Causes and Effects of Gender Discrimination in Education

Back to: Gender, School and Society- Unit 1

Inequality on the grounds of gender is pretty common in educational institutes even in today’s age. Male teachers may be more partial toward female learners while some female teachers may be more partial toward male learners. In educational institutions, equality is often related to access and outcomes. Equality ensures that every student has equal access to a high-quality education regardless of their social background. It also ensures that all students are accountable to the same standards and objectives without taking into account their circumstances, abilities, or experiences.

Gender is one of the most common ways of organizing the social life of human beings. Parents assume boys and girls to be different ever since infancy. In the 1970s, the feminists viewed can the notion of gender as a ‘construct’. Hence, Gender can be regarded as a socially constructed concept used to differentiate men and women and assign them different roles and responsibilities, and so on. Social construction refers to the knowledge created and assumed by social institutions rather than possessing any inherent truth on their own.

Causes of Gender Discrimination

The causes of gender discrimination are as follows:

The Expectation of Behavior

According to social constructs, masculine behavior is commonly characterized by being assertive, action-oriented, and lively, whereas feminine behavior is often characterized by being cooperative, polite, passive, and gentle.

The Expectation of Preference

For a long time, men and women have been differentiated by their preferred colors. Girls are generally believed to like pink and boys are generally believed to like blue. This belief is ingrained in them since childhood.

The Expectation of Activities

Girls are often encouraged to play with dolls and kitchen sets and boys are encouraged to play with toy guns and cars so that they can prepare for their roles in adulthood.

The Expectation of School Subjects

Gender construct exists in school subjects too where boys are thought to be more capable of studying science subjects related to technology while girls are seen to be more apt for arts.

The Expectation of Accomplishment

Even in the modern age, women’s accomplishments are measured not by what they achieve in their careers but by who they marry. Their main accomplishment is seen as marrying a worthy man whereas, for men, their accomplishments are all related to their career.

Impact of Gender Discrimination

The impact of gender discrimination is as follows:

Pressure

The differentiation of roles between men and women may lead individuals to feel pressured as they may not be able to do things according to their personal preferences.

Performance

Since gender roles are ingrained in human beings from early on, they can affect the performance of men and women causing them to perform according to the expectation of society when they can do better.

Burden

Women have more burdens than men as they are expected to be caring, nurturing, and do all the household work even when they may have a job while men are not expected to do the same.

Discrimination

The difference in gender roles has led to numerous cases of discrimination toward women such as child marriage, domestic violence, and the like.

Mental Health

Boys are assumed to prefer blue rather than colors like pink and if they are seen to like the same, they are often called feminine, or they are assumed to have a mental problem that may go on to affect their overall mental health.

These are the various ways in which social constructs can have an impact on an individual. The media reinforces these ideas and agenda through its portrayal of women as attractive and glamorous and while men are portrayed as individuals who are successful and powerful.