A feminist student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, asked male students to speak less during classroom discussion in a recent column for the school’s newspaper.
Tara Joy, a freshman at Wesleyan University, took to the pages of the school’s newspaper to argue that male students dominate classroom discussion as a result of socially-constructed gender roles.
“Gradually though, I began to notice something about my male classmates: they talked constantly,” Joy wrote. “This was particularly obvious in my First Year Seminar, a small, discussion-based course where it felt like the seven male students—despite making up less than half the class—managed to dominate every single discussion.”
Joy argues that female students are more likely to “be much more cautious about voicing their opinions,” as a result of this “constant, subtle discrimination.”
“Guys need to take a step back,” Joy argues, suggesting that they are at in part consciously responsible for this form of “discrimination” that she believes plays out not just in college classrooms, but also on social media, in casual conversations, at business meetings, and in professional journalism.
“Teachers need to make a constant, genuine effort to listen to and respect their female students. Women need to remind themselves that they deserve to be heard as much as anyone else,” Joy concludes.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.