ABSTRACT
Progressive education was originally designed to reduce class inequality. Women’s formal education was to learn skills for being a good wife and mother. The process of education is highly gendered, both formally and in the powerful hidden curriculum. Kindergarten and elementary school play out in self-selected gender segregation, in toys and games, play groups, and books. In elementary school girls get higher grades than boys, but boys receive more attention from teachers. Boys gain in self-confidence and achievement in high school; girls, especially Latinas, decline in both. Popularity for high school boys is associated with sports; for girls it is associated with popularity with boys. Women are enrolled in higher numbers in college but their achievement is undermined by less welcoming classroom and career/marriage concerns. Colleges, especially selective ones, want a diverse campus climate but do not want females to outnumber males by too large a percentage. Admissions are not transparent, but qualified women are being rejected at higher rates than comparable or less qualified men. The largest gender gap in college enrollment is for African Americans, favoring women over men. The gender gap in majors associated with well-paying jobs, such as STEM majors, is widening. Academic women face gender bias in evaluations by students and colleagues, harming chances for tenure and promotion. Debates continues about a boy crisis that short-changed girls in education. The math gender gap in high school is small, but it is persistent and favors boys. Explanations for the gap are traced to culture rather than biology. Men’s degrees garner better economic rewards than women’s degrees. Evidence does not suggest boys are doing worse; both boys and girls are doing better. Any boy crisis in education is better explained by race and social class than by gender. Single-gender education is no more effective in key achievement indicators than is coeducation. However, it does show some benefits for minority boys. Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendment Act prohibits sex discrimination, but sexual harassment is widespread. It has had enormous benefit for women in sports but has not altered gender segregation in academic fields such as STEM. Title IX is under political assault but can be sustained in support of gender equity in education. The educational gender gap in the Global South has narrowed but the gap is stalled in poorer countries after primary education. Most children out of school are girls in rural areas. The narrowing of the gender gap in adult literacy has stalled.
