developmental history that starts with notions of femininity and masculinity learned by everyone, beginning with the pink and blue receiving blankets still used in hospitals today. In other words, these assumptions concern gender (what we learn about the proper ways for the sexes to behave) not sex (what we're born with). So, for example, it is correct to speak of gender roles and of single-sex education. Moreover, it is increasingly apparent that our traditional gender roles have not served us all that well. While it is obvious that men and women and boys and girls have gender roles, properly understood, gender equity is a human issue, not a women's issue. Given the reality evident in the facts I've cited above, we might assume that teacher educators would be preparing their preservice education students to teach equitably in their classrooms. Certainly, we would reason, because awareness of gender issues has been on a front burner in society for three decades, gender equity must be a hot topic in the preparation of teachers. But if we made these assumptions, we would be wrong. In response to several decades of societal concern about inequities facing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, multicultural education has become a thriving component of teacher education nationwide. Gender equity, however, is in the earliest stages of consideration. Several studies carried out in the 1990s confirm that gender equity is in its infancy in teacher education. …