Men and women are equal, and therefore, women should have all of the same rights as men. Because of this, no distinction should be made between boys and girls when it comes to education and other forms of socialization. Isn't that what women have been fighting for since winning the right to vote in 1920? It's been a long struggle, and we are achieving our goals. Women are going places their predecessors never thought they could.
So how is someone like myself, who wholeheartedly supports women's rights, supposed to react to ideas like, let's say, separating students in the public school system by gender? My first reaction was "No way!" But what of the evidence that suggests that boys' and girls' brains learn differently? Scientific studies illustrate the varying conditions under which boys and girls effectively absorb knowledge, and schools that have implemented a curriculum that caters towards the different needs of each gender show signs of academic improvement.
Allow me to digress for a moment. I am currently enrolled in a political science class called "Media, Politics and the Law," taught by Professor Michael Goldman, which I highly recommend to all of my peers. During the first class, we were handed a Culture Quiz, which asked us to agree or disagree with 50 statements produced by the public clash of private values that have fueled the American culture wars. One of the first statements was: Men are more jealous over sexual infidelity, while women care more about emotional betrayal.
Yes, the stereotypes suggest that women require more emotional support in a relationship while men, fearing inadequacy in the bedroom, are more jealous of their partner's infidelity because they do not want their women to know that something "better" exists. This is why a woman's level of experience with the opposite sex is such a big deal to some men. But to what extent are these stereotypes results of differences in the biology of the male and female brain?
Let me assert here that I believe that women and men should be unquestionably equal in the eyes of the law (and in the eyes of one another, but I cannot affect free will). But should men and women necessarily be viewed as being the same?
Recently, I came across a BBC article entitled "Your Brain's Sex Can Make You Ill," in which a doctor claims that "we should be looking at diseases as male and female." The article argues that doctors and scientists now have proof that being male or female makes one more susceptible to different diseases, and that because men and women's brains are different, we should change the way we study and diagnose disease. These conclusions, scientists claim, should affect the way in which treatment drugs are prescribed, especially since most of the drugs available today have only been tested on men and may not work as effectively on women as it has been demonstrated that women's brains change throughout their lives as a result of fluctuating hormone levels.
Some ardent feminists might argue that these ideas can be manipulated against women to prove that they are somehow unequal to men, and that the ideology of "separate but equal" would be brought back to suppress women's civil rights.
Personally, I do not believe that this will happen. Once the differences between the sexes (or ethnicity, race, or religion) can be embraced as enriching components of our collective culture, they can be used to foster a greater understanding of human behavior and humanity in general.
Granted, it must first be universally and unconditionally recognized that "different" does not mean "less capable." History has proven repeatedly that this is very difficult to do, but today, women have established themselves as strong forces. There will always be those who argue that the place of the woman is at home and at her husband's side. But with many powerful female icons like Princess Diana and Hilary Clinton, and popular television shows like "Sex in the City" and "Desperate Housewives," women will continue to break through the glass ceiling.
If science has proven that gender affects the brain, and if the brain determines how we interact with one another and learn, then perhaps the conditions under which we effectively absorb knowledge are also determined by our gender. Like the BBC article suggests for drug treatments, quality of education would be optimized in a personalized situation, or one-on-one tutoring. But the costs of such an operation at the public level would be prohibitive. Single-sex classrooms provide an alternative. This doesn't necessarily mean that boys and girls would not get a chance to interact in the hallways and at lunchtime, unless entire schools were designated as either male or female, which I do not think would be legal in the public school system. The gender socialization that takes place in most public schools today would still exist, albeit to a lesser degree. If a district can afford to have more teachers, particularly those who are trained and sensitive to gender-specific issues which might affect students' learning methods, then programs which separate children into single-sex classrooms should merit attention. What would your response be if I were to suggest that such separation-by-sex should occur only in elementary and middle schools, when children begin to establish but do not cement the way in which they learn information and approach education?
My brain does have a sex, which in turn affects the way in which I perceive and interact with the world around me. But to what extent should we allow biological factors to determine how we choose to educate ourselves? And what are the risks involved in doing so?
Here is a fact which cannot be denied: the education system in the U.S. is faltering. Still deeply and shamefully segregated despite Brown v. Board of Education, our school system needs our attention. The very foundations of our future are being forsaken for a formless threat thousands of miles away that is less likely to kill the average American than is a bee sting. One possible solution which might improve the situation in our public schools is the separation of children into moderately personalized educational environments geared towards optimizing their learning experience.
Daphne LaBua is a senior majoring in Political Science and French.
