United Sisters: Information for Adults about Gender Equity
Issues
Why
Is It Important to Organize for Girls?
Helping Girls Become Strong, Smart, and Bold
Self-Assessment
on Gender Equity Issues
Why is it important to
organize for girls
Imagine
a child standing alone in an empty room. The walls are
plain white. This room has no doors, no windows, and
no way out. More importantly, this room offers no warmth,
no support, and no sense of comfort. In this room, the
child feels nothing other than the chilling sense of isolation. In this room
the child is alone.
Unfortunately, places like this figurative one really do exist in the hearts
and minds of today's teenagers. In the society we live in, isolation occurs
for many reasons including race, religion, ideals, harassment, and gender.
Sometimes isolation is caused by not knowing people who share the same values.
Isolation builds walls, destroys self-esteem, silences voices, and kills dreams.
Growing up, I was able to notice inequities in the way we live from a young
age. I also found out quickly that people didn't always share my enthusiasm
for changing the world, or my ideals for that matter. I was often angered and
confused when people brushed me aside or silenced me with vicious words. I
was left feeling hurt and alone. My peers who didn't share my values sometimes
went out of their way to isolate me. I remember what it felt like to need someone.
Someone to tell me I was not alone.
The United Sisters are that someone. This group has been able to satisfy a
part of me that always felt empty. I knew I was not alone. Knowing this has
enabled me to take action, to find my voice, and to develop the feminist inside
of me. I know this wouldn't be possible if I hadn't met other people who share
similar values and love me one hundred percent for who I am. I know there are
other people out there who, like me, feel isolated ad are afraid to take action
by themselves. This is one reason why it is important to organize for girls.
Strength in numbers. If we can reach out to other girls and break down the
walls of isolation, we will be able to plant a seed in the minds of today's
youth.
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Helping Girls Become Strong,
Smart, and Bold
In order to be prepared for the realities of the working world, the views of
both girls and boys will need to change. Gender stereotypes can be very limiting
and adults can take several steps to enable girls and young women to reduce
or eliminate societal roadblocks to girls' success. The following tips can
be useful to help girls become strong, smart, and bold:
Praise girls for their skills and successes, not only for their appearance.
Say, "you did a terrific job", instead of "you look pretty today".
Avoid rescuing girls. Encourage them to get dirty, disheveled, and sweaty climbing
trees or playing in the grass. Allow them to take risks.
Debunk the myth of Prince Charming. Teach girls that most women will work for
pay most of their lives. Every girl needs to be prepared to support herself.
Teach girls to watch TV and movies with a critical eye. Discuss what you've
seen together. Look for strong, smart women who are not limited to "traditional" roles.
Use TV to start a discussion about body image. Consider how girls are portrayed
on TV: are heavier girls shown as unpopular? Do they go out on dates? Are they
used for comic relief? Are girls with voluptuous figures only shown as sex
symbols? Do they seem to be smart?
Give girls more opportunities to be leaders. Let them choose the activity,
make the rules, settle the disputes. A girl who has learned to lead is better
able to take charge of her own education and career.
Give girls many opportunities to experience science, math, and technology.
Girls are ready, willing, and eager to explore, but often haven't had enough
exposure or encouragement. For example, girls can put objects in water to see
if they float, attempt simple household experiments such as making vegetable
dyes, or they can learn to repair their own bicycles.
Help girls get beyond, "yuck". Insist calmly that girls hold a snake,
dissect a worm, get their hands dirty discovering the world around them.
Introduce girls to dynamic women who combine paid work, volunteer work, and
family life.
Be an example. By respecting yourself and other women, you set a standard which
girls can follow.
© 1995 by Girls Incorporated.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of Girls Incorporated.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT ON GENDER EQUITY ISSUES
This checklist is designed
to be used for self-assessment and as an aid in thinking about ways to create
a gender equitable classroom environment. It is meant to be a learning tool
for personal growth and a way of raising awareness about personal and systemic
issues related to gender bias.
Do you encourage girls not to hide their abilities for fear of appearing "too
smart" compared to their peers?
Do you encourage all students, regardless
of race, ethnicity, class or sex, to consider attending
college?
Do you actively encourage all students,
including pregnant young women, teen parents, and low-achieving
students to remain in school at least through high school?
Are you aware of the literature on
gender and the cultural bias in standardized testing?
Do you support the idea of child care
centers for parenting students?
Do you think both girls and boys can
develop leadership skills? Do you require both boys and
girls to develop listening as well as speaking skills?
Are you sensitive to the fact that
many school age girls have a negative body image and engage
in chronic dieting?
Do you know the signs of anorexia and
bulimia?
Do you assume that
all of your students are heterosexual?
Do you encourage girls and boys to
participate in sports?
Do you respect boys who choose other
hobbies, rather than athletics?
Do you conduct informal research studies
in your classroom to raise awareness of how gender bias
occurs?
When you hear students making sexist
or racist jokes, do you intervene and explain why this
is inappropriate?
Do you encourage boys and girls to
be nurturing?
Do you encourage girls to develop public
speaking skills and to act as leaders within the school?
Do you make a conscious effort to deliberately
reverse gender stereotypes in your classroom?
Do you avoid sweeping generalization
that perpetuate stereotypes such as, "Boys are...";"Girls
are..."?
Do you avoid insinuating
that females should be passive and subordinate to males,
or that males should be active and dominant over females?
Do you encourage girls and boys to
seek athletic scholarships?
Given equivalent talents, are you as
likely to refer a girl to a program for gifted students
as you are to refer a boy?
When trying to decide whether to label
a child as learning disabled, do you avoid using acting-out
behavior as the main criterion?
Do you support women and girls who
are courageous and speak their minds?
Do you work against systems that encourage
violence against women and men in all forms?
When students give each other unwanted
sexual attention, do you intervene to stop the behavior
whether or not the target appears embarrassed, angry, degraded,
scared, or isolated?
Do you try to model nonbiased behavior?
Do you avoid making racist, sexist, classist, or homophobic
comments, even as a joke?
Do you avoid calling a girl a "tomboy" or "butch",
even as a joke?
Do you avoid calling boys "sissies", "fags",
or "wimps" even as a joke?
When planning guest speaker, do you invite
men and women who are engaged in nontraditional roles?
Do you ask students to do cooperative projects
as well as individual work?
When evaluating students, do you use
several forms of assessment such as essays, multiple choice
tests, journals, photographs, and performance tests?
In your lessons, do you try to use
real life examples that both female and male students can
relate to?
Do you frequently solicit student opinions?
Do you discourage competition
between boys and girls as groups?
Do you show confidence in girls' abilities
to answer questions, even if they do not know the answer
at first?
In designing your curriculum, do you
spotlight the achievements of women and girls as well as
men and boys?
Do you initiate discussions with students
about difficult topics such as issues related to gender
and power or sexuality?
Do you discuss the dangers and symptoms
of eating disorders with both male and female students?
Do you screen your curriculum for gender
bias?
Are you actively involved in working
to obtain nonsexist and multicultural boos for your school
library?
Do you pay attention to the implicit
as well as explicit gender, race, and class messages of
my curriculum?
Do you openly discuss
systems of power and oppression with students?
Are many of the writings you read in
class written by women who represent a diversity of class,
racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds?
Do you make a conscious effort to choose
curriculum materials that challenge gender stereotypes?
Do you use nonsexist language and encourage
others to do that same?
Do you make a conscious effort to give
African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native
American students as much attention as white students?
When you notice that particular students
rarely speak in class do you make an effort to change this
pattern?
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