Gender & Equity

I think that this week's assignment was fairly difficult; I searched for awhile trying to find relevant information but there was a very limited amount that I found. On one website, Gender and Education, there is an interview with Linda Hallman, executive director of the American Association of University Women. She mentioned that in 1992 there was definitely a problem with girls' education, but that girls were improving very much and so were boys actually.

Another site that I found pretty informative was idra.org. It stands for Intercultural Development Research Association. There was a really good podcast with Frances Guzman, M.Ed. She references Title IX and adds her own insight. She claims that in elementary school boys and girls act differently towards each other, but still consider themselves equals and are for the most part treated by others as equals as well. But starting in middle school adolescence comes into play, along with all the usual stereotypes about boys and girls. There are expectations from teachers that boys will behave in a certain way, and girls a different way. She claims that this is when girls are shortchanged. Guzman believes that boys and girls experience the same type of education, but they experience it differently.


I'm not really sure if I quite understand the idea of gender and equity in education, because I don't ever remember being consciously aware of any major differences between the ways boys and girls are treated or taught in schools.