Some Causes of the Gender Gap

      Educators in England are several years ahead of their American counterparts in recognizing the crisis in boys’ education. Award-winning British journalist, Melanie Phillips, identified a cause of the crisis: “The reason is nothing other than the wholesale feminisation [sic] of the education system.” (1)  American Glenn Sacks agrees: “Simply put, modern schools are not boy-friendly.” (2)

       This situation did not develop overnight. Major changes in society and education over the past 50 years paved the way to the current crisis.

      Until the middle of the 20 th century, boys had the advantage in school and beyond. They were athletic stars, academic leaders, and club presidents. Colleges, law and medical schools, and boardrooms were almost entirely male.

      In the 1960’s, women began to demand more equity in education and the workplace. Looking beyond the traditional occupations of teaching and nursing, girls needed a broader education and fuller extra-curricular program, including sports. The education tides started to turn so boys and girls would be educated more equitably. In 1972, the federal Title IX law prohibited gender discrimination in schools, extra-curriculars, and sports. The academic needs of girls and boys were to be treated equally.

       By the 1980’s, developmental psychologists theorized sexual identity was primarily created by the environment, not biology - that the differences between boys and girls were socially constructed . Ignored were the facts that most boys like to run and play at recess and most girls enjoy drawing and quieter activities. Children were to be viewed as gender-neutral beings who could be molded to exhibit desired behaviors. Parents were told to hug boys and play rough-and-tumble games with girls. (3)

This unproven, counter-intuitive gender theory entered the classroom so that boys and girls were not only to be treated equally , but also alike . Boy and girl students were expected to behave and learn in the same way. Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers contends that the true goal of this whole gender-neutral movement was to “render boys less competitive, more emotionally expressive, more nurturing – more, in short, like girls.” (4)

       In the 1990’s, Harvard professor Carol Gilligan reported, “American girls are being psychologically depleted, socially ‘silenced,’ and academically ‘shortchanged.’” (1)  Although concurrent reports and research painted a very different picture – of an increased number of girls succeeding in school, attending college, and “generally enjoying more freedoms and opportunities than any young women in human history” (4) — the American Association of University Women (AAUW) took up the mantel of Gilligan’s report and successfully persuaded America that girls were being shortchanged and, therefore, the education system must change.

      In 1994 Congress passed the Gender Equality in Education Act, which identified girls as under-served and appropriated millions of dollars to study the problem and fix it. The “fix” included training teachers to focus on girls’ needs through classroom practices and curricular changes. Schools no longer aimed for equal treatment of boys and girls as education adopted a “pro-girl” culture.

      In reality, the equality of the 60’s and neutering of the 80’s paved the way to the current unequal system that has helped create today’s education emergency — the gender gap.

1  Phillips, Melanie. “The feminisation of education.” Daily Mail (UK). 19 Aug 2002.

2  Sacks, Glenn. “Start of School Very Difficult for Parents of Boys, Parents of Girls.” 15 Mar 2005. www.glennsacks.com .

3. Sax, Leonard. Why Gender Matters . (New York: Doubleday, 2005)

4   Sommers, Christina Hoff. The War Against: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men .

    www.washingtonpost.com . 30 June 2000.

.