Gender and Education

Does Feminism Control The Bush Administration? The preposterous title of Phyllis Schlafly's op ed piece doesn't really give a sense of the essay's argumen. Basically it decries what Schlafly regards as the pernicious influence of feminism on American higher education. She's upset about the Title IX law that regulates the proportion of men and women on athletic teams.

She claims that's the law has resulted in the "senseless abolishment" of 171 men's wrestling teams, and suggests that a similiar move to effect a more proportional gender representation in math and science will be equally, if not more harmful. What cripples her argument, I think, is her acceptance of the notion that males are innately better at math and science than females. I'm skeptical about this, just as I reject the notion that females are innately better at languages or teaching.

I'm intrigued by the way Schlafly closes her essay. First she decries the gender inequality in the field of teaching. She observes:

The number of male public school teachers has fallen to only 20 percent, and at the elementary school level fewer than 10 percent of teachers are men, giving boys the distinct impression that school is not for them.

I agree that the decline in the number of male schoolteachers in public schools is a problem, not least because young boys do need male intellectual figures as role models. (Based on what I've heard from people who've been certified as teachers, a degree in education and getting certified to teach can be a decidely un-intellectual pursuit. I won't elaborate, but it's the oft-repeated claim that knowledge in a particular subject matter gets trumped by a lot of touchy feely tips. I've often thought it ridiculous that academics with MAs or even PhDs are not automatically qualified to teach in America's high schools, many of which are strapped for teachers. But this is another topic altogether.) There's definitely a need for more men in America's classrooms - hired as teachers, not security guards - though I wonder if Schlafly, like most conservatives, would endorse higher pay for American teachers? A fair salary, coupled with smaller student-teacher ratios in the classrooms, would make teaching a more attractive field.

Schlaffly closes by appearing to support the Liberal Arts, or at least an initiative to get more men to major in these subjects:

Nor do we hear anything about spending taxpayer funds to force universities to attract more men into the soft Liberal Arts subjects that now have a big majority of women students.

I'll refrain from ranting about that modifer "soft," and state that I’m all for more funding for the Liberal Arts subjects (not just for men – but for the Liberal Arts peritod) but I’m willing to bet that’s just a smokescreen.

Bottom line: When we talk about inequalities that undermine the American education system, the root problem remains class.