[soc.feminism] Single sex space - schools and classrooms

liz@oxy.EDU (Elizabeth Pazdral) (03/14/91)

Schoi@teri.bio.uci.edu (Sam "Lord Byron" Choi) writes:

>I have hear the same argument used in the case of Mill College students
>(stuff deleted)
>The fact that female student may tend to shut up in classes with male
>students in them tells, and consequently, probably do not learn as much
>as they could, does not lead me to the conclusion that classes should
>be segregated.
>The problem probably lies somewhere in the socialization of young girls (not
>so much the boys I would imagine since there is no real evidence of the
>(males actively telling the females to shutup).  What are we telling our
>daughters that later on makes them so timid in the presence of males?

Yeah, there is a lot of evidence that males tell females to shutup.
I'm sure their instructors wouldn't let them use the actual word, but
you can interrupt someone or talk over them enough to let them know
that their opinion is less valid.

Also, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the the study done about
15 years ago that demonstrated how grade-school math-teachers
encouraged their male students more than their female ones, including
in classroom interaction.  Which, as you imply, could set up an "early
deferment" pattern towards men by women when in math classes.