Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Reproduce with permission only.
Female students currently make up more than half the population at UNC-Chapel Hill—58.5% in 1996 (UNC Fact Book, 1997). This figure reflects the greater access women have gained to the university over the past few decades, but does not reflect the sometimes unpleasant conditions they find once they arrive. In a landmark study, The Classroom Climate: A Chilly One for Women?(1982), Roberta Hall and Bernice Sandler reported the effects inequitable classroom techniques have on female students. Although this report was published more than ten years ago, individual studies continue to show that many university classrooms are hostile environments for female students. This section examines how a course can either welcome or alienate female students through in-class and out-of-class procedures and curriculum choices.
The characteristics of women in the university classroom are, of course, only general characteristics. The differences among female students themselves may be as great as differences between female and male students generally. You may very well have female students who exhibit traditionally "masculine" classroom behavior, and male students who exhibit traditionally "feminine" classroom behavior. We present these findings of gender differences to make you more aware of why your female students may be behaving according to traditional models and to suggest ways you might accommodate different learning styles in your classroom. Keep in mind that gender bias in the classroom can negatively affect male students too. When male students do not have the opportunity to see women participating actively in the classroom, they may be less likely to treat women as equals both during college and in their careers after college. Finally, although this section focuses on the traditional neglect suffered by female students in the academy, many discriminatory situations described could equally apply to any minority student. In many courses men constitute the minority, and are sometimes treated differently from the female students in the class.
Chapter 1 has already addressed individual learning styles, and has shown how some classroom techniques may put some students at a disadvantage. This chapter, therefore, will not discuss in detail the differences between various learning styles but will summarize the findings different studies have shown about characteristics female students generally exhibit. The chapter will also propose specific strategies for addressing these characteristics so that both female and male students can reach their potential in your courses.
Children develop their conceptions of themselves based on a combination of experiences in the family, in school, in peer groups, and in other social situations. Clearly, however, the classroom experience itself is an important factor in determining how children assess their abilities from an early age. Studies of classrooms from kindergarten through graduate school have shown that teachers tend to:
Both female and male teachers at
the elementary school level exhibit these behaviors. At the university level,
it appears that "female professors, compared with their male counterparts,
tend to be less biased against female students, are more able to recognize females'
contributions and intellectual talents, and are more generous in giving them
academic and career encouragement," (Wood, 1994, p. 75). Nonetheless, by
the time students enter the university classroom, years of conditioning during
the early years of education have taken their toll, resulting in significant
discrepancies between the academic behaviors of male and female students. Male
or female professors with the greatest intentions of eliminating gender bias
and stereotypes face the challenge of reaching students who, at some point during
their lives, have learned to become silent and passive in an academic culture
that tends to reward highly verbal and aggressive students.
Studies by linguists show that female
students are more likely than male students to exhibit the following characteristics
in their classroom communication style:
Students exhibiting these communication
characteristics have often been perceived in academic communities as less rigorous
in their ability to think critically and lacking in intellectual sophistication.
Whether the students are male or a female, the professor who values assertive
and self-confident speech is less likely to take these students seriously. Such
students experience a clear disadvantage in the classroom where professors expect
them to speak in front of the whole group. According to the socio-linguist Deborah
Tannen (1991), girls often suffer this disadvantage because:
speaking in a classroom is more congenial to boys' language experience than to girls', since it entails putting oneself forward in front of a large group of people, many of whom are strangers and at least one of whom is sure to judge speakers' knowledge and intelligence by their verbal display. (p. B1)
Professors can use a variety of strategies
to make a classroom a more equitable environment for students with less aggressive
communication characteristics. Some of the following suggestions repeat strategies
discussed in Chapter 1 and 2, but this section also includes consideration of
the added dimension of gender differences. Keep in mind that changing your classroom
overnight is neither possible, nor desirable. First assess your own classroom
communication patterns. Then, consider which aspects of your teaching style
you might like to change and which aspects are already effective in reaching
all students. Work on developing new teaching strategies over a period of time,
noting what works and what does not.
Consider whether you are reaching all of your students, particularly in classes where female students constitute the minority, and thus enjoy less peer support. Ask yourself whether you exhibit any of the characteristics described in the above list, such as asking higher order questions to male students rather than female students, or giving more praise to male students' answers. Most teachers, including women teachers, are unaware of such preferential treatment. Or you may be ignoring the minority of male students in your class. One way to find out how you treat different groups in the classroom is to pay attention to where students sit in class. Do the few women students sit together away from the men, or vice versa? Do you direct most of your attention toward one or the other side in class?
If possible, videotape several of your classes so you can examine your classroom techniques in detail. While you consider how you treat male and female students, you can also look at other pedagogical issues, such as whether you make eye contact with all students in the room, whether all students can hear and comprehend you, and how students respond to each others' comments. Another excellent way to get feedback about your teaching is to give your class an opportunity to offer comments on the course about a third of the way through the semester. Have students fill out brief course evaluations and ask them to give feedback on how comfortable they feel participating in class. Also, ask students what you could do to help them feel more comfortable participating. Sample course evaluation forms can be found in Appendix A.
In You Just Don't Understand(1990),
socio-linguist Deborah Tannen showed that men and women communicate in remarkably
different ways. Whereas men tend to speak in order to acquire information and
assert their position within a hierarchy, women tend to speak in order to share
experiences and establish a condition of equality within a communication situation.
Tannen labels these two kinds of communication "report vs. rapport":
For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships. Emphasis is placed on displaying similarities and matching experiences. From childhood, girls criticize peers who try to stand out or appear better than others.
For most men, talk is primarily a means to preserve independence and negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order. This is done by exhibiting knowledge and skill, and by holding center stage through verbal performance such as story-telling, joking, or imparting information. From childhood, men learn to use talking as a way to get and keep attention. So they are more comfortable speaking in larger groups made up of people they know less well- in the broadest sense, "public speaking." But even the most private situations can be approached like public speaking, more like giving a report than establishing rapport. (p. 77)
According to Tannen's model, women may be less likely to challenge a classmate or offer her own point of view, not because she is unable to think critically, but because according to the rules of her conversational style, it is impolite to assert oneself over a peer. Similarly, studies show that women tend to perform better in classroom situations that are inclusive and invite collaboration, that value rapport as well as report. In these situations, which more closely reflect women's communication styles, female students take more active roles and participate on a level equal to that of male students. According to Julia Wood (1994), "the ideal instructional style might blend masculine and feminine modes of communicating, which would enable all students to participate comfortably some of the time and stretch all students to supplement their styles of interacting by learning additional ones" (p. 220).
As Wood herself acknowledges, the
categories of "masculine" and "feminine" are broad categories
that may not be reflected in all male or female students' behaviors. As discussed
earlier, every student in your class, regardless of gender, is likely to be
more comfortable either with a more competitive or a more collaborative learning
environment. By tailoring your classroom techniques to varying student needs,
you allow each student to reach his or her potential. See Chapter 1 for details
on collaborative learning and Chapter 2 for suggestions on group work.
You have probably noticed that male and female students, when in the minority, often segregate themselves by sitting together. While you would probably not want to ask them to split up permanently, you should try to arrange classroom situations where men and women work together. Do not simply let students choose their own groups, for this will result in the same students always working with each other. In addition, you might change your position in the classroom. Do you usually sit or stand away from the group of students in the minority? If so, vary the place from which you generally conduct the class so that you have a chance to make close eye contact with different groups of students.
Simply having students work in groups does not ensure that all students will participate equally. Even within group situations, women students may be less likely to actively participate when men outnumber them. Depending on student personalities and the ratio of male to female students, you might try mixing the groups in a way that ensures that women and men will occasionally have the opportunity to work with students of their own gender. For example, if you have a class of four women and fifteen men, and you assign groups of four students, you might have two of the women work in one group with other male students and assign the other two women to a different group. Avoid assigning all four women to the same group because (a) the women might feel singled out and (b) they would not have the chance to interact with male students. Similarly, if you have a class of two men and ten women, you would not want to always split up the male students because they might feel that you are targeting them for special treatment.
Again, consider the personality of individual students. Women who have shown that they are comfortable voicing their opinions in front of the whole class, and who defend their point of view with confidence are probably going to participate actively in a group of men. Observe group dynamics in your class and look for ways to structure groups in which your quiet but capable students will feel comfortable sharing their ideas.
In addition, if you assign specific functions to group members such as secretary, or group spokesperson, make sure that both male and female students have the opportunity to take roles requiring leadership. For example, do not continually permit the quiet female student to act as group secretary rather than a group spokesperson. Make sure that each student's participation is important to the group's purpose. Make all students accountable for their participation in the group.
Most of all, your responsibility
is to establish and demand a working environment that respects all students.
Even if you do not make sexist statements, if you allow them to be made without
challenging them, you are permitting a sexist attitude to enter the classroom.
In fact, the kind of discomfort women often report feeling comes not from the
teacher, but from other students. One UNC student recalled how frustrating it
was for her to endure her male classmates' teasing and joking. Although she
had confronted them personally and asked them to stop making sexual jokes in
front of her they continued, even increased, doing so. The student was angry
with the male students, but also with the professor:
"I feel that it's the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that it's an appropriate environment. So even if it's not necessarily him doing something, if other kids are doing something, he's supposed to be the one in charge. He's not supposed to be kidding around with the other kids in the class who are saying inappropriate things."
If you observe students making sexist
remarks, whether in front of the whole class or in smaller groups, it is best
to confront the student(s) and tell them that such remarks are inappropriate
and do not further the purposes of the course. Again, in classes where gender
or other group identity differences are likely to become the topics of discussion,
give students printed guidelines that demand respect for all students during
the first week of class. Or work out a class contract on rules of discussion
at the beginning of the semester. Having done so, you can simply remind the
class of rules rather than introducing the issue for the particular student
who makes an injurious statement.
Female students' responses should be validated, but try also to push them to go further, and challenge them to do their best. By insisting that a female student follow her statement through to its larger implications, you will help her to develop her critical thinking skills, and will show your confidence in her ability to think critically. Demand participation of all students, not just those who always raise their hands. You can decrease some of the fear students have of giving "the wrong answer" or of not having the answer by explaining that you do not expect every student to have the answer all of the time. Offer to students some questions for which you yourself do not have the answers and share with the class those moments where you are trying to work through a problem yourself. As discussed in Chapter 2, such openness on your part shows students that while some questions in your field have fairly evident "right answers," many questions remain open to debate. Furthermore, by encouraging more collaborative learning in your class, students build confidence that they themselves can produce "right" answers.
Well-meaning teachers often try to
encourage quiet students to participate by getting them to speak about issues
the teacher believes are important to them. In the case of a female student,
the teacher may assume the student is interested in "women's issues."
For example, in a discussion about the Equal Rights Amendment in an American
history class, a professor might be tempted to turn to a generally quiet female
student and ask her to give "the woman's perspective." The question
is well-meant, since the professor wants to include the woman and validate her
viewpoint. However, it puts the woman in the uncomfortable position of speaking
for all women in the class and for all the women she knows. The question also
conveys a certain expectation that she holds views based on her gender and,
further, that all students hold beliefs or values based on their essential gender
identity. There may well be men in the class who consider themselves feminists
and who might have as much, if not more, to say about the need for equal rights
for women.
Women's contributions to many academic fields are often missing in the materials students read in school. M. M. Ferree and E. J. Hall (1990) found that women are conspicuously absent even in university textbooks. Whether in literature, where male authors predominate, or in science, where men appear as practically the only ones who make discoveries, women's contributions are either ignored or minimized (Spender 1989). Gender bias exists even in the sciences, where one might expect the curriculum to be more or less gender neutral. One sophomore recalled a biology class where her professor taught only the male reproductive system. Although the professor explained that he had made this choice because of lack of time, the student still recalled the sense of frustration and disappointment she felt: "I really wanted to learn about it and it seemed unfair that he had made that decision arbitrarily." Although every professor sometimes encounters the necessity of cutting material to make up for lost time, make sure to avoid cutting material in a way that gives unequal treatment to men and women. Look for other shortcuts that will not arbitrarily exclude one gender.
As stressed in Chapter 2, students
benefit from learning about significant work by women in a field. But avoid
submitting to tokenism, by putting a woman on your syllabus simply because she
is a woman. Integrate work by women into the major concepts you emphasize in
your course. As one woman stated, it's one thing to talk about women and another
to show that it really matters:
"The professor was very conscientious of paying attention to things like class and race and gender, but it was still very [limited]. It was like we had one day to talk about women and what women were doing instead of trying to incorporate it into the whole curriculum."
One UNC woman related an anecdote
about a class she once took in which the teacher habitually gave extra credit
test questions. His questions often were based on knowledge of current sports
events. When one woman in the class complained that these questions favored
men, the teacher offered the women their own question, based on female hygiene.
The teacher had behaved inappropriately in two major respects. First of all,
he had given a question based on gender, and particularly based on physical
differences. He had sent the message that the woman's body, not her intellect,
defines "female." But his more fundamental mistake was that he tested
information that was not course-related. When designing your tests, make sure
that you do not require information that one gender is more likely to possess.
Never include material or concepts that have not been part of the course work.
If you do want students to incorporate personal experiences, offer some choice
in the questions you give or allow large enough parameters so as not to disadvantage
anyone.
"That's why there are so few women in science. People don't know why it doesn't feel right [but it's because] the atmosphere is so male, and not even just male, but mean to women."
-UNC junior, female majoring in a science
Recent surveys show that women receive 54% of all bachelor's degrees in the United States, but only 30% of natural science and engineering degrees, and 16% of physics degrees (Bryant, 1993; Ravitch, 1993). These figures somewhat parallel the statistics of UNC women graduates. According the UNC Office of Institutional Research, in 1994, 43% of degree recipients in chemistry were women; 19% of degree recipients in physics were women; and 57% of degree recipients in biology were women. In the field of biology, women appear to be achieving parity with men, but in chemistry and physics, women continue to be underrepresented, particularly when one considers that women constitute more than half the UNC student body (58.5%).
The lower numbers of women who take science courses at the university reflect attitudes, developed from an early age in American students, towards the "masculinity" of these fields. Studies show that peers, teachers, counselors, and family members frequently dissuade both female and minority students from taking upper-level mathematics and science courses (Clewell, Anderson and Thorpe, 1992, p. 6). By the time female students enroll in a required math or science course, they may very well have brought with them a considerable amount of anxiety and may fear that this course will be particularly difficult for them because they are female.
This anxiety may heighten when the
woman looks around her and sees a majority of male students and a male teacher
presiding over the class. The instructor must not only recognize the female
students with math or science anxiety, but also the woman who wants to major
in a mathematics or science field who does not receive enough confirmation in
the college classroom. Studies monitoring female (and minority) students' progress
through math and science departments show that these students frequently abandon
their intended majors because they do not receive enough encouragement from
their peers and professors. They may also feel inhibited in a predominantly
male atmosphere. One woman planning to major in a science reported that in one
class she took, the continual sexual joking between the male students created
a kind of male community that made women feel like outsiders. The professor
did not stop the students' behavior and even participated in the joking on several
occasions. The student commented that it upset her to see this kind of behavior
go uncensored in her classes because, although she herself felt well-informed
enough to understand what was happening and could confront the professor, many
women do not have the educational training necessary to confront sexist behavior:
"There are a lot of women who don't have the background in talking about this kind of stuff, and aren't going to know why they don't like it. They're just going to change their major."
As a math or science teacher, you
can have a tremendous influence on women in your class. First, establish a professional
atmosphere comfortable for men and women alike. Second, make female students
aware that they are capable of learning the material, and encourage those who
perform well to take additional courses in the department or to pursue advanced
studies in the field. Students who do well in these fields often cite a teacher
as an important influence on them (Clewell, Anderson and Thorpe, 1992, p.80).
When it is relevant, make reference to women currently conducting important
research in your field. When talking about hypothetical scientists or mathematicians
to illustrate a point, make sure you occasionally assume the scientist or mathematician
is a woman. By doing this, you send out a message to students that your field
is open to women as well as men. In addition, you should give real-life contexts
when teaching concepts. Rather than teaching only mathematical formulas, make
an effort to show how they can be used outside the classroom. By showing the
relevance of these concepts to solving "real world" problems, you
are more likely to make both male and female students aware of the importance
of your discipline and to awaken in them curiosity to discover more about it.
For more detailed discussion of strategies for including women in your science
class, consult Sue V. Rosser's Female-Friendly Science(1990), especially
Chapter 5, "Toward Inclusionary Methods."
Since the late 1960's, more attention
has been paid to the assumptions about gender roles implicit in official English
language usage. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of standard usage is the
question of the "generic" masculine pronoun: he, his, him. For
some, these pronouns simply offer convenient ways to refer to both sexes, while
for others these pronouns exclude the female sex. Some of your students are
already aware of this problematic issue, while some are not. Whether or not
you choose to encourage or require non-sexist language from your students, you
should attempt to make your own speech and written materials as gender-neutral
as possible. While some argue that it is awkward and inconvenient to avoid masculine
pronouns, many simple grammatical revisions can easily make gender-charged statements
gender-neutral. Frequent use of he/she or his/her can indeed make writing stilted
and heavy, but other ways to avoid the use of masculine pronouns exist. For
example, consider the following instruction for a class project:
Each member of the group must submit his own research notes along with the group's final report.
The sentence could be changed in
the following ways:
All group members must submit their own research notes along with the final report of the whole group.
Please submit the research notes of each student in the group along with the group's final report.
Or, consider this literature assignment
describing how to go about researching authors the students have chosen:
In your report, you should include some consideration of how your author's life experiences or beliefs have influenced his writing.
This statement implies that the authors
students choose to research will be men. You can remove this implication by
changing the sentence in the following way:
In your report, you should include some consideration of how life experiences or personal beliefs have influenced the writing of the author you have chosen.
Once you are attentive to gender
bias in your writing, you will find that you can develop an array of techniques
that will help eliminate it.
Some of the discomfort women students experience at the university has more to do with their personal interaction with the teacher or with other students than with course material or classroom activities. Women often feel uncomfortable when their teachers comment on their physical appearance. For example, an instructor might compliment a woman on her clothing or the way she has styled her hair. Students may not themselves be explicitly aware of how uncomfortable such compliments make them feel, but the implicit message they receive is that teachers evaluate their bodies, and not their minds.
Other women report having male teachers
ask them to complete tasks inappropriate to their role as students, such as
making coffee or copies for an interest group or club comprised mostly of male
students (Katz and Vieland, 1988, p. 40-42). Furthermore, inviting a student
to discuss the course over coffee or lunch is similarly inappropriate to the
student/teacher relationship and can confuse students about expectations. Because
of the considerable power that teachers hold, no teacher should approach a student,
regardless of gender, except in a strictly professional way.
The difference between inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment may sometimes be difficult to determine. However, the University's "Sexual Harassment Policy" explicitly labels as "sexual harassment" all "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature by one in an official University position" when the submission to or rejection of this conduct affects the person's employment or academic standing, or interferes with the person's work or academic environment. All University faculty, students, and employees can follow official grievance procedures if they feel they have been sexually harassed.
Professors and instructors must maintain the highest level of professionalism in and out of the classroom. Remarks considered denigrating of women or men, even when intended as humor, could constitute sexual harassment and could be prosecuted under the University policy. See Appendix F "Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" for a complete description of the official policy and procedures.
The teacher/student relationship
goes both ways of course. A student may also pay too much positive or negative
attention to the teacher, which can escalate into harassment of the professor
or TA. The source of inappropriate comments or actions could be sexual attraction
or a belief that someone of a certain gender cannot have the knowledge and competence
necessary to act as professor. As discussed in Chapter 1, honesty and discretion
are the best way to avoid potentially explosive situations. An office visit
with the student is useful to explain the inappropriateness of the student's
behavior. If this does not change the student's behavior and you believe that
the situation has the potential to escalate, notify your supervisor or chair
of the problem before it becomes explosive.
The University now has an official
policy banning any amorous relations between a teacher and a student presently
under that teacher's direction. See Appendix F "Policy on Amorous Relationships"
for further information.
The trauma of sexual assault can dramatically interfere with a student's ability to perform in the classroom. According to Helen Neuborne, of the National Organization for Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund, "the major reason freshman women drop out of college is sexual assault" (as cited in Loevinger, 1994). While your responsibility is as a teacher, not as a counselor, you can have an important influence on a student who has been the victim of a sexual assault by making the student address the fact that this traumatic event has interfered with academic performance. As with any student who shows symptoms of withdrawing from the class, skipping classes, or not turning in work, ask the student to schedule a time to meet with you in private. Begin the meeting by telling the student that, based on your observations, you feel that something is wrong and that you want to know what can be done to help. If you make your question open-ended, you allow students to reveal only what they are comfortable revealing. Any student who has been the victim of sexual assault should be referred to an agency that can offer the appropriate counseling (such as the Student Health Service or the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, listed in Appendix E). In addition, offer to help the student to complete course assignments and communicate that you are available if the student ever wants to come see you.
General Principles for Teaching All Students
Adapted from: Teaching a Diverse Student Body (p. 9), by N. Loevinger, 1994, University of Virginia.
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Last Updated: January 30, 2001