Summary

The article reflects on the gender disparity in participation during university lectures, where predominantly male students volunteer their thoughts despite the majority of the audience being female.

Abstract

The author, a mature-aged student returning to university, observes a significant gender imbalance in an undergraduate writing course, with young women outnumbering young men. Despite this, it is consistently the male students who contribute verbally to discussions, while female students, including the author, remain silent. The article explores the concept of self-selection, suggesting that men who enter female-dominated fields or courses may have a heightened sense of confidence or assurance in their abilities. The author critically assesses the quality of the male students' contributions and the lecturer's responses, questioning why female students, who are potentially equally capable, do not speak up. Ultimately, the author challenges herself and other young women to overcome their reservations and participate more actively, arguing that it is crucial for women to assert their presence and voices in public spaces.

Opinions

The author acknowledges a personal discomfort with public participation, identifying as an introvert who prefers the smaller audience of a tutorial.
There is a sense of disappointment and surprise that the gender dynamics in lecture participation have not progressed over the years.
The article suggests that men may feel more entitled to be heard in public settings, while women tend to be more reserved.
The author critically evaluates whether the male students' willingness to speak up is indicative of exceptional talent due to the self-selection principle.
The lecturer's responses to the male students' contributions are seen as constructive but not necessarily indicative of extraordinary insight.
The author emphasizes the importance of women speaking up to provide role models for other women and to normalize the presence of female voices in public discourse.
The author takes a personal stand by deciding to contribute to lectures, despite the discomfort, to set an example for other female students.

Still Only the Guys Talk: Depressing Times in a Lecture Theatre

Come on Girls, Use Your Voice!

Image credit: Felix Foutchinski. Site: Upsplash

A few years back I found myself in a large university lecture theatre, filled with students half my age. It was weird to be back at university as a more mature student but I needed the unit for my graduate study, and so humbly sat in amongst kids taking notes on fancy devices, while I searched my bag for a usable pen.

The theatre must have sat 180 students, while others were left to stand or sit on the steps. A full house. But as I looked around, I noticed it was mostly young women taking this undergraduate writing course. Although I could spot a few young guys, they were few and far between.

Interesting, I thought, shrugging and getting on with it. The course turned out to be engaging, with good lecturers and interesting material. Nothing to complain about.

In fact, there would be little to note about this entire experience…except for what took place every time the lecturer would raise a question from the lecture material and ask the audience of students, for their thoughts.

…Only guys would volunteer their thoughts.

Confident young men, comfortable putting their ideas out there.

Any other thoughts? the lecturer would ask, soliciting further input. And so, another young man stepping up with something to say, within the sea of young women looking down at their notes, as his voice projected out into the auditorium.

I’ll be honest, I was right there with all the girls, looking down at my notes. As somewhat of an introvert I hate this sort of participation. In a tutorial I’ll verbalise my ideas, but only because I have to and there is no crowd to disappear into.

Fortunately, there are plenty of others, comfortable with attention, happy to be heard. It’s just…why was it only guys? And when the young women were outnumbering the young men by at least ten to one, what was going on?

The sad truth is, I remember this issue from my first degree a couple of decades ago. It’s just I thought things would have changed, that young women were more empowered now to use their voices in public. But without fail, this happened every lecture. One guy, followed by another having his say. I started paying special attention to try and figure it out. And by figure it out, I mean beyond the idea that men feel more entitled to be heard than women.

In looking at this, it is worth understanding the concept of self-selection. This is the idea that when there is a gender skew in a course or industry, such as STEM careers being dominated by males, then any woman going into that field (or man going into a female dominated area such as nursing), are considered to have self-selected on the basis they know this is an area they will excel in.

In other words, while it might feel natural for a whole range of men with, varying levels of talent, to enter the STEM field, for a woman to put herself on such an atypical, and possibly hostile path, she must have significant assurance within herself that this is an area she can handle herself in.

Clearly, my writing class was a female dominated area of education. Would it be fair to say then, that the sprinkling of males taking this unit were self-selecting? And would that explain their comfort at speaking up?

Knowing their talent was of enough significance to self-select a typically female course, and to be heard from at every lecture?

I started paying a lot more attention to what these young men had to say. After all, if the self-selection principle was at work here then I should be impressed by what I was hearing.

Hmmmm…..Hard to tell. I decided instead to take note of how the lecturer was responding. Was she responding as one does when realising they are in the presence of brilliance? No, not exactly. Instead she was doing that thing where she validated where the student was coming from, but then steered them closer to where they needed to be, eg. “Yes, I can see how that might be something Character A was thinking, especially under condition X, but if we recall what Character B said in the earlier paragraph….”.

The dreaded ‘but’.

Still, was it so bad to speak up and not be exactly right? It didn’t seem to be the end of the world to these guys, they still dusted themselves off to contribute the next time. Couldn’t some of these young women do that too?

Why weren’t they?

If it is frustrating to only hear men’s voices in public spaces, then eventually women are going to have to take their opportunities to speak and run with them. If young men are comfortable speaking up because they are used to having role models do so, then women need to start speaking up for the sake of other women until it is normalised to hear women’s voices as often as men’s.

This unofficial little social experiment ends at the only conclusion I could reach. That I had to start speaking up also. As much as I cringed or even panicked at the thought, it was time to take up some public space and stake it for girls. Thus, in every lecture to follow, my fellow students were blessed to hear my thoughts on the topic, at least once.

Were they super worthy thoughts? Nope. Did I die a bit when the lecturer disagreed with me in front a packed lecture theatre? Yes. Did it kill me properly? No.

Better still, I got more comfortable with it.

So, this to young women: you have a voice, and a right to use it in public. Start using it when you are young, and the better you will become at it. Knowing we can be heard is empowering and while it may not change your life to do so in a packed lecture theatre, one day something important might just depend on it.