THE GENDER GAP

Hot Topics Project: The Gender Gap

Madison Joiner

College of DuPage

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Hot Topics Project: The Gender Gap

Definition:
In my own words, the gender gap is the difference between men and women. In this
case, the gender gap between girls and boys in school. In general terms the gender gap is: the
differences between women and men, especially as reflected in social, political, intellectual,
cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. (dictionary.com, para ). The gender gap is not
specific to education, but education may be the most alarming area to have a gender gap, due
to how many aspects of our lives our education effects. In todays world, the gender gap favors
the girls, and is hurting our boys. Through tracking our educational trends, boys are much more
likely to fail and drop out and not attend any college than their female counter part (Whitmire &
McGee Bailey, 2010, p.53 ). This is likely due to the fact that in yesterdays world, often times
women needed a college degree to get the same jobs as men without a degree, but this is no
longer true but it seems that the necessity for a degree has come sooner than the men realize
the need for one (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p.54). To some, the rise in the gender gap that
negatively affects men is likely due to the fact that womens rate to attend higher education is
rising faster than that of mens, not that men simply are not applying (Whitmire, et al, 2010,
p.55).

Who does it impact?

Most studies are done on K-12 students. In one study, done in London, the observers
did not notice much of a gap. A startling aspect of the study, is what the students felt. When
asked, most of the males felt that in general the girls work harder, are better organized, are
more interested in their work and are more self-motivated (Warrington, Williams and Younger,
2000, p. 393). The girls tend to work hard, whatever their ability. You know, even girls who

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aren't going to achieve A grades will work hard to get what they can, but the boys, once they get
below a certain level, don't seem to care anymore (Warrington, et al, 2000, p. 393). This quote
implies that boys feel that they are fine being at whatever level they are at. The gender gap is
also very much an educator problem. If I was a practicing educator, I would read that quote and
immediately change my teaching. The fact that boys feel that they can only achieve what they
have always achieved may be the single biggest contributing factor in the gap. All students need
to feel that they can succeed. Students with a high self-efficacy are more willing to take on the
more difficult tasks as a learner. Students with low self-efficacy will more likely be turned off by
the challaning new task (Santrock, 2008, p. 460). With that in mind, the gender gap seems
almost simple; male students tend to have lower self-efficacy (Santrock, 2008, p. 460). This
means that the boys will settle into a place they feel comfortable and a place they are expected
to achieve at and stay there. This is not good for education because all students need to be
pushed to succeed, and to do so educators need to make them see what potential they have. In
a poll of parents for public school students, they felt their teachers needed have the ability to
inspire, motivate students (Powell, 2012, p. 21) This means that parents feel their students
should be pushed by their teachers to do well. The gender gap is primarily looked at in K-12
because of the way our parents and teachers can get behind it. In todays world, you almost
need a degree of some sort to get a job, and even more so we need to have students
graduating high school and the dropout rates for males needs to be improved by adjusting our
K-12 education (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p. 56)

Timeline of the trend

For most of our countries time with formal education, it was widely seen that the boys
outperformed girls, especially in math and science (Zembar & Blume, 2011) This was more
likely due to practical use of math and science, men used various skills in their jobs. Boys were

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also more confident in their skills so they were able to answer more questions because they did
not second guess themselves as many females did. The girls spend more time on homework
and thus have began to close that gap (Guiso, Monte, Sapienza and Zingales, 2008). The gap
was widely believed to be practically closed when more girls began to enroll in the math and
science course they had previously opted out of (Zembar, et al, 2011). This was about 1965
when more girls began to graduate high school than boys (Legewie & DiPrete, 2012). The shift
was started ever since then, with more girls beginning to see the importance of schools. The
factory jobs that had once been very prominent for the males were no longer available and
males were left with no degree (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p. 52). In today's education the main gap
is not shown in subjects, but rather interest in school in general. The boys do not have the same
drive the girls have and that is what has created the gender gap (Warrington, et al, 2000, p.
393).
Significant people involved:
Richard Whitmire is the author of Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Education
System Thats Leaving Them Behind, and he frequently wrote about the reasons why the boys
in America are falling behind in school in todays world (Whitmire). Whitmire insists that boys are
failing as boys, not because of their race. Whitmire researched the likelihood of students in high
school to continue their education, he found that when students came from the same place, girls
are more likely to continue their education. He even found that black females are more likely to
attend college, which almost eliminates the notion that race is the answer, not gender (Whitmire,
et al, 2010, p.55). Whitmire mentioned that the gender gap is more visible in a poverty stricken
area, which may be likely to be linked to the students attitude mentioned by the London study
(Whitmire, et al, 2010, p.55). Whitmire is clearly a proponent for the existence of the gender
gap, and gender being the main cause for the education gap. On the opposite of him is Susan
McGee Bailey. Bailey has a PhD in womens studies and is the author of How Schools
Shortchange Girls (McGee Bailey). Bailey believes that all of our K-12 students are performing

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below the other industrialized nations. Bailey also argues that even though both sexes are
performing poorly, she does not find that boys are performing significantly worse. Bailey
believes that the results are simply that the college rate is going up for both sexes, just faster for
females (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p.55). Similarly she believes that overall dropout rates for high
school are going down, just at a higher rate for females (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p.55). Overall
Bailey believes that the differences between girls and boys is exerted and the boys really are
not that bad off (Whitmire, et al, 2010, p.59).
Significance of the trend?
The gender gap is significant because the test scores that researchers have gone over
have shown that in most every subject, on average, the girls score higher than their male
counterparts (Benn, 2014). This has also been linked to the lack of male teachers in todays
society. Teaching has largely become a womens job and the males are suffering because
they cannot relate as well to a female teacher (Harvey, 2014). The significance is also that our
education system has shown to fail one gender at one time. This, in my opinion, is a problem
because we have yet to find the right way to teach all the students we encounter, a problem that
if not addressed, could lead to major problems for the students when they become adults.

Examples in education today

All the information I have went over has shown the examples in education today except
for one. According to Whitmire, colleges have a poor kept secret that, because of the way our
boys fail in K-12, they have preferential treatment when applying for college (Whitmire, et al,
2010, p. 52). This is a problem because many people who apply to college already face so
many challenges, and if the research that whitmire conducted is true, the girls will have better
grades going into college, but may not get in so our nation can hide the fact that we have a
gender gap that is growing, and needs to be fixed. Another way people believe we can solve the

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gender gap is by separating students by gender. The proponents for single-gender schools say
by teaching our boys and girls in the same classroom, our education can become too
generalized for both genders because boys and girls learn differently (Stanberry). The critics
say that there is much researching showing the academic benefits from having a mixed
classroom, especially if the classroom is mostly girls. Single-gender schools can be public or
private and are currently coming back into style for education (Stanberry).

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REFERENCES

gender gap. (n.d.). The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition.
Retrieved October 04, 2014, from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gender gap
Zembar, M. J., & Blume, L. B. (2011, January 26). Gender and academic achievement.
Retrieved October 5, 2014, from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/gender-academic-achievement/?page=2
Guiso, L., Monte, F., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2008, June 1). Women and math, the
gender gap bridged. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from
http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/women_and_math_the_gender_gap
Whitmire, R., & McGee Bailey, S. (2010). Gender gap. Education Next, 10(2), 52-61.
Legewie, J., & DiPrete, T. A. (2012). School context and the gender gap in educational
achievement. American Sociological Review, 77(3), 463-485.
Warrington, M., Williams, J., & Younger, M. (2000). Student attitudes, image and the gender
gap. British Educational Research Journal, 26(3), 393-407.
Santrock, J. W. (2008). Motivation, Teaching, and Learning. Educational psychology (3rd ed.,
pp. 437-476). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

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Powell, S. D. (2012). Teachers and the Teaching Profession. Your introduction to
education: explorations in teaching (2nd ed., pp. 4-24). Boston: Pearson.
Whitmire, R. (n.d.). Bio. Richard Whitmire. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from
http://richardwhitmire.com/bio/
Bailey, S. M. (n.d.). Shortchanging Girls and Boys. Bernard . Retrieved October 5, 1995, from
http://sfonline.barnard.edu/sfxxx/documents
Benn, M. (2014, January 31). The education gender gap is bad for girls as well as boys. The
Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/
Harvey, M. (n.d.). The Lack of Male Teachers and Its Effects on Boys - SheHeroes.
SheHeroes. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.sheheroes.org/
Stanberry, K. (n.d.). Single-sex education: the pros and cons. GreatSchools. Retrieved
October 13, 2014, from http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school