Conference tackles gender equality

Even though Title IX of the Education Amendment was introduced in 1972 to stop sexual… Even though Title IX of the Education Amendment was introduced in 1972 to stop sexual discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities, experts are beginning to wonder if this protection has recently begun to fall short.

Verna L. Williams, a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, gave a speech titled “Single-Sex Education: Reform or Retrenchment,” on Friday as part of a two-day conference called, “Title IX and Gender Equity in Education: The Unfinished Agenda.”

Williams’ areas of interest include gender and the law, critical race theory, family law, and children and the law.

Her latest publication, “Reform or Retrenchment? Single-Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender,” was in the Wisconsin Law Review.

Williams said single-sex education is one of the most complicated issues she has studied.

“I find the focus on single-sex education a bit unsettling,” Williams said.

According to Williams, inner-city schools are the central focus of the debate on single-sex education.

One of the main concerns about segregating boys and girls in schools is that it could further highlight the differences between feminity and masculinity.

Since women often head inner-city families, all-boy schools tend to focus on teaching them how to be men. They learn skills such as how to provide for their families. Much of the focus of these schools is teaching the boys discipline.

One of the main focuses of all-girl schools in inner cities is preventing pregnancy.

Williams believes this construes femininity as irresponsible, and implies a strong necessity to control female sexuality. She believes it also sends girls the message that they can only be scholars when boys are not around. Williams does not agree with this.

The curriculum of these schools is often shaped to fit the gender of the students. While girls in one school are reading “Pride and Prejudice,” the boys are reading “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

Single-sex schools often place little emphasis on intellectual skills that will get students far in life. There are typically no Advanced Placement classes in these schools.

Williams believes that these schools should spend more time exposing and preparing students for career options that they can pursue.

Williams said that in the past, black boys and girls were basically treated the same from the time they were children.

A common assumption was that sex segregation could help these children assimilate into normal male and female culture.

“Single-sex education prepared blacks to take the constrained roles available to them,” she said.

There was once a common belief that the nature and delicacy of women shows that they belong in the home, she said.

They were also told that too much thinking diverted blood from the womb to the brain. This is why women could not go to school with men.

Williams believes that teachers should be educated to treat their students equally so that single-sex schools would become unnecessary.