Gender Inequality in Education

The podcast discusses gender inequality in education, focusing on how boys and girls are steered towards different subjects and career paths. The hidden curriculum reinforces gender stereotypes, with girls pushed towards lower-paying jobs like literature and boys towards higher-paying STEM fields. Statistics show a majority of women in college pursuing traditionally female-dominated fields. The Civil Rights Act of 1972 bans sex discrimination in education, aiming for equal opportunities for male and female students. Despite more women completing college, there is still a gender pay gap, with women earning less on average than men. Changes in education curriculum and societal norms are needed for gender equality in education and income. Hi, my name is Kitten Carolina and on today's podcast we'll be talking about gender inequality in education. So to start off this discussion, we're going to talk about what gender gets steered towards what subjects within school. So during school, boys are steered towards jobs such as woodworking or mechanical stuff and it prepares them for a factor job or a higher paying job, something that it does with the industry. While girls are strapped to courses such as writing, psychology, anything that is most likely a lower paying job and it's an office job, this also goes along with the hidden curriculum, which we'll be talking about as well. The hidden curriculum reinforces these ideas, it reinforces the idea that girls should be working jobs that are based off of more feminine subjects like Scientology and Literature while boys are pushed for more masculine subjects like science or STEM and the hands-on work. Even though many people may not talk about the hidden curriculum or they may even know it, it is not a broad subject that is talked about in the education system. Most teachers will push their students towards these expectations, so women will be pushed towards English while boys may be pushed towards science class. Teachers expect girls to be better at writing and reading while boys are expected to excel in mathematics and science subjects. Due to this, most students want to please their teachers from their classes, so they'll excel in these subjects no matter what. I mean, there are people that do struggle with these subjects, but due to the expectation of wanting to please their teachers, girls will excel in literature and meet the societal expectation that girls are supposed to be better at literature than a boy. Carrying on, we're going to move into statistics. 93% of women who go to college are in library science. 84% of these women are in healthcare professions. 82% are in an education major. 78% are a psychology major, and 72% are an English major. Those are very high percentages, and I think it stems from the societal expectation, again, that women are supposed to be at office jobs or an education worker. And even though more women are being pushed into the STEM field to break this norm, it is still growing, but this is just a statistic we got from one of our sources from the 8th edition book that we are reading in class. I wanted to take time before we moved on to our next subject to talk about the society or the environment within a school. This doesn't really have to do with grades. It has to do with expectations for women in schooling. We talked about it in class, but there have been many instances, for example, where there are standards for girls but not boys when it comes to dress codes. Women are more sexualized when it came to schooling when it comes to how they dress, or if a boy is dressed with other clothing that may not also be in the school guidelines, they may not be told that is wrong compared to girls being cut off from what type of clothing they are being shown not to wear. This just ties into the inequality of the education system. I wouldn't say it goes into their education directly, but the environment the school makes is just an inequality, and I think that many people stress over this because it is pretty clear how it can be different for girls and boys when it comes to attending school just because of what they are wearing. Anyways, we will jump right back into talking about education when it comes to girls and boys, and we are going to continue on with the Civil Rights Act. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1972 where Title 1A of Education Amendments of the Civil Rights Act, this title bans sex discrimination in education, which requires schools receiving federal funding to provide male and female students with equal educational programs. There can be no discrimination. The example that is used in the book is that girls are just as likely to be placed in gifted programs and more young women are qualified for AP courses that will help them get into college. This act helps women to not be discriminated against in school. It allows them more opportunities where they do have the opportunity to get into the STEM field. Finally, we are going to talk about the pay when it comes to the education women receive. I know we previously talked about it when it came to the hidden curriculum, but we are going to jump back into it. Even though more women complete college than men, what does the income look like for both genders? There is, I believe, around 93, no not 93, 53% of women complete college. What does that look like for their pay? Despite the fact that more women complete undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States, the median income for women is around $37,000. This was in 2011. While it was more for men, which was $47,000. This number has definitely changed. More men definitely have a higher median income while women are still steered towards those lower paying jobs. Hopefully, the curriculum will change and there will be more equality for women and men and they will get the same opportunities and provide the same income, hopefully in the future. Thank you for listening to my podcast.