Gender and education in contemporary society

Education and Society About Gender

The Perception of Gender Value Among Children

In Myra Sadker's book, Failing at Fairness, gender issues in the classroom are studied to evaluate how sexism is presented and to what extent it impacts female self-esteem. In a study entitled, "Help Me, God. I'm a Girl," the response to the hypothetical consideration of gender change was examined for eleven hundred Michigan children between 1988 and 1990. When asked what life would be like if they experienced a change to the opposite sex, the general conclusion that was drawn found that both girls and boys recognized weaknesses with the female sex as compared to males. This raises concern over the social impact of sexism that appears to exist even at a young age as the value of the female gender is compromised by views that males present the more advantageous sex. Thus, the evidence of sexism among children has bearing on the social opportunities and development of self-esteem of girls.

The reactions to the question, "Suppose you woke up tomorrow and found you were a member of the opposite sex," were examined for boys and girls of different age groups, and their responses varied according to age group. Themes examined among the responses centered on social opportunity, physical power, physical appearance, and social access. As the children aged, more pronounced disapproval of the female gender surfaced. The responses provided were examined based on observation and statistics.

In the study it was found that pre-pubescent girls often considered that being male instead would provide them greater social opportunities, especially in terms of career and financial success. The boys, however, considered the possibility of being a girl, "appalling, disgusting, and humiliating." Forty-two percent of the girls saw the male gender to command greater respect and enjoy more security while ninety-five percent of the boys found no advantage to being female. The remaining five percent of boys did tend to account for their perceptions of the female gender through stereotypical reasoning, such as seeing female vulnerability being advantageous to getting out of trouble. Physical power and attractive qualities also showed greater value for the male gender.

It was found that thirty-four percent of middle school girls and twenty-nine percent of boys admired the physical advantages of boys. "While the female body represents loss of sports, a male body means access." This statement, based on the statistic that nearly three-quarters of young boys dream of being a sports athlete, shows an established perception that males dominate sports, and sport success is the greatest ambition. It is interesting that physical prowess for boys can be narrowed down to an affinity for sports since female competition in sports is not limited by male play. Perhaps it is that the end goal of a sports career is of greater importance to boys, and to a majority of boys, that influences female opinion that boys are better athletes and thus more valued among the sexes.

While males tend to be evaluated based on their physical abilities, the perceived advantage of physical attraction, a female factor contributing to self-esteem and worth, is less relevant to female value. It was noted that the attraction quality for females decreased in popularity among females with respect to age. Thirty-one percent of elementary-age white girls appreciated their feminine looks, which dropped to eleven to twelve percent for middle and high school age girls. Pride in appearance showed larger variations across age for Hispanic girls while African-American girls tended to maintain an appreciation for their appearance. It appears that the factors associated with the value of female appearance, such as physical adolescent changes and sexual awareness, could have had an affect on the distribution of appreciation of attractiveness, with respect to females. As physical attraction is a major self-esteem issue for females, its lack of perceived value, especially as girls reach adolescence when self-esteem is critical to their social growth, demonstrates a further lack of value for the female gender, even among females.

Adolescence for girls presents obvious physical transformations (coupled with development of sexual attitudes), the ability to get pregnant, a decrease in social access or freedom, and an increased need for social acceptability by their male counterparts. When girls reach adolescence, their "girl" status changes to one of physical need for boys as sex becomes an issue. Thus, girls present a means to providing male satisfaction, generalizing their use to a male benefit rather than a female one. Also, their ability to become pregnant means that they have less control over their destinies.

Girls tend to look to boys for social acceptance. "Girls are seeking comfort in a carnival mirror, one sending back an image so grotesque and misshapen that its distortion is startling." It is unfortunate that the male perspective based on sexism influences the female perception of self-worth. It becomes a vicious cycle of male value garnered at the expense of female value.