Don’t ignore gender differences

(commentary on “Mind Over Muscle”, The New York Times, 16 October, 2005)

With all of the talk about gender inequalities in the workplace today, one might be led to believe that in our society women live in a repressed social class expected to live at home and take care of the kids. It is true that male CEOs outnumber female CEOs and there is evidence in some companies of women unfairly being passed over for promotion in favor of male counterparts. Many of the male members in the workplace today grew up in a society with drastically different values regarding women’s gender roles.

However, I’d like to turn the attention toward schooling. As stated by the Department of Education:

• Girls are more likely than boys to be straight-A students
• Girls perform better than boys on standardized assessment tests
• Girls are more likely to be elected to student government positions
• For every 100 men who graduate from college, 133 women will graduate

Why are girls performing better than boys in school? I believe the answer lies in innate differences between boys and girls. By this, I don’t mean that one sex is smarter than the other, or that one sex is more capable. I think it comes from the types of activities that girls and boys prefer. Just as there are physical differences between boys and girls, so are there social and cognitive differences as well. The problem is that these differences are just more difficult to measure.

I think girls perform better in school today because school caters to things that girls like to do more than the things that boys like to do. As states face budget cuts and stringent testing requirements, the first activities to get cut are physical education. Sports in the sun get replaced with hours of reading and studying. In my experience, it seems girls have longer attention spans and tend to prefer reading and indoor activities, while boys tend to prefer shorter assignments and more playing and rough-housing. With only limited resources and not enough emphasis placed on gender differences, schools are trying to push boys and girls through a one-size-fits all system that will no doubt have lasting effects to our society in the years to come.