SECTIONS Media - News Releases - Audio & Video
Look Who's Not Talking - Women Silenced at Work, in Government and at School
"Women's silence in the work place is a baffling barrier to success. We need to begin to accept that gender bias in organizations is a highly complex matter," says Dr. Jule.
May 2005
Like an approaching tsunami a key type of gender discrimination, and one that is virtually undetectable, is hidden in plain view: women who forfeit recognition at work by ceding attention and talk-time to their male colleagues. Do women let men do 'all the talking' because that's how they were taught to behave in school? "Yes," says noted academic and author, Dr. Allyson Jule, an expert in the field of gender and education.
Dr. Jule's year long classroom case-study, "Gender, Participation and Silence in the Language Classroom: Sh-Shushing the Girls," now in its second printing, finds boys talk nine times and sometimes ten times more than girls and that boys are encouraged to talk while girls are virtually silenced in class. Dr. Jule's findings are supported by hundreds of similar studies from around the world.
"The classroom is a microcosm of society," claims Dr. Jule. She asks, "Who counts here and why?"
In "Sh-shushing the Girls" Dr. Jule concludes that males are often the more significant or legitimate participants in mixed public group settings (such as schools, workplaces, governments, and courts) and that most participants (both males and females) collude, albeit, unwittingly, to allow males greater linguistic space or 'talk-time.' In her classroom study the collusion is seen in the amount of male-talk and the vibrancy of it. Ultimately, the girls seem to serve the role of audience to the richer dynamics between the teacher and the male students.
"Women's silence in the work place is a baffling barrier to success. We need to begin to accept that gender bias in organizations is a highly complex matter," says Dr. Jule.
"Countless studies point to how much males are heard over females, but we are in the infancy of understanding why it happens, and what the implications are, and how this information can be used to reduce the systemic gender bias we see around us. From the caucus room to the board room, women are under represented, and a new perspective is needed to understand why and, more importantly, how to help change the status quo," said Jule.
"Three Apologies and $25M Are Not Enough"
"My research shows that whether you're in grade one or applying for tenure at Harvard gender plays a role. There is a link between gender bias in the workplace and what goes on in schools."
February 2, 2005
Dr.Allyson Jule, author, academic and noted expert in gender issues in education, responded negatively to Harvard University President Lawrence Summers' recent apology and funding pledge designed to right prior hiring inequities favoring men over women. "Three apologies and $25m are not enough," stated Dr. Jule, who garnered world wide publicity last year with the publication of her book Shushing the Girls, a classroom case study which found that boys are encouraged to talk as much as ten times more than girls, while girls are silenced in class.
Dr. Jule's comments come ahead of her TV interview on gender bias in education on the Knowledge Network program, "The Leading Edge," online at www.knowledgenetwork.ca/leadingedge/.
"Harvard President, Lawrence Summers' three apologies and his $25 million pledge to promote hiring of more women and minorities aren't enough to resolve the problem of gender bias faced by professional women, and especially for academics seeking tenure at Harvard where the tenured jobs offered to women have fallen to 13 per cent from 36 per cent," said Jule, a Vancouver resident and a Senior Lecturer in Education, at the University of Glamorgan, Wales. "The problem is systemic."
"Gender is the most powerful variable in education," Jule explains in her televised interview. "But," she added, "My research shows that whether you're in grade one or applying for tenure at Harvard gender plays a role. There is a link between gender bias in the workplace and what goes on in schools. Throughout the educational experience we find girls behaving in certain ways and understood in certain ways. Girls tend to listen to classroom discussions rather than contribute. They don't call out the answers or offer spontaneous questions. They're not called on and then they are praised for being nice quiet girls and rewarded for their silence."
"Society," she continued "doesn't know what to do with us professional women, especially us academics. We all like to think that we can realize our dreams and for academics that means pursuing intellectual passions. But, if you're a woman," said Jule, "there are problems you encounter that even $25 million can't solve." |
