There’s something troubling I’ve noticed as I struggle (and fail) to stay awake through each of my classes here at Binghamton University, and I’m sure it’s something you’ve observed in some of your classes too: Girls participate less than the boys. Particularly in science classes, but common in “softer” subjects as well, male students are more likely to raise their hands and contribute to the discussion than female students are. This lack of female participation stems from the environment in primary, middle and high school in which teachers seemingly interact with male students at a higher rate than their female counterparts. This practice of paying more attention to boys than girls must be remedied in order to ensure equal class participation between genders.
David Sadker is a professor emeritus at American University who has studied gender bias in the classroom for his entire professional career. He found that, yes, boys do speak up more often during discussions, despite the fact that they might not know as much about the subject in question, but that this issue starts long before you get your college acceptance letter. Teachers throughout students’ primary education interact with boys 10 to 30 percent more than they do with girls. This itself is an issue, but so too is the disparity in their specific interactions in which girls are not properly encouraged. Studies have found that boys are praised more than girls for getting something right, but that girls are criticized more than boys when they get something wrong.
This atmosphere that doesn’t inspire the female voice then carries over into college, the main period that Sadker’s research is focused on. He saw that professors’ general interaction time is larger with males and that these instructors are more inclined to ask their harder questions to male students rather than females. Other professionals who have studied this subject note that college professors “make eye contacts more frequently with males than with females, allow their classrooms to be male-dominated by calling on males more frequently, allow males to interrupt females, and respond to males with attention and females with diffidence.”
These assertions are disturbing. In a society that precipitates a notion of gender equality, there is an obvious difference in how our teachers interact with students on the basis of gender beginning as early as when children enter kindergarten. This then sets women up for an entire educational career in which their voices will be heard less than the men sitting next to them. Is this really how we want our education system to work?
Teachers need to be aware of the direct effects of their actions. A larger effort needs to be made throughout our primary education system to ensure complete fairness between students. Though this is obviously an issue that extends to college professors as well, the root of the problem can be traced all the way back to the people who taught us in the first years of our schooling. We need to work with these instructors to prevent bias from permanently harming girls and discouraging their eagerness to speak up.
It’s 2018, which means it’s time to fight this disparity.
Professors: Think about the way you’re treating your students in class. By no means do I think that instructors on this campus make a specific effort to favor men, but doing it unknowingly can cause just as much harm. Let’s change it.
Men: Help the women surrounding you in lecture and be open to their comments. Studies have shown that male students are more willing to ignore a female student’s contribution in class than a man’s — don’t fall into this statistic.
Women: Don’t let yourself be defined by the environment we grew up in. It sucks that this is the way we were raised, but that doesn’t mean we have to allow it to continue. Go ahead, raise your hand — it’s time for your voice to be heard.
Emily Houston is a senior double-majoring in political science and English.