Gender Bias in Curriculum

and School Practices

Dr. V. Ramadas
Associate Professor
RIE, NCERT Mysore

"Sitting in the same classroom

reading the same textbook
listening to the same teacher
boys and girls receive very
different educations."
(Sadker, 1994)

1
 Gender difference:
Real/supposed?
 Observation:
Boys are generally
active, playful,
confident, bold,
demanding, loud, all
time rough,
aggressive, kicking,
and fighting.

Girls are found to be

passive, gentle,,
quiet, accepting,
often shy, timid, more
compliant, easy to
control. 2
 What do you think?
 Boys and girls are born like that. The observed differences
are natural and inherent in two sexes. (common belief)
 The sexes are different, because the brain is differently
constructed in men and women. It process information in
different way, which results in different perception, priorities
and behaviour. (Anne Moir and David Jesse, 1991)

[v/s]
 These differences are result of ages of social experience of
the two sexes. Hence changeable. (Janie Whyld,1983)

 Because of the lesson we learn about ourselves and our

world, people may develop differently. As children and later
as adults, females and males are treated differently, so it
hardly is surprising that our ways of knowing and ways of
being are distinct. (Arliss and Borisoff, 1993)
3
 School reproduces
prevailing gender
notions and relations

 The androcentric beliefs,

notions and values are
transmitted through the
school education

4
Gender bias in
school
Operates in almost all facets of
the school life
 Curriculum: subject matter, learning
experience, evaluation
 Educational materials Content;
Language; Illustration
 Classroom interaction
 Examination
Assessment techniques; Questions
 School organization
5
 Gender bias in Content
 Subject image
• Feminine: Home science,
cookery, typing, biology,
nursing
• Masculine:Physics, chemistry,
maths, woodwork
 Thematic content
• Invisible women
• Unequal or inadequate
representation of women
• More importance to males,
men, or boys.
 Gender stereotypes
• Role stereotyping
• Character stereotyping
• Polarization of ‘male’ and 6
‘female’ characteristics
 Language
Derogatory
representation
Generic use of terms: Women are presented as
objects of sex.

‘Man’ ‘he’=both sexes

Men’= ‘people’ or ‘human’--e.g..
‘ascent of man’, ‘evolution of man’
‘He’ =Doctor, Leader, and Child etc.
‘She’=Nursery teacher, Nurse,
Housekeeper.

Common phrases:
‘Pioneers moved west
taking their wives and Men of science Farmer and his wife
children’

7
 Illustration
Men are figured predominantly
than women;

Pictures of workers are usually of

men;

Pictures of professionals or high

earning persons are of men only,

Drawing of men and women

together show men as prominent

Line drawings of hands are male

in technical books, and female in
domestic science or needle
workbooks;

Background images- female typist

in office scene, nurses in hospital. 8
 Classroom
Transaction
The social dynamics of
gender operate in every
classroom every day  Gender as an
instrument in
classroom
management

 Assumed difference in
abilities as a source
of bias

9
 Examination
 Exam syllabus
 Most of the academics who prepare the syllabus and
textbooks are men. Syllabus may reflect a male view of
life.
 Assessment techniques
 Boys perform better than girls on multiple-choice
questions. Girls perform better on essay type questions.
Both sexes perform equally on structure questions
 Questions
 Question related to ‘male’ games
E.g. Find out the batting average of famous cricketer,
Questions about football scores
10
 School
Organization
 Emphasizing
the difference
Sex as the common
basis for dividing
students for various
purposes (Cleaning,
Roll call, uniform,
separate play
grounds, girls first,
boys monopoly of
games space )

11
School Organization-2
 Control of pupils
 Boys and girls are disciplined in different
ways.
 Corporal punishment reserved for boys
 Naming: Calling boys by surname and girls by
first name; Calling a boy a girl.
 Counseling and discipline: same sex staff for
discipline and counseling; emphasis gender
roles.
 Sexual harassment: generally ignored.

12
 School Organization and
Gender Division-3
 Preferential
treatment
 Resource allocation:
labs, ICT, play
materials,
 Staffing: primary
teachers are mostly
female, preference for
male HM in high
schools, women
teachers not fit for
controlling boys or
managerial tasks
13
 Eliminating gender bias
in education
 Education and society are
organically linked.

 Therefore complete
elimination of gender bias
in school curriculum is not
possible as long as the
society remains male
dominated.
 Then, what can we do?

14
 Change in mind set
(Face off)
 We still presuppose that it is mother who
should bear final responsibility for home
and childcare.
Women are expected to work, but men are not
expected to assume responsibility for the home and
childcare.
It is time for both
Men & Women
to have equal and
interchangeable
roles at home and
at work.
15
 Women in top positions
The strategy: Encourage
the girls to enter the
field that enable a
person to reach top
positions.

But ? Increased academic

achievements of and
employment opportunities
for middle class or upper
caste women have little to
improve the position of
working class and other
socially marginalized
women. 16
 Change in curriculum
 Curriculum should enable every girl and every
boy to try fields where their sex at present is
a minority.
 Unless a positive attempt is made to present
alternatives no individual’s choice is ‘free’.
 Technology and economics can be made
compulsory, physical education and sex
education to be taught in mixed groups,
 Science and technology be made less male
oriented,.
17
 Bias free educational
materials
 Government can lead campaign and take initiative to
eradicate gender bias from curriculum, educational
materials, textbooks and school practices through
equality programmes in schools.

 The textbook writers and those engaged in

production of teaching learning materials must be
sensitized on gender concerns in education.

 Guidelines for recognizing gender bias in educational

material and school practices should be given to all
concerned
18
 Awareness of educators
 Departments of education should provide
mandatory gender-equity resource modules
to in-service teachers, and gender bias
needs to be addressed with all pre-service
teachers.
 Educators need to be made aware of the
bias they are reinforcing in their students
through socialization messages, inequitable
division of special education services, gender
biased texts and materials, and unbalanced
time and types of attention spent on boys
and girls in the classroom 19
 No more division
 School hierarchy be divided more
equally between men and women.
 Let the girls and boys sit in the
classroom alternately on the same
bench (at least in the primary classes)
 Let us not divide the children into
groups based on sex for learning
activities.
 Let them also play games of all sorts in
mixed groups in the school 20
 Question?

 Suppose a school or a
teacher divides the students
into groups based on caste
or religion or economic
condition. If this idea of
emphasizing social class
shocks you, why does the
emphasis on gender not
produce the same response?
21
Concluding remarks
There will never be gender
equality without a massive
shift of economic power to
women.

But, there is much that we must

do to generate awareness of
socially induced injustice and to
restore women’s confidence, so
that future generation will be
better equipped to face the
struggle.
22
Thank you

23