Gender Equity: Eliminating Discrimination or Accommodating Difference

While academic gains have been seen in the subject areas of math and the sciences for female students, has this come as the cost of higher academic attainment for male students? Some argue that the gains experienced are due to co-educational settings, while others feel segregated classrooms are necessary to ensure educational equity to both genders.

The authors of your textbook pose the question, “Should schools or classrooms separate students by gender or sexual identities?” (Nelson, Palonshy, & McCarthy, 2013, p. 135). Is this a step in the right direction to remedy gender inequity or will the result be discriminatory practices?

After reading chapter 6 on gender equity and conducting your own research, reflect on the following in a 4- to 5-page scholarly paper:

Although the positions in this chapter allude to the effects that race, class, and ethnicity might have on an individual’s creation of his or her gender identity, they do not discuss those effects in any detail. Consider how the other facets of a person’s identity or situation in life might affect the choices they make about how much or how little to conform to various forms of masculinity or femininity. That is, does a person’s race, class, or gender affect how free people feel they are to deviate from gender stereotypes? Depending on your answers, what kinds of changes to the proposals in this chapter do you think are necessary to create gender equity in schools that takes race, class and ethnicity into consideration? (p. 149)

In your reflection, include your thoughts on:

• Should schools or classrooms be separated by gender or sexual identities? Why or why not?
• Do you think there would be benefits that are grade/age specific? Explain.

Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

Nelson, J. L., Palonsky, S. B., & McCarthy, M. R. (2013). Critical issues in education: Dialogues and dialectics(8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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