Gender Lines

I've always been encouraged to question what is going on around me- so why not question what I'm learning in the classroom? 

 

I originally wrote a paper for my Political Science class about Erin DiMeglio and Young's theory about how the obstacles she faced could seriously affect her performance as a quarterback. I wrote about how young women are discouraged from competing in male sports and this is continuing the cycle of a male dominated sports world with under achieving women.

 

Then, I took the paper to a new level. For my Writing 220 class I took my idea of Young’s theory and hindering female development and applied to the University level. Almost every class I have has touched or focused on gender differences. My sociology of sports class explains how even at the professional level women are treated differently, while my Economics and Gender class taught me about an entire revolution of women in the labor force “potentially” opting-out.

 

I felt like I was inundated with information about how if I succeeded I’d be “different” or an anomaly but I’m surrounded by hard working and driven females here at the University of Michigan. Do I keep going through more schooling and internships to try to break the class ceiling or do I listen to the articles and just find my husband and let him have the career? With this pressing question, I wrote my paper about how the information presented in classroom can be skewed towards the cannot perspective and actually affect college students perspective on their future success.

 

Now I’m taking the paper to the next level by creating this website as a place for teachers and students to interact and share their experiences in and out of the classroom and really consider if there are implications to how things are taught or interpreted in college. I really believe this project can begin a much needed discussion about maintain the focus on motivating students to accomplish their goals but keeping the critical gender inequality information unbiased and realistic.