Gender Bias

Gender Bias

          Gender bias is a preference or prejudice toward one gender over the other. Bias can be conscious or unconscious, and may manifest in many ways, both subtle and obvious. In many countries, eliminating such preferences is the basis of many laws, including those that govern workplaces, family courts, and even the voting booth. Despite these efforts, many legal and political scholars argue that total gender parity remains a far off goal, one which many regions are not remotely close to reaching.

It is possible for gender bias to be subtle or overt, and it can have a range of consequences. For instance, the biased assumption that girl's school sports are less important than boy's school sports lead to an inequality in funding and access to facilities, which in turn lead in part to the creation of the Title IX section of the Equal Opportunity in Education Act of 1972, a United States law prohibiting gender discrimination in public education, including in sports.

               While the past few decades have seen an improvement in the treatment of females in classroom methods and curricular materials, it would be premature to declare victory and dismiss issues of gender bias. Today, our girls and boys remain the victims of gender stereotypes in text and resource materials. They are also victims of unintended or sexist behaviors by educators. Often teachers reflect varied expectations for children, based on a student’s gender, class, race and ethnicity. Most teachers care deeply about the youngsters in their rooms. They are confident that they treat all their students the same. However, many teachers who analyze their own attitudes and behaviors discover the subtle and pervasive nature of gender inequity in the classroom.

Some biased behaviors in the classroom:

* Usually males receive more teacher questions than females.

* Minimal wait time for females’ answers

* More frequent follow-up questions with males

* Uneven ratio of student/teacher interactions: # of responses male to female = 7:3

* Males are also more likely to call out or act out, demanding and receiving teacher attention.

* Segregated seating patterns reinforce unequal teacher attention. About half of America’s

   Classrooms are characterized by gender segregated classrooms

* Boys are more likely to be called up to the front of the room to do demonstrations

      (For Example a science demonstration)

* Boys are more likely to be disciplined than girls, even when the misbehavior is identical

* Girls are more likely to be praised for the appearance and neatness of their work

* Females often stereotyped into clerical role because of neat notes

* Teachers are more likely to offer boys specific feedback on their work – including praise,

    Criticism and remediation

* Boys are more likely to receive attributions to effort and ability, teacher comments giving

    the confidence that success and competence is simply a matter of applying themselves

* Girls are often told, "It’s okay, as long as you try." For example, a teacher may take the

   Litmus paper from a female student and "does" it for her, but talks a male student

  through the correct us of litmus paper

* School textbooks and supplemental resource materials tend to be filled with male

   Protagonists and stories

* More positive feedback and remediation to males

* Males are allowed to speak over females

Indicators of Gender Bias

Many teachers participate in gender biased actions without realizing it. It is an unconscious act that has many effects on the students in a classroom. Here are some questions teachers can use to reflect upon and analyze gender biased behavior and identify if it exists in their classroom.  Who do I call on when hands are raised in class: boys or girls? Do I address them in the same manner?  Do I equally scold both genders when problems and issues arise in the classroom?  Do I distribute classroom duties equally or do I contribute to the stigma that girls should clean and boys should deal with technical issues?  Do I ask higher level questions of each gender?  Do I have the same expectations of all of my students?  Do I provide equal amounts of help, feedback, encouragement and praise?  Do I use gender free language in the classroom?  Do I interrupt one gender more often then the other?  Do I use examples of both genders when teaching a lesson? Is the text I use contributing to gender biased actions?

Gender Discrimination

        An example of gender discrimination would be if a woman was denied a job, or was paid less than a man would be paid, or received a lessor compensation and benefits package solely on the basis of her being female.

Gender discrimination refers to the practice of granting or denying rights or privileges to a person based on their gender. In some societies, this practice is longstanding and acceptable to both genders. Certain religious groups embrace gender discrimination as part of their dogma. However, in most industrialized nations, it is either illegal or generally considered inappropriate.

Attitudes toward gender discrimination can normally be traced back to the roots of certain segments of society. Much of the discrimination is attributed to stories such as a woman being made from man’s rib and societal practices such as dowries paid to fathers by prospective husbands to purchase their daughters to be wives. Countless literary fiction references are made to females being the fairer, weaker sex and males being the strong, invincible hunters of the world. The combined power of these societal and religious beliefs left little room for equitable thinking for centuries.

Although gender discrimination is traditionally viewed as a problem normally encountered by females, it has significantly affected males as well. Jobs customarily and historically held mainly by women were often denied to men based on social stigmas. Some of the more common jobs that fell into this category were nurses, childcare providers and flight attendants.

Gender stereotyping

Gender stereotypes are dangerous because they might create unequal or unfair treatments to a certain person who chooses to defy people’s assumptions about his/her gender. When gender inequality occurs on the background of gender stereotyping, this is called sexism. 

An example of gender stereotypes exists in the belief that it is the woman's job, simply because of her sex (female) to stay home and take care of their children. Other examples include the belief that women are unable to make decisions as well as men because women get their periods and men don't.

Gender stereotyping is defined as overgeneralization of characteristics, differences and attributes of a certain group based on their gender. Gender stereotypes create a widely accepted judgment or bias about certain characteristics or traits that apply to each gender. If a man or a woman act differently from how their gender is assumed to behave. For example: assertive women are called “bitches” and “whores”, while men who don’t appear or act masculine are called “sissies” or “wimps” or assumed to be gay, which is a very offensive stereotype in the LGBT community.

Why does Gender stereotyping in the workplace occur?

Gender stereotypes in the workplace, emerge from the assumption that women belong at home. Women cannot have any job they would like to, that there are jobs they are “inadequate” for. This resulted in women drawing lower wages than men, holding low-status jobs, comprising a few senior positions in prestigious firms where they compete with men and take up equally huge responsibilities.

Despite women making up half of the employees of large corporations, they are under-represented in higher-status, higher-paying occupations such as university teaching, law and medicine. 

Female gender stereotypes in the workplace are called “women’s ghettos”. This name references women’s positions in relation to the higher paid jobs in which they serve men. “Women’s ghettos” are supervised by men, constantly and forever, such that whenever a woman moves a step up the corporate ladder, there’s always a man above her.

There’s also the issue of trust. How many often have you heard “I trust a male doctor more,” or “I’d call a female plumber but they’re not as good as men. Female gender stereotypes precipitate the fact that women are less trustworthy and less capable of handling certain “tough” jobs than men. 

Gender stereotypes imprison humans in the “fact” that every person should either act as male or female, disregarding completely those who identify as neither or both.

What are the Most Common Gender Stereotypes?

There are four basic examples of gender stereotypes:

1. Personality Traits: Women are supposed to be shy, passive and submissive. Women are organized and clean. Men are expected to be tough, aggressive, dominant and self-confident. Men are lazy and messy.

2.       Domestic Behaviors: Women are supposed to cook and do housework. Women are better at raising children. Stay-at-home mothers are better than working mothers. On the other hand: Men are better at household repairs. Men cannot cook, sew or care for their children. Men always tell their wives what to do.

3.       Occupations: Women are supposed to have “clean” jobs such as teachers, nurses, secretaries and librarians. Women are not good at math. Women are supposed to make less money than men. Women are not politicians. Women cannot be presidential candidates. On the other hand: Men are supposed to have “dirty jobs” like mechanics, construction workers, plumbers and engineering. Men are all good at math. Men are better doctors. Men are supposed to be in charge at work and should make more money than women. Men are better politicians.

4.       Physical Appearance: Generally speaking, women are expected to be short and slender, small and delicate while men are supposed to be tall with broad shoulders. However, physical appearance gender stereotyping varies from culture to culture. In cultures where men are small in size, masculinity is determined by acting macho. Acting macho for men would mean getting involved in fights, drinking alcohol, smoking unfiltered cigarettes and getting into fights. Female gender stereotype occurs for women who act “macho” in some cultures. Women who smoke, drink, and swear often are considered “masculine”. 

Female gender stereotypes always play on the notion of women’s inequality to men. Women

are weaker, less competitive, and less adaptable to harsh environments outside the house.

Male gender stereotypes pressed on the facts that men were more tolerant and they

expressed their feelings differently from women. Men should act in a certain, acceptable

“Manly” way: other than that men are not worthy of their natural “superior” role.

Gender stereotyping basically discards the concept of gender identity. Gender identity is defined as how the individual feels inside, whether masculine or feminine, regardless of the person’s biological sex. An androgyny, or androgynous person is one who doesn’t conform to a particular male or female gender role. 

What are the Consequences of Gender Stereotyping?

People who are threatened by gender stereotyping, act upon their insecurities by exaggerating the stereotyped behavior through hyper femininity or hyper masculinity.

Hyper femininity is the exaggeration of female gender stereotypes. Hyper feminine women, gay men as well as male-to-female transgender, believe that they are boosting men’s egos and pleasing them by acting too naive, too pious, too passive, too domestic, too flirtatious and too nurturing. Whether this is their true nature or a tactic to please society, hyper feminine individuals are obliterating their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for them.

Male gender stereotypes would also result in hyper masculinity. Hyper masculine men, lesbians as well as female-to-male transgender exaggerate the stereotyped masculine behavior. They believe they are supposed to be dominant and in charge to impress other women by being too aggressive, too sexually active, too physically imposing, too macho, too obscene and too violent sometimes, making them a danger to themselves and to the society.