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Abstract

f the system, there’s a significant gap. And extremes like these need to be addressed. Which leads me to my second point.<h1 id="826f">2. Curriculum</h1>When I started teaching public school, I was disturbed, but sadly not surprised, by the number of male authors being highlighted in the English curriculum. Outside of my AP class, I teach English 10 Honors, and these were the four books being taught when I started teaching: Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Elie Wiesel’s Night, and William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.These are all fantastic works in their own right, rich with lessons, unique perspectives, and diverse backgrounds and nationalities, but the texts also solely reflect a male perspective.Female character development and authority are sorely lacking in The Alchemist; women are abused and dehumanized in Things Fall Apart. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the only nonfiction piece listed, women are only present in small portions of the text, because girls and adult women during the Holocaust were often killed first due to their supposed inability to work hard labor. (Note: I will never stop teaching Night. It is one of the most beautifully written and important historical books of our time. People need to read it.)Shakespeare’s works often include interesting female characters, and while there are two female characters in Julius Caesar who have a degree of agency about them, they are still wives first and have little interactions with anyone other than their husbands throughout the play. To put it in terms my students would understand, the play is dude-centric.Yes, many texts reflect the world and the society in which they are written, but that isn’t the main reason these particular works are part of this discussion.At the core of it, all of these texts were written by male authors. In this curriculum, there is no female gender representation — despite the fact that women make up 55% of full-time writers and authors employed in the United States (<a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations">U.S. Department of Labor</a>). Granted, most of the authors included here are not American, but women still account for roughly half of the world population. That being said, wouldn’t it make sense to incorporate at least a fraction of their work into the curriculum?Not all schools teach the same texts, but I have no doubt that the majority of public schools in the US have a heavier curricular focus on male authors. As a teacher in the early stages of her career, maybe I’m just more aware of it than most.After discussing this issue with my department and requesting a change, we ended up adding a text by a female author: Malala Yousafzai’s memoir, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. It is a nonfiction text that includes discussions about gender inequality primarily in regards to education, and it has thankfully generated heartfelt discussions in the classroom. This brings me to t

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he next issue.<h1 id="788e">3. Lack of awareness</h1>Before I Am Malala became part of the curriculum, gender inequality was not a topic of conversation — at least not among my students. When I asked what they knew about gender inequality or where they had come across it in their lives, one student replied, “Well, I know there’s a gender pay gap, and women make 81 cents on the man’s dollar.”(My first thought was, hey! We’ve gained a few cents since I was in school.) But as the conversation continued, bouncing from fake pockets in the female fashion industry to the pink tax (which 90% of them had never heard of), one male student in the back of the room replied in an agitated voice, “But why does it matter?”Well, to answer his question, it shouldn’t matter. And that’s why we need to talk about it. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. Just because something doesn’t affect you directly (at least to your knowledge) doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.In the words of Malala Yousafzai, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” So by inviting this conversation into my classroom, I’m challenging this silence, but in the small ways that I can — one day, one book, and one student at a time.The issues highlighted in this article are by no means the only ways gender inequality is being reinforced in schools. For example, sports — both in schools and outside of them — are highly gender biased, as are dress codes. But those are topics to discuss another day, and certainly not issues that can be corrected overnight.Many people are doing what they can, while other people aren’t doing anything because they aren’t aware of the problem. And of course, some people aren’t doing anything because they just don’t care. Change takes time. And it takes a lot of energy.But let’s not dismiss the good things are still happening in schools. Transgender students are being recognized and respected more and more each day, and clubs and extra curricular activities are making more of an effort to support and include minority students. The current political climate is also creating numerous possibilities; Kamala Harris, the first female vice president in history, is about to take the stage, and Sarah McBride just made history as the first transgender state senator.And through it all, many students are eager to learn and speak out. They want to be heard. But in order to create a spark that will ignite, we must first educate ourselves, listen to each other, and learn to speak out.“Employment and Earnings by Occupation.” Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, <a href="http://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations.">www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations.</a> Accessed 18 November 2020.If you would like to support this teacher’s writing endeavors, consider joining <a href="https://medium.com/@kathrynstaublin/membership">Medium</a>. Your subscription will directly support her and others like her while unlocking every article on the platform.</article></body>

3 Ways Gender Inequality is Being Reinforced in Schools

Not all forms of oppression are obvious to the public

Over the past five years, I have taught students ranging grades 6–12. Despite the numerous challenges I’ve faced — covid-19 included — one issue remains at the forefront of my mind, and it is a conversation deeply lacking both amongst the students and my colleagues.

We are in the 21st century, and America has made — and is still making — great strides. But change always begins with education, and some patterns have emerged within the current educational system. These patterns are quietly reinforcing gender inequality in many ways, though only a few of them will be discussed here.

Keep in mind that while the content below reflects my experience in only one state, the statistics — and the realities that have created them — are by no means limited to this location.

1. Positions

Statistically speaking, the number of teachers teaching children and adolescents are overwhelmingly female. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make up 97% of preschool and kindergarten teachers, 77% of elementary and middle school teachers, 57% of high school teachers, and 47% of teachers beyond the high school level.

Notice the downward trend. The younger the students, the more likely the teachers are female. The older and more independent the students, the more likely men are able to engage and participate in educational roles.

The number of male versus female teachers only begins to equalize (not in pay, but in number) once students reach adulthood and enter universities, colleges, and trade schools. We have to ask ourselves, what does this imply? What lessons will students inadvertently learn from this? That women are more capable of successfully teaching and taking care of children? That men are less capable?

The inequality affects both sides here. It is not fair for women to be primarily caregivers — though in healthcare and other care-based industries, they still are — and it is not fair for men to be more excluded from caregiving professions because of this gender bias. Think about it. How many male nurses do you know? (The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that men currently make up only 12.7% of registered nurses.)

Gender inequality in schools, unfortunately, does not stop with the teaching profession. Management is just as overwhelmingly male as secretarial positions are overwhelmingly female. And it’s not to say that women and men can’t do the other jobs and do them quite well — it’s just that, because of the system, there’s a significant gap. And extremes like these need to be addressed. Which leads me to my second point.

2. Curriculum

When I started teaching public school, I was disturbed, but sadly not surprised, by the number of male authors being highlighted in the English curriculum. Outside of my AP class, I teach English 10 Honors, and these were the four books being taught when I started teaching: Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Elie Wiesel’s Night, and William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

These are all fantastic works in their own right, rich with lessons, unique perspectives, and diverse backgrounds and nationalities, but the texts also solely reflect a male perspective.

Female character development and authority are sorely lacking in The Alchemist; women are abused and dehumanized in Things Fall Apart. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the only nonfiction piece listed, women are only present in small portions of the text, because girls and adult women during the Holocaust were often killed first due to their supposed inability to work hard labor. (Note: I will never stop teaching Night. It is one of the most beautifully written and important historical books of our time. People need to read it.)

Shakespeare’s works often include interesting female characters, and while there are two female characters in Julius Caesar who have a degree of agency about them, they are still wives first and have little interactions with anyone other than their husbands throughout the play. To put it in terms my students would understand, the play is dude-centric.

Yes, many texts reflect the world and the society in which they are written, but that isn’t the main reason these particular works are part of this discussion.

At the core of it, all of these texts were written by male authors. In this curriculum, there is no female gender representation — despite the fact that women make up 55% of full-time writers and authors employed in the United States (U.S. Department of Labor). Granted, most of the authors included here are not American, but women still account for roughly half of the world population. That being said, wouldn’t it make sense to incorporate at least a fraction of their work into the curriculum?

Not all schools teach the same texts, but I have no doubt that the majority of public schools in the US have a heavier curricular focus on male authors. As a teacher in the early stages of her career, maybe I’m just more aware of it than most.

After discussing this issue with my department and requesting a change, we ended up adding a text by a female author: Malala Yousafzai’s memoir, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. It is a nonfiction text that includes discussions about gender inequality primarily in regards to education, and it has thankfully generated heartfelt discussions in the classroom. This brings me to the next issue.

3. Lack of awareness

Before I Am Malala became part of the curriculum, gender inequality was not a topic of conversation — at least not among my students. When I asked what they knew about gender inequality or where they had come across it in their lives, one student replied, “Well, I know there’s a gender pay gap, and women make 81 cents on the man’s dollar.”

(My first thought was, hey! We’ve gained a few cents since I was in school.) But as the conversation continued, bouncing from fake pockets in the female fashion industry to the pink tax (which 90% of them had never heard of), one male student in the back of the room replied in an agitated voice, “But why does it matter?”

Well, to answer his question, it shouldn’t matter. And that’s why we need to talk about it. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. Just because something doesn’t affect you directly (at least to your knowledge) doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

In the words of Malala Yousafzai, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” So by inviting this conversation into my classroom, I’m challenging this silence, but in the small ways that I can — one day, one book, and one student at a time.

The issues highlighted in this article are by no means the only ways gender inequality is being reinforced in schools. For example, sports — both in schools and outside of them — are highly gender biased, as are dress codes. But those are topics to discuss another day, and certainly not issues that can be corrected overnight.

Many people are doing what they can, while other people aren’t doing anything because they aren’t aware of the problem. And of course, some people aren’t doing anything because they just don’t care. Change takes time. And it takes a lot of energy.

But let’s not dismiss the good things are still happening in schools. Transgender students are being recognized and respected more and more each day, and clubs and extra curricular activities are making more of an effort to support and include minority students. The current political climate is also creating numerous possibilities; Kamala Harris, the first female vice president in history, is about to take the stage, and Sarah McBride just made history as the first transgender state senator.

And through it all, many students are eager to learn and speak out. They want to be heard. But in order to create a spark that will ignite, we must first educate ourselves, listen to each other, and learn to speak out.

“Employment and Earnings by Occupation.” Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations. Accessed 18 November 2020.

If you would like to support this teacher’s writing endeavors, consider joining Medium. Your subscription will directly support her and others like her while unlocking every article on the platform.