Gender Gap In Education

Sex and gender are often used interchangeably, however they are very different terms. Sex is a biological term. It is reflected through an individual’s chromosomes and hormones and can be expressed as male or female. Gender is a socially defined term and is connected to the expected behaviors and personalities of a man or woman. Sex is based on biology and gender is based on social distinctions. Both gender and sex are examples of a master status, so it dominates all others statuses in one’s life. Intersex is when an individual is born with sexual anatomy that doesn’t match one particular sex. Not too long ago, western society looked negatively on intersex individuals and forced them to undergo surgery at a young age. Now, society has …show more content…
It is structured into social institutions like educational systems, families, and the economy. In the past, girls were rarely educated because they were expected to stay home and tend to the family, creating a gender gap in education. One cause of this gap is the hidden curriculum, a school unofficial norms. Many schools value hard work, competitiveness, and hierarchy, which instilled into boys at a young age, so they perform better. Recently, awareness has risen about the gender gap in education and changes have been made. More girls are attending two or four year colleges and women are even significantly more likely to graduate high school and college than men. Currently, the percentage of women in college is higher than men and expected to continue to rise. Even though women are getting higher educations, the pay gap still exists. This is due to gender segregated fields. Women tend to major in fields like education, psychology, and English which don’t pay as well as men dominated STEM fields. One way to fix the pay gap is to interest more females in STEM fields. It may be an unwritten rule that these majors are for men, but it is time for this rule to be broken. There is no reason for someone to choose a major based on their …show more content…
The sociological study of sexuality involves its biological, cultural, and social aspects. Increased interest is due to the growing spread of AIDS/HIV, the “hook up” culture, media representation, and globalization of sexuality. Sexual identity is one’s internal sense of their sexual self. One element of this identity is sexual orientation, which is who an individual wants to have sexual relations with. Sexual orientation is quite complicated because, like gender identity, one can define themselves anywhere in between gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, and many more categories. Recently, our society’s attitude on people defining themselves as gay or lesbian has changed. The development of gay pride allowed many people to live the life they have been trying so hard to hide. These individuals can move some of their back stage self to the front stage with less fear of rejection from