Gender Inequities

Teachers and administrators can use the following strategies to reduce or eliminate gender inequities in science (Antony, 1993-94; Kober, 1993):

• Be aware of your voice, gestures, and body language and the attitudes that they may convey about gender.

• Do not "talk down" to girls.

• Call on boys and girls equally.

• Ask higher-order, open-ended questions of both boys and girls.

• Encourage questioning, guessing, and exploration to build confidence and reduce girls' anxiety about science.

• Use inquiry-based, hands-on science experiences, and structure activities so that girls are active. Consider grouping girls with girls so that boys cannot dominate. Enlist girls' help in experiments and demonstrations.

• Provide additional opportunities to use equipment and technology and try out science experiments.

• Use cooperative learning techniques frequently.

• Be aware of your own science anxieties and convey positive attitudes and behaviors about science.

• Increase your knowledge of the sciences and share your new knowledge enthusiastically.

• Avoid perpetuating gender bias in your treatment of academic subjects, skills, daily living tasks, careers, colors, group names, and so forth.

• Put girls in touch with female scientists so they can learn more about careers involving science, and break down the stereotypes associated with competence in science.

• Provide encouragement and active counseling on the importance of science.

• Hold girls to high expectations; provide higher-level science courses earlier and encourage girls to take them.