Female Supremacy Articles - Page 5
Women Break Through Male Fields
From: American Woman - Road and Travel
Washington, D.C./Employment Policy Foundation Women are entering male-dominated fields at increasing rates and for those who are, the payoff is big -- those women now earn the same or more than their male counterparts, according to a new analysis released today from the Employment Policy Foundation.
The top ten white-collar occupations where women's participation has increased most in the past decade are: veterinarians (female vets have increased from less than 2 percent to 43 percent); top public administrators (37 percent are now women, compared to 4 percent in 1989); math & science teachers (increased 6-fold), chemistry teachers (increased 4-fold); industrial engineers (22 percent are now women, compared to 6 percent in 1989); dentists (increased 4-fold); car salespeople (increased 3-fold); messengers (increased 3-fold); physicians assistants (increased from 20 percent to 58 percent); and members of the clergy (6 percent of clergy members were women in 1989 compared to 18 percent today). Of the 497 occupations tracked by the government, women have increased their representation in 106 job categories.
Women aged 25 to 35 in those occupations with the largest increase in numbers of women who work full-time earned the same as men in those fields, regardless of motherhood status, hours worked or other factors, the analysis of 2000 Bureau of Labor Statistics data found. In fact, women actually earned slightly more than men in the same field of the same age bracket, but the difference is not statistically significant.
Pooling those top ten occupations, EPF found that women earn an average of $823 per week, while their male equivalents earned $813 per week - in other words, these women earn 101 percent of what men in their field do. Looking at older age groups, women age 35-44 earned 80 percent of what men did, and women age 45-54 earn 25 percent less than men - however, this difference can be explained in the number of hours that women work per week. Women in these fields work, on average, 5 hours less compared to their men colleagues. Therefore, when earnings are compared on an hourly basis, women in these fields - no matter their age - earn exactly the same as their male equivalents.
In some other traditionally-male fields, such as accounting, financial managers, economists, actuaries and editors and reporters, women now outnumber men compared to a decade ago, according to the analysis. Women now account for 46 percent of the total U.S. workforce, and may outnumber men by the year 2025, according to EPF's projections.
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Girls are better than boys
by Melissa Slager
The Grand Rapids Press
June 8, 2003
Girls have been walking up to graduation podiums in droves this spring, besting boys in the game of grades.
"I don't want to dis on the guys," said Lydia Wunsch, one of three co-valedictorians -- all girls -- at Saugatuck High School. "But maybe maturity is a factor. Girls realize you can't go out and do this or that before a test. You have to go home and study."
Co-valedictorian Liz Shaheen agreed: "They're more interested in video games."
Think their comments ruffle the guys' feathers?
"It's the laziness factor," agreed Trevor Carlyle, the "odd guy in" among East Grand Rapids High's top 10 seniors this year. "The top 10 doesn't really show the top 10 kids as much as the top 10 workers."
But some say it may take more than a kick in the backpack to jump-start guys' achievement.
Girls in recent years have dominated local valedictorian ranks -- this year, nearly two times the number of boys -- while guys continue to disproportionately fill classrooms for the academically and emotionally challenged.
Boys make up 67 percent of area special education ranks -- a figure that, in some local districts, can top 80 percent in behavioral and other subjective areas such as emotional impairments, learning disabilities and other categories that include attention deficit disorder. The same holds true throughout the state and nation.
Some schools have begun efforts that focus on boys, particularly mentor programs. Educators like John Thatcher are frustrated.
"How in the world can you have twice as many boys as girls (in special education)?" the Wyoming special education director said. "It's clearly the boys that are being referred, but no one's concerned about it."
Some say it's now time to focus on snips and snails -- a counterpart to the go-girl attitude of the past three decades that brought Title IX and other reforms in response to studies on how schools "shortchange" girls. It's that effort that some credit for today's situation, where girls dominate both academics and school leadership posts.
National studies show girls now are not only more likely than boys to participate in student government, academic clubs and other non-athletic school activities, but also outnumber boys in both entering and graduating from colleges and universities. Boys still dominate athletics, with about 63 percent participating, but girls are closing the gap -- half of them take part in sports, national surveys show.
It's a matter of girls' success reaching a "critical mass," said Anne Mulder, dean of Grand Valley State University's School of Education.
"Girls have always sought and admired the approval of good grades," she said.
Girl grouping
The rise of girls in leadership positions is stark at Byron Center Middle School. There are just two boys on the 17-member student council; neither are officers.
Staff members have tried to recruit boys into leadership roles. "But at this age, sports rule. For boys, it's all about athletics," said Sara Duthler, student council adviser.
Many boys also don't look past the dances and bake sales that are part of what student council does, President Katie Reddy said.
"A lot of the boys see it as more a girl-type topic," the 14-year-old said. "And I think there are more girls because girls are becoming stronger in the community -- and that affects us."
In fact, some groups and schools are exploring options for boys simply because of the success of all-girl programs.
Boys at Wyoming Park High School started "The Gentleman's Club" after several parents requested a boys' counterpart to Girl Power -- a successful mentor program that pairs high-school and middle-school girls.
Kenowa Hills Intermediate School also has a peer mentor program for boys called Boys Matter, patterned after the district's 3-year-old Girls Matter program.
And the North Carolina founder of the popular Girls on the Run -- a 10-week program that helps girls train for a 5K run -- continues to work on a pilot Boys on the Run. Local Girls on the Run organizers also have pursued a counterpart, looking into at a "Survivor"-style program with an Allendale group.
At Byron Center Middle, staff will convene this summer to hash out ideas for addressing the gap, such as starting a leadership course at elementary and middle grades. And Principal Bob Noordeloos is hovering on the edge of calling for a single-sex approach, creating separate classes for boys and girls.
Separate classrooms
A northern Michigan educator says the idea works, especially at the middle school level.
"The teachers see a big difference in attitudes. Boys not showing off for the girls, girls speaking up because there are no boys they don't want to be embarrassed in front of, and same with guys. They see a lot of kids blossoming," said Tony Basanese, principal of Pellston Middle School.
The school for the past six years has let parents choose whether to put their child in single-sex classes -- language arts, math, science, social studies -- or co-ed classes. Most choose the single-sex setting. Kids are put back in a mixed setting at eighth grade.
Pellston is one of three middle schools in Michigan to have single-sex classrooms, among 29 such schools in the nation. In addition, there are 17 single-sex public schools in the country, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. And proponents expect the numbers to grow after the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 clarified it is acceptable for public schools to offer such classrooms, and even provides a coffer of funds districts can tap.
As for test scores? The pool at Pellston is too small to tell. But local testing administrators say there's little difference between boys and girls on standardized tests like the MEAP.
Girls generally do better in reading and writing, while boys have bested in math and science, "but not at such a high degree of difference that it's a cause for intervention or concern," said Dan Hunsberger, who evaluates Michigan Educational Assessment Program scores for Forest Hills. "There's no solid thing that says the girls are streaming past the boys and we have to watch out."
It also can be cyclical, said Zay Reynolds, head of East Grand Rapids High's guidance department. "Some years you have real strong male leadership," she said.
Rockford High School, for example, had boys as nine of its top 10 seniors and seven of nine National Merit finalists. And it has more girls in varsity sports than boys.
"I don't think I have an answer, unless it's just an aberration," Superintendent Mike Shibler said.
Dominating special ed
Then there's special education -- there's no cycle there. Boys have dominated those ranks for decades.
Many are behind from the first day they set foot in school, and even before. More than 70 percent of the preschoolers receiving services for early childhood development delay in both Kent and Ottawa counties are boys.
"We have such pressures academically now and so early. We do know that boys develop slower than girls. They catch up, but it may be in kindergarten and first grade," said Mary Polonowski, Rockford student services director.
Early intervention efforts are designed to help.
Parents also shouldn't be afraid to wait a year to send their boy off to kindergarten, said Jan Borowicz, special education director in Coopersville. Many boys in the district's special needs program were early starters -- with late summer or early fall birthdays.
But some say it's more than biology. There's also a bias against boys when it comes to referring students to special education.
"Our criteria in special education tends to look at the issue of classroom behavior and when that's disruptive to the learning process," said Tony Thaxton, student services director in Holland. "It's more socially acceptable for boys to act out ... whereas girls tend to be more internalizers."
As Skip Weatherford, a special education administrator in Grand Rapids, put it: "Girls act in. Boys act out and throw chairs."
Some say the gender gap might simply mean educators don't notice such problems in girls.
While the debate continues, Calvin College gender-studies professor Helen Sterk urges caution in overreacting to the gender gap and penalizing girls in the process.
"There are a number of scholars who are making their careers by arguing that boys are being ignored," she said. "I see it as a kind of backlash against the gains girls have made, and it's an opportunistic response.
"Instead of saying, 'Stop paying attention to girls. They're doing just fine' ... Let's help them both succeed, rather than focusing on one over the other."
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Why Girls are beating Boys
By Jeff Neems
The New Zealand Herald
05/06/03
The principal of one of Tauranga's biggest schools says boys are suffering academically because the education system has largely been ``feminised'' over the past two decades.
Tauranga Boys' College principal Graham Young says the country's curriculum, assessment system, teaching force and teacher training process are geared up to favour girls over boys.
``A clear consequence is that this is at the expense of boys and boys' learning,'' he says.
Mr Young made his strong comments in a newsletter to parents in which he addressed the increasing gap between the achievement of girls and boys and linked it with crime and youth suicide rates.
``It should not be surprising to us that this is the case given the feminisation that has occurred in education of the last couple of decades.''
Mr Young said the feminism movement in the 1970s resulted in women reshaping the education agenda and campaigning hard on behalf of girls.
``There has been a tendency nationally that heroes have been taken out of teachers' resource material and heroines have replaced them,'' he wrote.
``Subjects such as physics and mathematics, which had for a long time been viewed as masculine, have had much of their materials rewritten to make them more girl friendly. No one appears to have noticed that in so doing, they may be making this material boy unfriendly.''
Mr Young also said it was a commonly-held belief among educators that in general internal assessment suited girls more than boys. ``The new NCEA has significantly increased the amount of internal assessment in our national school qualification.''
He also addressed the number of women and their influence in the teaching profession.
``The teaching force is dominated increasingly by women and our teacher training organisations are among the most politically correct institutions in the country, so much so that for the few men who find their way
into teacher training there is almost a sense of having to apologise for being male.''
Mr Young stressed his comments were not aimed at taking back what women had rightfully gained in the last two decades.
``No one but the most pig-headed of traditionalists would turn the clock back but as the head of an all boys' school, my question is simple ... what about the boys?''.
Mr Young said his comments were not intended to offend women.
``I'm not attacking women. There is a problem with boys, it has been identified, and it shouldn't be surprising. Boys need to lift their game.''
Tauranga Girls' College principal Pauline Cowens would not comment specifically on Mr Young's comments.
``He's right about the research _ boys are lagging behind girls.''
But she saw the differing educational needs of boys and girls as being contextualised, not feminised. Context-based education meets the needs of students according to their life experience, not their gender.
Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell said he ``could see what Graham's getting at'' _ but was not sure if he agreed.
``At co-ed schools, girls take more opportunities.''``Since the 70s, and girls' `awakening', they have taken the bit by the teeth and run with it. Boys have stagnated: they have not failed but they have not improved.''
Mr Randell said a lack of male role models in some boys' lives had contributed to their poor academic achievement compared to girls.
``Schools reflect society,'' he said.
Former secondary school mathematics teacher and ACT MP Dr Muriel Newman applauded Mr Young for speaking out.
``He's put his finger on a big problem.''
Dr Newman described the feminist swing in education as ``like a steamroller that was meant to stop in the middle and has now gone too far'' and said the pendulum had swung too far in favour of girls.
She felt political correctness now ``pervades everything'', including the education sector, where the male teacher flight was evident.
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Girls knock boys off their perch
By Gill Moodie
Sundaytimes.co.za
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Male learners fall behind and drop out of school as a new breed of female teenager begins to dominate in class.
Girls are trouncing boys in the blackboard jungle. Research shows that more girls are finishing school than boys.
A paper to be published in EduSource Data News by the Education Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, shows that more boys are dropping out of school.
The paper, by independent education researcher Helen Perry, shows that last year 60% of matric pupils who got A averages were girls, and 57% of Bs and Cs were achieved by girls.
Education Department figures show that in 2001 there were 1.8 million girls at high school compared with 1.6 million boys. That is unusual for a developing country, says Perry, and contrary to education trends in sub-Saharan Africa.
One school, Edgemead High School in Cape Town, is so concerned that girls dominate in the classroom that it has separated Grade 8 into single-sex classes. "If it's all boys in a class, someone's got to say something," says principal Dr Malcolm Venter, explaining that boys are too intimidated to pipe up in the presence of girls.
"It is possible that boys are more immature because they don't have role models. Many of these kids don't have fathers around," he says.
Of the top 20 Grade 8 pupils in the mid-year assessments of this former Model C school, only three were boys. Seven of the top 20 Grade 9 pupils were boys; and the figure rose to nine for grades 10 to 12 combined.
"I don't think girls are smarter than boys," says Grade 8 pupil Kayla Raa . "Girls are more capable of sitting down and listening."
Her buddies say girls do more homework and spend more time on presentations - even though Sibongakonke Mama cannot wait to get back to mixed classes. "It's so boring in class because girls don't want to get into trouble," she says.
Venter believes that girls thrive on the continual assessments of outcomes-based education. Boys, however, work less consistently and appear to prefer cramming.
While middle-class girls are following developed-world trends and overshadowing boys, the rate of boys dropping out is highest in rural areas.
In Eastern Cape villages like Cofimvaba one finds 60 boys to every 100 girls at high school, says researcher Barbara Valentine.
The experts speculate that boys drop out of school because they are - or think they are - more likely to find manual labour than girls.
The fact that educated women get higher marriage dowries might play a part, says Valentine.
John Snayers, principal of a high school in the remote Northern Cape village of Petrusville, speculates that it falls more to boys than to girls to help support families affected by HIV/Aids.
There is also an effort to keep pregnant girls at school, he says, instead of expelling them.
Three of the five matric exemptions at Petrusville Secondary School last year were achieved by girls.
Amos Ngqameni, principal of Qhayiya Secondary School in Zwelihle, near the Western Cape seaside resort of Hermanus, agrees that fewer girls drop out of his school, possibly because boys are more susceptible to drugs and alcohol. But many of his top female pupils cannot afford tertiary education and end up working in restaurants, he says.
The experts say more research needs to be done on sex ratios at schools, on providing career guidance for girls at tertiary institutions and on the reasons rural boys are dropping out. "The whole world is saying: 'Look after and educate your girls,' but we've got a different situation in South Africa [where boys are less successful]," says Valentine.
"Maybe we're already feeling the effects of men feeling disempowered and they are turning to crime or abusing women."
