Easing Bias Against Girls in the Classroom
By KATE STONE LOMBARDI
Published: March 14, 1993
TWENTY years after the passage of Federal legislation meant to guarantee girls equal access to sports and educational opportunities in school, educators in the county say girls are still being shortchanged in the classroom.
Districts in Westchester, mirroring a nationwide trend, are taking a close look at sex bias and how it is reflected in teacher-student relationships, in the curriculum and among students themselves.
"This has become a major topic for us," said Maryann Doyle, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Chappaqua School District. "It's almost like new technology. It is being built into all of our curriculum and reviews in a way that it never was before, but with any effort like this, it has to start with awareness of the problem," she said. Often an Unconscious Practice
While the issue of sex discrimination in schools surfaced early in the women's movement, interest in the subject recently resurged after the release last year of a report by the American Association of University Women, which examined various studies on girls and education. The research revealed, among other things, that girls receive significantly less attention than boys from teachers in the classroom, that the achievements of women are minimized or ignored in many textbooks and that sexual harassment of girls by boys in school is increasing.
"The conjunction of the A.A.U.W. report and the Anita Hill incident has compelled people to really take a look at what it is like to be a girl or a women in any institution, including school," said Beth Kava, coordinator of social studies for the White Plains public schools. "We have been taking the issue of sex equity and making that one of the categories that we use to think about a wide range of things, such as curriculum development, teacher training and how we evaluate the classroom climate," she said.
Bias in the classroom is often unconscious, educators said. Teachers who watch videotapes of themselves are often surprised to see that they treated boys and girls differently. "People become aware of how insidious the gender assumptions we make really are," Ms. Kava said.
Studies showed that boys were far more likely than girls to call out answers in class, and teachers not only encouraged them to do so but also asked boys to expand on their responses. But girls who called out answers were often reminded by teachers to raise their hands if they wanted to speak. Also, boys who excelled in school were described by teachers as "bright" or "intelligent" while girls who got good grades were thought of as "diligent" or "hard working."
Also, a separate-but-equal mentality still pervades many school activities. For instance, elementary school teachers commonly line up children by sex, with girls in one line and boys in another, although the teachers would never separate children by race. Mirroring the Bias of Society
"The interesting thing about the new research is that it shows that bias is imbedded in teachers who assume they have no gender prejudice at all," said Dr. Marcia A. Savage, president of Manhattanville College in Purchase. "The subtlety makes it difficult to recognize. A lot of schools would be shocked to see themselves as an uncomfortable place for a girl to be in 1993."
Educators in Westchester say that their schools are no more discriminatory than other institutions but that they simply mirror the bias of society.
"If schools are shortchanging girls in some sense, it is not because that is what they want to do at all," said Dr. Ellen Silber, director of the Marymount Institute for Women's Education in Tarrytown. "A school reflects society, and if a society favors men and shortchanges women, probably the schools are going to do the same thing."
Even the youngest children begin school with strong stereotypes of what is considered appropriate behavior for boys and girls, said Dr. Lois Holtzman, a developmental psychologist and the director of the Barbara Taylor School, an experimental private elementary school in Manhattan.
"Boys who are 5 years old come in saying, 'Girls can't do this; they're too dumb,' or you see little boys who pretty much think it's O.K. to touch little girls without asking them," she said. "It's amazing how young this happens." Dr. Holtzman spoke recently to teachers and administrators at Manhattanville College in Purchase on the subject of sex bias in the classroom.
Those who study the issues also say that the paternalistic structure of most schools reinforces society's sexual stereotypes. Elementary schools in particular tend to have female teachers but a male principal. The other male role models at the elementary level tend to be gym teachers or an occasional fifth-grade teacher, said Judith Schwartz, director of the Scarsdale Teachers Institute, a research and training center for teachers.
"If you look at the organization of schools, which are by far the most antiquated of institutions, you are really looking at an authoritarian, pyramidal structure, which is male dominated," Ms. Schwartz said. An Example From History Classes