Powerful Impact of Bias Against Girls : Provocative study underscores danger of gender stereotyping in schools

It may be hard to believe, but girls get their first lessons about the inequities of being female beginning in preschool. An unintentional bias against girls by schools, teachers and tests begins as early as that and continues through high school, playing a powerful role in shaping the perceptions and career aspirations of women.

The most comprehensive look to date at gender discrimination in schools comes in a useful study commissioned by the American Assn. of University Women. Compiled from two decades of research, the study noted, among other things, a disturbing rise in sexual harassment of girls by boys; this increase is attributed, in part, to school authorities’ inclination to dismiss these actions as just “boys being boys.” Such learned behavior can have a negative effect in adulthood as well.

Until girls and boys start school, they perform at roughly the same skill and confidence levels. However, the study, echoing themes sounded in an AAUW-commissioned poll last year, found that girls, unlike boys, do not generally emerge from school with the same degree of confidence and self-esteem that they had when they began their education.

That difference may be attributable to a variety of factors cited by the study. Among them: Some teachers pay significantly less attention to girls than boys. While the gender gap in math is declining, it’s still growing in science. In addition, curricula and textbooks often ignore female perspectives or they reinforce stereotypes, already found in advertising, television and, in no small part, in the home.

Sadly, African-American girls fare even worse. Although they try to initiate more teacher contact than any other group, they are frequently rebuffed and usually receive less teacher reinforcement. Gender roles are so deeply ingrained that even some teachers, who are mostly women, inadvertently perpetuate a system that is more attentive to boys.

With women or minorities making up the majority of workers entering the labor force by the turn of the century, the inequities evidenced in the study must be reversed if the United States is to be competitive globally. The report included 40 recommendations aimed at equalizing treatment. They include changing teaching methods to meet the needs of girls, encouraging girls in mathematics and science, toughening school policies against sexual harassment and placing girls’ problems on the agenda of education reformers.

Shortchanging girls in schools not only robs half the population of a fair shake in education, it costs us talent and ability.