Achieving Gender Equality : Education

"No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens." Michelle Obama

Gender equality in schools has been a controversial issue over the years. In these two articles, "The Daily Grind: Lessons in the Hidden Curriculum" of Peggy Orenstein, and "Boys Here, Girls There: Sure, if Equality's the Goal" of Karen Stabiner, both writers give an in-depth reality into the contentious issues that exist between boys and girls. Although they bear some superficial similarities in discussing gender parity problem in education, the differences between Orenstein and Stabiner are the target audience, the rhetorical choices, and their opinion on the gender equality issue.

Women in China during the late 19th to early 20th century had many roles in and out of the household. Depending on their financial status, the role of women varied slightly.

When you first think about education you have to look at the facts, and not opinion based answers. To let you know about how many kids start school each year. On average there are about “1.1 million students who enroll in pre kindergarten.” An interesting fact is girls make up 46% of these kids. Which means that 54% of the prekindergarten children are boys. So boys outnumber girls in schools not only in prekindergarten facilities. With these statistics you would think that boys are enrolled more in higher education. Although, this would make sense it actually the other way around. In higher education schools, “57% of students in postsecondary education is women.” (Demographics Prekindergarten) So what happens between prekindergarten and postsecondary schools. The women start to excel, and even care more

Comparison of American and Chinese educational systems is important because the education students receive plays a big role in the way they act in society as adults. In some ways, the educational systems reflect the society’s direction as a whole. The United States, operating under a democratic government that values free speech, follows an educational system that encourages students to express their opinions freely. China, operating under an autocratic government, places more emphasis on obedience and respect. As China’s rapid development and prominence in today’s economy shows, the Chinese educational system has produced many high-achieving, industrious individuals. However, some worry that China will be at a disadvantage if Chinese students

Micciche argues that feminist pedagogies “share a common goal of actualizing social justice through teaching and learning methods” (128). She feels that pedagogy has the opportunity to address and change social issues through local and personal experiences. She discusses the four waves of feminists to show that feminism has expanded form women’s issues to many other issues in society. She uses Howe, Bolker, Annas, and Flynn to support her belief that females should have a voice and use their personal experience to validate themselves and break-down historical norms. She discusses how Jarratt and Bauer promote “confrontation and discomfort” centered feminist classrooms to “negotiate the oppressive discourses of racism, sexism, and classism” (134). Micciche addresses emotion and how feminist question the connections between power/control and emotion/embodiment and how it is “relational and social rather than exclusively interiorized and private” (137). Queen pedagogy and identity- based pedagogy correlate to Feminist pedagogy because they all “question the process of normalizing dominant assumptions and beliefs” and challenges teachers to check their own pedagogy (138). Wilson, Lewiecki-Wilson, and Dolmage argue that it is up to the teacher and school to adapt disabilities because “disability is always present” because no one is perfect (139). Feminist pedagogies are flexible: they are not stand-alone practices since they intersect with other categories of difference

The ideology that men are better than women exist in China for more than thousands of years. In the past, women were expected to stay home and follow their husband’s order. Only men can inherit family properties. Also, Chinese people believe that women will be marry out of the family and never come back, only their sons will take care of them (Brooks). Therefore, having girls is considered as waste of money. This perspective has a big influence in current Chinese society where women were pressured to abort or abandon their babies because they are girls. A story on the Guardian website by Tania Branigan, she mentions a Chinese woman had a baby girl recently, but her father-in-law dislikes the grandchild because she was a girl. Her father-in-law’s

“Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women...Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent ”(Last). In China, over the past thirty years, gendercide, resulting from the one child policy, along with other factors,caused the deaths of millions girls, until 2014 when the policy was abolished. Gendercide, has left China with an unbalanced gender population favoring males. Rather than instituting a single gender policy, the population could have been managed with financial incentives

the article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua, we hear about her experiences with the Chinese way of bringing up your children, and how this has affected her and her family. In the beginning of the text, we are told that the writer, Amy Chua, is a professor at Yale Law School and that she has two daughters. Furthermore, we hear that she sees herself as a so-called “Chinese mother” (l.22). Chinese mothers do not necessarily need to be Chinese, but it is a term to describe a very strict parent with unusual ways of educating their child. A Chinese mother is, in contrast to a “Western parent” (l.25), very focused on their children’s behavior and academic level, and therefore they devote more time to educating their children, compared to Western parents. This type of parenting is what Amy Chua describes throughout the article. In this paper, I am going to analyze and comment on her article. Part of the paper’s focus will be on how the writer engages the reader and on possible consequences of Amy Chua’s methods of upbringing.

China is quickly becoming a very prosperous nation. There is one aspect, however, that threatens to derail its rise to prosperity, the exponentially high birth rates. To combat China’s growing population, government officials enforced an anti-natalist policy known as the One-Child Policy. Ultimately, the policy “amounted to an assault on China’s system of gender norms and roles” (“Family Planning”). With the implementation of China’s One Child Policy, sex preference among babies has become evident. Socially, it has been the duty of a woman to “obey her father as a child; her husband as a married person; and her son as a widow” (“Confucianism: Woman’s Way”). In regards to the

Throughout the past few decades, the gender inequality discourse have became a dominant feature of international, national and local policy debate on the subject of economic development. This policy concern has emerged as an area of scholarly research which seeks to show that improving gender equity leads to economic growth.

Many believe that the greatest source for a nations strength is to provide equal education for all of its students. However, are we as educators short-changing our female students? I believe the answer to this question is an undeniable, Yes! There are different ways and methods to change this problem in our society; hence we must first examine the source of the corruption.

Firstly, the cultural perceptions regarding a woman’s career path is a major contributor the gender disparity in education. There are significant cultural drivers that portray women needing to confirm with the traditional roles in their society.

There is no denying that there are gender differences in education. Science, technology, engineering and math majors are all dominated by male students. According to the National Science Foundation, women earn less the twenty percent of bachelor's degrees in computer science and engineering and around forty percent in physical sciences and mathematics.One approach that by useful in examining this phenomenon might be the Constraint Preference theory described by Correll as the idea that when men and women make differing assessments about their own competency at specific task, they will also forge disparate aspiration for actives believed to require competence at these tasks. This theory can be used in order to explore the gender inequalities present in education and the role that teacher may play in perpetuating these inequalities, particularly in STEM majors.

Women`s education is an international human right without any discrimination based on sex or gender. It is necessary for identity social development and a means for a prosperous life. Constantly, the United Nations emphasized women`s education and set goals for its success with gender equality. Empowering women`s education is an essential element in growing societies that seek democracy and economic advancement. For the last decade, Palestinian women education had been the concern for several reasons and a hot debate for many researchers. Palestinian women are known for their patience, determination and resilience in many hard life situations.