Talk:Sex differences in education

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I added the neutrality flag because this article takes a completely one-sided perspective, in ignorance of sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]. Blackworm (talk) 15:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In actual fact, it is boys who are being discriminated against in secondary education systems in many countries developed countries with the result that males are being pushed out of the professions.

This can best be seen at the following web page:

http://boyseducationaustralia.blogspot.com/2009/10/boys-are-discriminated-against-in.html

Here's a new one:

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21645759-boys-are-being-outclassed-girls-both-school-and-university-and-gap?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Ftheweakersex

Perhaps because they can be so insufferable, teenage boys are often marked down. The OECD found that boys did much better in its anonymised tests than in teacher assessments. The gap with girls in reading was a third smaller, and the gap in maths—where boys were already ahead—opened up further. In another finding that suggests a lack of even-handedness among teachers, boys are more likely than girls to be forced to repeat a year, even when they are of equal ability.

What is behind this discrimination? One possibility is that teachers mark up students who are polite, eager and stay out of fights, all attributes that are more common among girls. In some countries, academic points can even be docked for bad behaviour. Another is that women, who make up eight out of ten primary-school teachers and nearly seven in ten lower-secondary teachers, favour their own sex, just as male bosses have been shown to favour male underlings. In a few places sexism is enshrined in law: Singapore still canes boys, while sparing girls the rod.

T 2001:4610:A:5E:0:0:0:713F (talk) 14:26, 19 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I believe this section should be changed, given it states "Discrimination results in a substantial gender gap in pay towards women (.75 cents for every dollar that men make)". This implies that all employers (presumably male) aim to discriminate against their female employees, yet in the Gender pay gap article it explains the reasons for the aforementioned gap. This page purports the pay gap which according to the "the U.S. Department of Labor found in 2008 that the gap can be brought down from 23% to between 4.8% and 7.1%". I am adding to the talk page as I am a new user, rather than editing the article.

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Here is a good source: http://www.unesco.org/education/ild2010/FactSheet2010_Lit_EN.pdf

(2) The statistics section could be expanded perhaps by adding statistics about youth literacy rates vs. adult literacy rates between females and males. The source above also has this information.

(3) Article could be more neutral

FPizzo (talk) 22:14, 8 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I actually rewrote that bit in the lead a while back, as it seemed to read like a sexist POV. I agree that the second part of it is still a little hard to grasp as doesn't mention which countries. They could be a handful of micro nations? Agree that youth literacy rates are also important. Thanks. Jolly Ω Janner 23:40, 8 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am considering rewriting this page. As currently drafted, the page is primarily focused on sex discrimination against women and should include more information on discrimination that men and boys encounter in the education system. I propose making the following revisions:

• adopting a more neutral point of view. The difficulties faced by men and boys in the education system should also be noted;
• updating the statistics cited in the article. Most of the current sources are from the early 2000s. I would also insert citations where required, for example, for statements such as ‘Worldwide, men are more likely to be literate, with 100 men considered literate for every 88 women’;
• expanding the section ‘Forms of sex discrimination in education’ to include discrimination that men face. I might move some of the information currently in ‘Gender gap in literacy’ to this section;
• inserting a section on the reversal of the gender gap in education; and
• inserting a few statements outlining the other possible causes of the gender pay gap in the section ‘Consequences of sex discrimination in education’.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on improving this page. Scowch (talk) 16:35, 14 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is not this passage in the intro invalided itself exactly because it is explained in the rest of the "Differences between Humans Portal" that there are indeed differences and "why" "life" made things functions this way (biology/psychology/neurology) : "There is a more "masculine culture" in today's society and when women take on the role of managers in a company, male counterparts become tense"

Some gender discrimination, whether intentional or not, also effects the positions students may strive for in the future. Females may not find interest in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM), because they have not been exposed to those types of classes. This is because interactions within the school and society are pushing them towards easier, more feminine classes, such as home economics or art. They also might not see many other women going into the STEM field. This then lowers the number of women in STEM, further producing and continuing this cycle.

Alex, With this section I simply added and took out a few commas, and made run-on sentences shorter by separating them into two sentences. Otherwise, this was a good section to add. - Rylee — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rylee Wznick (talk • contribs) 16:22, 21 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"For example, a male may be told that he throws like a girl which perpetuates him to become more masculine and use brute force. A female, on the other hand, might be told she is too masculine looking to where she becomes more reserved and less motivated."

Alex, Does this have a source? If not I would recommend taking bits of information from the article "Boys Don't Cry and Female Masculinity: Reclaiming a Life & Dismantling the Politics of Normative Heterosexuality." by B. Cooper. It has some good points about female masculinity to help support your sentence. It can be found on NDSU Library Database. - Rylee — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rylee Wznick (talk • contribs) 16:36, 21 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Other consequences come in the form of what is communicated as appropriate behaviors for boys and girls in classes like physical education. While a teacher may not purposely try to communicate these differences, they may tend to make comments based on gender physical ability."

Alex,

Just a few minor edits here. I think it would help if you provided an example for each gender. How do teachers communicate to girls? How do they communicate to boys? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.186.98.140 (talk) 21:31, 25 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Alex,

Great addition. The original was a little broad and it was smart to add detail! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.186.98.140 (talk) 21:34, 25 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Alex,

I just fixed a few spelling errors here, otherwise it was a great addition.

Alex,

Overall it was a great article and you added worthy information. Be sure to cite all of the information, however. There was a part in this section that may have come from an outside source, but I didn't see a source cited. Nice job! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.186.98.140 (talk) 21:44, 25 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

While there is a substantial section on “Gender gap in literacy," currently it exclusively discusses the higher reading performance scores of school-aged girls compared to boys within the U.S. context—I'm working to add discussion of broader global gender disparities in literacy rates in the Literacy article now. I have some context about this project on my User page, and I would appreciate any feedback! --KAnds42 (talk) 21:40, 6 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A suggestion for any potential contributors/editors of this article: definitely try to include more statistics from countries around the world, not so much focusing on the United States and Canada. There's also room for improvement in making this article more neutral and not so heavily inclined toward how the education system discriminates against women. Simramariam (talk) 22:10, 3 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I add this section but still try to find more examples from other countries in order to make it have world-wide view.Rosalind31 (talk) 00:37, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Looking to add a study i found on Gender differences in education based on gender difference in educators/teachers by Jim Duffy,under "Differential Treatment in Education Expenditure". Annotating teachers may have higher expectations for boys in math and science, and for girls higher expectations in language. Teachers were found to also have a tendency to praise students matching gender expectations more. Praise is more often used by female mathematics teachers than female literature teachers, but praise used by male literature teachers occurred more frequently than by male mathematics teachers and that criticism is often directed toward male students significantly more often than female students in both literature, and mathematics classes. First time attempting to edit a wikipedia article for an assignment, so be gentle. Thanks!^[1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Travis.meyer82 (talk • contribs) 00:05, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 September 2022 and 14 November 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ezy5090, Souvenir-770, Pragnyakalya, LongeRights (article contribs).

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I suggest to add these sections to the rubic "inequalities around the world"

Her Atlas

UNESCO’s initiative, Her Atlas measures the status of national legal frameworks related to girls’ and women’s right to education using 12 indicators. For each country. Three years after its launch, UNESCO announces the completion of the research phase: overall, the legal frameworks of 196 countries have been thoroughly analyzed to evaluate the level of protection of girls’ and women’s right to education around the world.[1] [2]

[1] Research based on constitutions, laws, regulations, circulars and decrees available online. For the full methodology, please consult Her Atlas.

[2] Legal frameworks analyzed up to 2019. For the full methodology regarding this analysis and the criteria that were applied, please consult Her Atlas.

Legal Protection

The recognition of the right to education in the legal framework is essential to protect it. This guarantee can be enshrined in the Constitution, which is the highest legal protection in the domestic order but can also be established in the legislation.^[1] By legally enshrining the right to education, States comply with their obligation to integrate the right to education into their domestic legal order, while showing their commitment to ensuring the enjoyment of this right and recognizing their accountability towards its realization. Moreover, the legal recognition of the right to education provides a legal base for more precise regulations of the different aspects of the right to education and is therefore an important provision to rely on. While the de facto situation can be different from what is enshrined in the law, legislation is considered a first important step to recognize the rights of people and represents a key step towards more effective protection and enforcement.^[2] 62% of all countries guarantee the Right to Education without discrimination on their constitution, 56% explicitly mentioned sex or gender as a prohibited ground of discrimination.^[3] Recognizing the right to education in a constitution or law means that judicial mechanisms can be triggered if someone infringes, in one way or another, on a right that is legally enshrined. Therefore, while a legal provision will not, by itself, be sufficient to ensure the de facto full enjoyment of the right to education at the national level, it is an important step for States to respect, protect and fulfil this right and improve the education system of their country.

The Convention against Discrimination in Education

International treaties play a major role in guaranteeing the respect, protection and promotion of human rights throughout the world. They recognize individuals’ rights and lay down obligations that States are bound to respect. When States become parties to a treaty, they must protect, respect and fulfil the rights recognized in it. The Convention against Discrimination in Education (CADE), which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020, is the first legally binding instrument entirely dedicated to the right to education. It notably prohibits discrimination in education in all its forms, including based on sex, and provides equal opportunities and chances to succeed in education, regardless of gender.^[4] The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW is entirely dedicated to girls’ and women’s rights and contains comprehensive legal provisions regarding girls’ and women’s right to education, which requires equal treatment between women and men, girls and boys, in all aspects of education. Of all the countries 54% are parties to the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education ad 96% are parties to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women.^[5]

Afghanistan under the Taliban

While no States, including Afghanistan, prohibit expressly girls and women to access education in their legislation, the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021 has resulted in the closure of schools from 6th grade and above together with universities for girls and young women.^[6] The reopening of public universities for all students in February 2022 was a first step towards restoring access to education for all Afghans – especially women. However, UNESCO’s most recent monitoring data confirms the decreased percentage of participation by female university students due to the restrictive rules with regards to freedom of movement for women limited to those accompanied by their male family members in addition to the increased education costs impeding most students to continue their education.^[7] Moreover, despite a repeated commitment that all children would be able to return to school at the beginning of the new academic year, on 23rd March, only a couple of hours after their reopening, the de facto authorities announced that all girls' schools and high schools above 6th grade were to suspend their classes, until the adoption of a national plan for the return of girls and young women to secondary level schools.^[8]

Accessibility to education

Accessibility to education is composed of three components: economic, physical and administrative. Physical accessibility, understood as “the safe physical reach, either by attendance at some reasonably convenient geographic location, such as a neighborhood school, or via modern technology, with access to a ‘distance learning’ programme”, is still not a reality for everyone, especially for girls and women.^[9] Access can be, for instance, impeded by the distance to the nearest educational establishment, especially in rural areas.^[10] In conflict-affected areas, schools are closed owing to insecurity, or can be occupied by State and non-State armed groups or destroyed, all of which impede girls’ access to school. Fear of sexual violence or sexual harassment from armed men can also discourage families from sending girls to school and can lead to an increase in child marriages, because of the belief that it will offer them some kind of protection.^[11] The inaccessibility of educational buildings can also be temporary during emergencies, insecurity or natural disasters, which usually have a disproportionate discriminatory impact on girls and women.^[12] Recently, the world has been reminded that major sanitary crises can also have a huge impact on education, as seen by the unprecedented scale and duration of school closures aiming to contain the spread of COVID-19.^[13]

Gender Internet Divide

The use of high-tech solutions to ensure continuity of learning during school closures has had both positive and negative aspects that have been well documented.^[14] However, while helping to avoid a complete loss of instruction, remote learning is not exempt from gendered impacts, notably when using high-tech solutions. Indeed, while there is, until now, limited data on participation in remote learning modalities disaggregated by sex, one must pay attention to the preexisting gender divide, regarding both digital access and skills. ^[15]In fact, while access to the Internet has increased between 2019 and 2020, women still have less access to the Internet than men, especially in Least Developed Countries and Landlocked Developing Countries. The gender Internet divide, regarding access, has been narrowing between 2018 and 2020 with gender parity achieved in developed countries, and almost achieved in small island developing states. However, it remains in other countries, the biggest gap being in least developed countries.^[16] (Figure A)

Gender Digital Divide

Access to the Internet represents only one aspect of the differential access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in general, and an even smaller part of the digital divide. Access to technologies can be impeded by, but not limited to, unsafe roads to access ICT facilities, limited freedom of movement for girls and women, patriarchal beliefs that these kinds of facilities are not suitable for women, or financial barriers.^[17] Even when access is not an issue, there is still a skill divide that tends to be more severe for women. As such, girls and women are less likely to leverage devices to their full potential, and therefore their remote learning could be impacted in terms of access and quality.^[18] In a study conducted across 10 low- and middle-income countries, women were 1.6 times more likely than men to report a lack of skills as a barrier to internet use.^[19]

Personal Data and Privacy Protection

When digital skills are low or insufficient, it is probable that there is also a lack of awareness regarding the value of personal data and

When education is not free, it creates a financial burden, especially for lower-income families who may be forced to select which of their children will go to school.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). UNESO 2022: Protect her rights, strengthen your laws. Her Atlas: status report on girls’ and women’s right to education, Paris. In these cases, it has been reported that boys are usually preferred over girls. Girls and women may also suffer from other costs that prevent them from attending school, like the cost of products for menstrual hygiene. To address these potential inequalities and ensure gender equality, some States take additional actions to prevent discrimination and guarantee equal access to education.^[23] For example, New Zealand, which guarantees 14 years of free education, started an initiative in 2020 to provide free sanitary products in all state schools and kura. 33 % of all countries fully guarantee at least 12 years of free primary and secondary education in their legislation, 20% do not. Similar to the implementation of compulsory education, the implementation of free education goes beyond the sole legal guarantee: it requires allocating sufficient financial resources, as well as adequate educational and administrative measures, especially to assure equal access to education together with quality education. The adoption of compulsory and free education without adequate financial resources and complementary measures is far from sufficient and can even be counterproductive.^[24]