Disrupting Gender Inequality
1. How will you disrupt gender inequality at school? Explain, why this technique?
To disrupt gender inequality in schools teachers and administrators must first recognize that there is a problem. This could be accomplished through consciousness awareness programs designed specifically for public school teachers. The problems associated with gender bias may not start until middle school but it is prevalent throughout high school too. That problem is that female students often feel shy around male students because of gender norms taught by family and society. Female students may be afraid they will be ridiculed or thought less of if they are assertive in the classroom. Male students then dominate the classroom, raising their hands more frequently to answer questions and volunteer to read their work aloud. Teachers may either consciously or unconsciously come to rely on male students and call on them more often. Then females get called on less often. This just makes the feelings that the female students have about speaking up even worse. The result is gender bias in schools.
To combat this type of gender bias from occurring, teachers must be taught to call on the females in the class and require them to read aloud and participate verbally as much as the males in the class. Some teachers may already be doing this because gender inequality has been an issue for a long time. Those that are not purposely trying to eliminate gender bias from their classrooms should take classes in how to effectively accomplish that. In fact, it should be required for all K through 12 teachers. There is no reason why eliminating gender bias cannot start as young as kindergarten. The younger kids start learning by example not to use gender as a way to categorize or objectify others, the better it will be for society.
2. How will you disrupt gender inequality at work? Explain, why this technique?
Disrupting gender equaliaty at work is more difficult than disrupting it in schools. In schools there is more at stake because children are learning not to be gender biased and creating a brighter future for female equality. At work, people do not usually have a whole lot of choice about with whom they work. The chances that co-workes have been education in gender equal classrooms is still quite small, although that is changing. The way to disrupt gender inequality in the work force is for females to be more assertive and spend less time trying to please everybody. For instance, women often do not say anything when a male counterpart interrupts them. This is typical behavior in society. If a male co-worker does the, the female can say, “Excuse me, Fred, but I want to finish my thought and then I will give you a chance to speak.” Females can also volunteer to do tasks that are usually assigned to men because they ae considered “men’s work.” When women talk about their work, they often use “we” rather than “I” because they have been taught that it is not “ladylike” to take credit for something they did. They also try to downplay their achievements when someone is complementing them on them. Females need to learn to take compliments and just say, “Thank you,” rather than down playing the achievement because of embarassment. Women also tend to apologize a lot for things for which they are not responsible such as being late because of traffic. A man can walk into the office and say, “Sorry I’m late, but the 10 was backed up to Anaheim,” and he is forgiven. A woman may say the same thing but people around her will think that she is making an excuse because she had to run her children to school. If that is the case, she should say, “It was my turn to carpool today,” and then make sure that the father of her children also takes a turn carpooling the children to school.
3. How will you disrupt gender inequality at home? Explain, why this technique?
Disrupting gender equality in the home should be the easiest place, but it is often the most difficult because it involves trying to change one’s partner, something people should not do. If the husband/father was raised in a traditional household chances are his mother cleaned up for him and doted on him. Now he does not think he has to do housework or childcare because, to him, that is woman’s work. The woman, in the meantime, could lose her mind trying to keep up with the housework, the parenting and a full-time job. Women should discuss gender equality with their potential partners and if they seem like they will not be willing to be equal parnters, then they should not pursue a relationship with them. There are many clues that men give that indicate the way they feel about gender equality. For instance, they can talk over the woman as if her ideas do not matter. They can decide what to do on a date without consulting the woman to discover what she may want to do. Trying to control or manipulate a woman is also a good sign the man is not going to be the type of partner that considers gender equaltiy important. Women should cut those individuals free before they become too attached. Once they share a home with a man, a household chore list should be created and the housework divided up fairly. Some sort of penalty for not completing the work should be agreed upon such as relieving the partner from one of her chores. If those methods do not work, and they probably will not if the male comes from a traditional home, then the woman could stop doing her chores too. Eventually, the male may get the picture when the house looks a mess, the kids need to be fed, the laundry needs to be done and so on.
