Feminism : A Common Goal Of Actualizing Social Justice Through Teaching And Learning Methods

Mary Wollstonecraft’s famous book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, is “one of the earliest expressions of a feminist consciousness.” Wollstonecraft claims that women are upset mainly due to the fact that they are not receiving the education they deserve, and goes on to explain how women are notorious for being weak, and mentally unstable. She blames the education system for this since all the books are written by men, and they claim that women are barley humans and are treated as another species. She questions the eligibility of men to claim they are better than women. A useful education, in her opinion, is one that teaches students how to be strong and independent. Her directed audience is anyone who is unsure of the true definition and meaning of feminism. Wollstonecraft believes that all humans are capable of the same intelligence, no matter the gender. Her overall idea is that every individual, both male and female, deserve equality.

When you send your children off in the morning to go to school, no matter what grade they are in whither it be elementary, junior high, or senior high, you expect that they will receive the best education that they can get. They should be asked challenging questions, encouraged and called upon to participate in class, they should also be given as much help as they need to secede by the teacher. However, this is most commonly not the case. Parents and the children themselves are unaware of what is going on because gender bias is not a noisy problem. Most people are unaware of the secret sexist lessons that occur every day in classrooms across the country. In this essay I will use two essay's from the reader:

In Gerry Garibaldi’s essay, “How the Schools Shortchange the Boys,” he argues that the feministic learning of the public-school systems detrimentally affects males’ learning because boys are often identified as special ed and leave the classroom with only the resiliency of survival. However, Garibaldi’s arguments are biased, misguided, and fail to see how the application of the male nature can be successful in a “feministic” learning style, so we should not agree with his claims.

The first time that I ever took a woman’s and gender studies class was this semester, and before taking the course all information regarding gender, class, sex, language, identity, exile, agency, power, and race was based on personal experience. I have never formally learned about the proper terminologies that define the systems of oppression that I experienced in my everyday life. I feel that this information was vital to me because now that I can properly identify these problems I have the tools necessary to fix them. I also learned that may of those themes are universal and the way that women in particular suffer is the same across various cultures. Considering the theories, novels lectures, class discussions, and presentations I can say that I am walking away from this class with an ample amount of critical information. Most importantly are the themes that contributed to my new perception of the world and the role that I play in it. I have learned that gender and sex, contrary to popular belief, are not synonymous terms. This is important because society has a set of sex and gender roles that society says people are supposed to follow. While one is not given the opportunity to choose their sex, they are given the opportunity to choose what gender and behavioral expectations they uphold. This in turn means that gender is not assigned at birth; it is culturally mandated and therefore allows for change. Additionally, one of the most important terms that I learned in this

Before this class, I was aware of feminism but also uncertain on the meaning. I knew gender inequality existed throughout history and currently. Growing up in the rural Midwest, feminism was not perceived as a positive movement. Little was taught or said about feminism in any primary education. We learned about women’s suffrage and that was it. After, taking this class, I understand that feminism is so much more than woman’s suffrage in the early 1900s.

During these last thirteen weeks, I have discovered a lot about myself, not only as a student, but as a feminist. Before taking this class, I knew that I wanted to be a feminist. I believed that women should stand up and exercise their rights to be equal to men on every level. Be that as it may, I lacked the education required to develop my own sense of feminism--my feminist manifesto, if you will. When approaching the topic of feminism, every person needs to ask themselves a list of questions: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What has influenced me as a person? How can I help? These are the beckoning questions we, as developing and purposeful human beings, ask ourselves every day, and these are the questions that will lead each and every person

Many people are often misinformed or given bad first impressions of feminism. However, feminism is equal rights for all people of different race, sex, gender, and sexuality. Many of the people that give feminism a bad name, include a self-proclaimed feminist that is running for presidency, and meninists who are satirical equal rights activists. In reality, feminism is pro-gender equality and opportunities for all types of people.

When examining how our society is today it is very easy to see that we live in a world which is full of ableism. Ableism is defined as being “discrimination or prejudice against individuals who live with disabilities” (Merriam- Webster Dictionary). In other words, we live in a world where there are many structural oppressions which get in the way of individuals who had disabilities of living an ordinary life. A way in which we can examine this issue is through feminist theory strategies. Feminist Theory can be defined as “a way of explaining the reasons for pervasive gender inequality, often in relation to other categories of social difference” (Liinamaa 2018 class 1). By using feminist theory, we are able to use so many resources and practice

It is worth noting that in most of the chapters the issue of race does not feel as important as gender and class.

In the website Teaching for Change, it is apparent that the central idea behind the site is teaching social justice within the classroom. From the homepage of this site, it 's evident that the mission is to promote the teaching of social justice in classrooms, as this is the starting point. Innovation starts in the classroom. Social justice revolves around benevolence and if children are taught to embrace social justice and work against injustice in the classroom, chances are that they 'll actually practice what they are taught in the real world. The website 's principal goal seems to be to encourage schools to provide students with knowledge and cultivate habits that will ultimately produce good citizens. The site 's mission is true to its title – Teaching for Change.

Sitting in my general biology class today, learning about amazing biological discoveries, my male teacher jokingly said “Did you know there are women in science?” then went on to joke about how these women who had just made an amazing biological discovery even had PhD’s. As he went on to talk about the amazing things these women did, he talked about the discovery like he had for the other ones made by men. If women can make biological discoveries like men can why are they looked at differently in their graduate fields of study. In this essay I will explore the gender issue in education through the lens of feminism by evidence shown in past decades and today. Education was primarily for men while women were not even allowed in some classrooms, while over time this has changed.

When one hears the term “Feminism”, she/he may have the idea that it is the urge and

Feminist pedagogies use feminist theory to create a curriculum that seeks to empower groups of students that have been historically subordinated in traditionally patriarchal classrooms. Using the three central pillars of empowerment, community, and leadership feminist pedagogies aim to create a sense of belonging for all students in the classroom (Shrewsbury, 1987).

Throughout the last century, women have had to fight to have the same opportunities as men. Women have had to earn the right to vote, the right to have a career, and the right to autonomy. However, these are all rights that men have simply been given, which is why today’s feminists work to promote equality. Despite these efforts, feminism is often misunderstood and is interpreted with a negative connotation. According to a study conducted by Precopio and Ramsey (2017), “feminism is commonly recognized as a movement driven to grant social, political, and economic equality to both women and men.” The participation of others besides women is crucial to the spread of equality among the genders. Furthermore, the stigma and negative feelings surrounding feminism must be reduced in order for the ideals of feminism to have a greater impact.

As a child, I had always believed that there was only one difference between girls or boys, one of them has cooties, besides that I had always thought of them as equals. As I grew out of that young and venerable age, I slowly started to realize that even in first world countries, women were being oppressed. They weren’t seen as equals, simply because of their gender, not because of experience or knowledge, just because they are women.