Completion of degrees:

1

• Completion of degrees
• Women more likely to finish high school and
  college.

2

• Occupational placement
• Higher achievement in education does not
  translate to higher occupational status

3

• Sociological theories and gender in the schools
• Functional theories
• Necessity of sex-role socialization for society?
• Unclear why this is imperative, risk of circular
  reasoning

4

• Sociological theories and gender in the schools
• Human capital
• Predictions about gender tend to fail
• Parents slightly more likely to invest in girls
  education

5

• Sociological theories and gender in the schools
• Conflict
• Schools are structured to reproduce male
  advantage
• Yet although occupational placement, self-esteem
  go along with this, women have advantages in
  completion

6

• Single-sex education at lower levels
• Recent development
• Expansion of single-sex classrooms, schools
• October 24th 2006 Department of Education will
  allow same-sex education if schools think it will
  improve achievement, diversity of courses, or
  meet individual needs

7

• Why single-sex education?
• Proposed as a solution to problems
• Boys discipline problems
• Girls self-esteem
• Boys failure at reading and writing
• Sex stereotypes (boys can play the flute easier,
  girls can do math)

8

• Arguments for single-sex education
• Acknowledging differences b/t boys and girls will
  improve instructional techniques
• Can deal with problems created by peer
  interactions
• Removes appearance pressure for women

9

• Arguments against single-sex education
• (from NOW and NWLC)
• Reinforces stereotypes
• Reduces male/female interaction
• Segregation makes unequal treatment more likely

10

• Local
• Thurgood Marshall elementary switched to same-sex
  education in 2000
• Test scores rose 56 percent increase for boys
  meeting state standards for reading after one
  year! Also a smaller improvement for girls.

11

• Local
• Principal Wright (of Marshall elementary) named
  Principal of the Year in 2003, hired by Victory
  Schools in Philadelphia same year.
• 2005 test scores 50 of students passed reading,
  36 passed writing, 8 passed science

12

• National
• U.S. Department of Education released a
  systematic review of existing studies in 2005.
• - Most studies compare private and public.

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15

• Conclusions
• Achivement and socioemotional development
• Few studies show co-ed schools are better (10
  for development, 2 for achievement)
• One third to one half of studies suggest same-sex
  schools have better outcomes.
• Most common result is that there is no difference.

16

• Ford Foundation study of California public pilot
  program
• Good
• Classroom distractions decreased
• At-risk students may benefit most from
  single-gender
• Bad
• Traditional gender stereotypes were reinforced
• Implementation by itself does not solve gender
  problem

17

• Decision may come down to desired function of
  schools
• Some evidence for technical advantage
• But if schools are more important for
  socialization and self-development, co-ed schools
  may be better answer

18

• Gender differences in education
• Gurian proposes restructuring classrooms and
  education rather dramatically to help boys and
  girls learn naturally
• But is it plausible?

19

• Speculative differences (Dont write down)
• Gurian infers differences in brain capabilities
  from differences in development
• E.G. Arcuate fasciculus likely develops
  earlier in girls as evidenced by earlier speech
  capabilities
• Occipital lobe differences evident in
  divergent responses to light sensitivity
• Dopamine In healthy brains, few differences
  known between male and female patterns. (cites
  greater male schizophrenia - not true though)
• Synapse Likely high level of similarity in
  male and female brains
• Temporal lobe ... Would explain female
  superiority in language tasks
• Werenckes area likely more highly active in
  females etc.

20

• Real differences with specious relevance (dont
  write down)
• Melatonin explanation of females increased
  sensitivity to bright light
• Medulla Oblongata Increase in SIDS death in
  males could be explained by this
• Hypothalamus Males greater and more constant
  sex drive
• Myelination continues in all brains into the
  early twenties irrelevant for early learnings
• Progesterone Primarily to promote conditions
  for healthy pregnancy
• Oxytocin Likely involved in mother-child
  bonding capacity being increased at birth.

21

• Real differences with real consequences
• A number of these seem to exist
• Brain stem, basal ganglia, brocas area, etc.
• Still hard to believe entirely
• Corpus callosum is one mentioned, although next
  book documents evidence that there is no
  difference

22

• Consequences
• Males respond more quickly to attention demands
• Females have better verbal communication skills,
  listening
• Females have increased memory storage
• Males superior at spatial relationships

23

• Differences in learning styles, activities
• Boys are
• more active
• Need more space
• Process emotion more slowly
• More disruptive
• These seem like empirical regularities, but
• May result from differences in early childhood
  socialization rather than biology

24

• Assume differences are real
• What should be done?
• Goal is to teach all children as well as possible
• If differences are biological, then the
  educational system must change
• If differences are socialized, then educ. system
  maybe should change can also try to change
  students more

25

• Gurians suggestions
• Many of the specific suggestion are
  gender-neutral
• Diet, class size, bonding, changed school hours,
  preschool, better discipline techniques
• Some are gender-specific
• Boys in front of classroom, more space given to
  boys, specific learning techniques (emphasis on
  spatial learning for girls and reading/writing/emo
  tions for boys)

26

• Importance of biological differences
• Difficult to establish here
• Gurian likely cites some legitimate differences
  in the brain structures of men and women
• How big are these differences?
• How much do they matter relative to social
  influences?
• Many of the examples he uses could just as easily
  come from gendered socialization patterns in
  early childhood.

27

• Biological differences and education
• Sources of differences
• Types of differences
• Methodological difficulties

28

• Differences in outcomes
• Girls grade advantage
• Historical male dominance in math and science
  (continues today in SAT, but not many other
  exams)
• Disciplinary actions
• School completion
• Differences in social patterns
• Self-esteem development

29

• Sociobiology/ Evolutionary psychology
• Biological characteristics result from
  evolutionary processes
• Two processes operate
• Mutation
• Selection

30

• Sociobiology/ Evolutionary Psychology
• Mutation introduces new characteristics randomly
• Selection reduces the number of characteristics
  in the population, but
• Must occur prior to reproduction
• Selection also only matters when selection
  pressure is high

31

• Sociobiology/ Evolutionary Psychology
• Gender differences result from selection of
  characteristics that increase
• Likelihood of survival until reproduction
• Likelihood of reproduction
• Survival of offspring
• Survival of kin

32

• Sociobiology/ Evolutionary Psychology
• In hunting/gathering societies, men typically
  engaged in hunting (and limited warfare), women
  engaged in child care and gathering
• Thus, to the extent that certain characteristics
  increase efficiency in these behaviors, they
  should exist now

33

• Notes on Gurian
• hand-waving over natural selection
• the brain created these circumstances. human
  environmental socialization enhanced
• Biological differences should have their source
  only in personal characteristics that are genetic
  in origin
• E.G. If I train to be really good at video games,
  my child will not inherit this

34

• Two types of biological approaches
• Theoretical (evolutionary psychology)
• Infers biological origins to common behaviors
  through mechanisms of selection and efficiency
• Empirical (brain-based of Gurian)
• Documents some known differences b/t male and
  female brains and seeks to explain different
  behaviors with differences

35

• Gender and Sex
• Two main lines of questions
• What is the best evidence about biological
  differences between men and women?
• The sociology of science and treatment of evidence

36

• The belief that genes dictate behavior is
  appealing
• Genes account for physical resemblances
• Comforting to think behavioral resemblances are
  also genetic (offers a feeling of immortality)
• Can serve as a source of blame for unpleasant
  behaviors

37

• How do genes work?
• genes affect the production of proteins and the
  prevalence of different types of proteins
• Sickle cell anemia
• A genetically inherited disease
• DNA slightly different, produces a different
  amino acid (protein)
• Cells produce a different type of hemoglobin,
  which reacts oddly in certain circumstances

38

• Example Sickle cell anemia
• A genetically inherited disease
• DNA slightly different, produces a different
  amino acid (protein)
• Cells produce a different type of hemoglobin,
  which reacts oddly in certain circumstances

39

• Difficult to predict specific manifestations of
  disease
• 100 produce different hemoglobin
• 15 have leg ulcers
• 2 have pneumococcal meningitis
• Lots of variability in specific manifestation

40

• So what?
• Brain development is more complex
• Brain development continues throughout the course
  of the adult life

41

• Why is biology important?
• Biological differences suggest
• Natural domestic conflicts between men and women
  as men try to mate with multiple partners
• A lack of individual culpability
• A view of womens lower status as a natural
  consequence of biological weakness
• The idea that investments in women and greater
  freedom are counterproductive and inefficient

42

• Explaining overall outcomes rather than simply
  early childhood educations
• Why are there more men at the highest levels of
  achievement than women?
• Two possibilities from biological perspective
• Different average levels of ability
• Different variability

43

• Different averages easy to understand
• What about different variability?
• If men are more variable, will be more men
  represented at high and low ends

44

• Different averages not argued for frequently, but
  different variability still comes up
• Larry Summers (2005)

45

• Why greater variability?
• X-linkage exists for some diseases (hemophilia).
  Males more likely to get these diseases because
  only one gene must have, not two
• X-linkage of genes for intelligence would create
  greater variability
• 2 X chromosomes for women, 1 for men
• Greater variability with 1 result than with 2
• consider rolling dice

46

• 1 die 2 dice (mean)
• 1 16.6 3
• 2 16.6 13
• 3 16.6 34
• 4 16.6 34
• 5 16.6 13
• 6 16.6 3

47

• Problems with the idea of greater variability in
  intelligence
• Genes can cause diseases which make things go
  wrong (sickle-cell), but we dont know much about
  normal (or above-normal) genes
• How do genes affect positive development?

48

• Gender differences summary of Maccoby and
  Jacklin (1974)
• A number of unfounded beliefs and open questions,
  but also a set of well-established differences
• - Verbal ability
• - Visual ability
• - Math ability
• - Aggression

49

• Verbal ability differences
• Girls may talk earlier
• Girls may have better abilities

50

• Problems with differences
• Statistical significance vs. substantive
  significance
• Gender variability vs. overall variability

51

• Statistical significance vs. substantive
  significance
• Statistical significance is determined by a set
  of tests that determines the likelihood that a
  given observation is observed by chance
• In the social sciences, results are statistically
  significant when there is less than a 5 chance
  that they are due to random chance
• In medical science, statistical significance at
  .1 or less

52

• One of the key contributors to statistical
  significance is sample size
• With 200,000 subjects, an IQ difference of .02
  points would be highly significant
• Yet there is no substantive significance for this
  kind of result.
• Substantive significance whether the result is
  large enough to matter

53

• Gender variability and overall variability
• Meta-analysis to evaluate a number of studies
  that seemed to show sex difference
• Gender differences account for only about 1
  percent of variance in verbal ability suggests
  that other factors are much more important than
  gender.
• Is 1 percent substantively significant?

54

• Visual-Spatial Perception
• Again starting with Maccoby and Jacklins review
• Visual-spatial perception tests test subjects
  abilities to orient a lighted rod parallel to the
  floor in a dark room
• Some studies show gender differences, but
  relatively large numbers do not

55

• Visual-spatial perception
• Differences most likely to surface at later ages
• Gender variability is again small compared to
  overall variability
• 5 percent of variance can be explained by gender

56

• Variety of theories to explain these differences
• Brain size (seen as unimportant now)
• Sex-linkage
• Sex-linkage with sex-limited expression
  (androgens)
• Hemisphere specialization

57

• Sex linkage
• Basic version suggests that spatial ability is
  x-linked, producing greater variability in boys
  than in girls (and hence more high performers)
• Contradicted by XO individuals scores in math
  much lower than average

58

• Left-right brain hemisphere specialization
• Left hemisphere appears to carry out analysis,
  computation, sequential tasks
• Right half appears responsible for art, emotion
• Not originally applied to sex differences

59

• Specialized brains would be more efficient
• Thus, the hypothesis is that
• Men have specialized brains, womens are
  unspecialized
• No evidence to support these ideas
• Some difference in recall of right-ear vs.
  left-ear recall, but most show no sex differences
  again
• Studies show different approaches to nonverbal
  problem solving, but no sex differences in
  performance
• Finally, specialization results from experience
  (studies of language specialization in children)

60

• Overall variability
• Visual skills can be learned
• Gender differences in drafting which were
  initially evident disappeared over time
• The extent of independence and a lack of reliance
  on verbal interaction induces strong spatial
  skills
• Cross-cultural comparisons show
• No gender difference among Eskimos,
• Large gender differences among Temne

61

• Cross-cultural comparisons
• Show variability which contradicts biological
  determinism
• Also suggest certain types of characteristics
  (independence vs. discipline, amount of autonomy)
  that are highly suggestive of gender differences

62

• Non-biological explanations
• Mothers are more likely to repeat vocalization
  from a girl baby than a boy
• Mothers more likely to show male infants objects
  to manipulate
• Girls wear physically restrictive clothing
• Boys given more freedom and encouraged to explore
  more

63

• Math ability
• again, also a number of non-biological general
  explanations
• Perceived importance of math for future studies
• Perception of math as a male field
• Active discouragement by teachers and parents
• How to fix these problems?

64

• Adaptability of brain
• Kittens raised in environments without vertical
  lines will never learn to recognize them and walk
  into chair and table legs
• Brain structures continue to form after birth
  based on experiences

65

• Conclusions
• Are men smarter than women?
• - Fausto-Sterling no
• Do men and womens brains work differently?
• -Fausto-Sterling maybe, but differences are not
  substantively significant.