Talking Points #9 on Orenstein in "School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap"

Premise:
This article discusses...

• Building up the self-esteem in girls or different races.
• Hidden curriculum's.
• Recognizing how women are just as equal to men in most things.
• Demonstrating the thoughts that others have about the equality of women.
• Women silencing themselves from the world.
• The emerging of women into male dominated societies.
• Male dominance vs. Female dominance

Author's Argument:
Orenstein argues that women should be recognized more in today's societies. When introducing a women who has done many accomplishments in their lifetime to a classroom where students have been exposed to more male dominance then female dominance, it is very different for them (both males and females) to adjust to. Their experiences and ideas in the classroom then tend to change.

Evidence:

1. There is no single magic formula that will help girls retain their self-esteem. Scores of educators around the country are working to develop gender-fair curricula in all subjects and reexamining traditional assumptions about how children best learn. Some educators are developing strategies to break down gender and race hierarchies in cooperative learning groups. Others are experimenting with the ways that computers, is used to their best advantage, can enhance equity in math and science courses. Individually, teachers find that calling on students equitably, or simply waiting for a moment rather than recognizing the first child who raises his hand, encourages girls to participate more readily in class. On a national level, the Gender Equity in Education Act, which should be implemented in 1995 includes provisions for improved data gathering, for the development of teacher training programs, for programs to encourage girls in math and science, and for programs to better meet the needs of girls of color.
2. ...Mrs. Logan told me that the first year she introduced this project she assigned only one monologue, but she noticed that while girls opted to take on either male or female personae, the boys chose only men. "It disturbed me that although girls were willing to see men as heroes, none of the boys would see women that way," she said...Ms. Logan decided to adde her own hidden curriculum to the assignment. She began requiring two reports, one from the perspective of a man and one presented as a woman. To ask a group of boys, most of whom are with, to take on the personae-to actually become-black women forces an unprecedented shift in their mind-set. Yet Ms. Logan found they accepted the assignment without question.
3. As the girls talk, I recall what a teacher at Weston once told me, that "boys perceive equality as a loss." Apparently, girls are uneasy with it, too. Even these girls, whose parents have placed them in this class in part because of Ms. Logan's sensitivity to gender issues, have already become used to taking up less space, to feeling less worthy of attention than boys.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
I think that bringing females more into the picture of a so called "male dominated society" is a great thing. This article made me realize how much we are not used to being taught about females who have done many accomplishments throughout history or their lifetimes that are just as equal to the obstacles males have overcome. Females are not known to have as much acknowledgments as males do in societies. There are so many male dominant influences in today's communities that people are just used to things being that way and males being the main focus over females. By showing students that females do play a large role in history and also in today's societies, I believe that it can have a large impact on the way some people think about male dominance and female dominance in today's social environments.