Setting High Expectations for Girls
By Emma Lanier and Gale Greenlee

Have you ever noticed that boys are called on more often than girls or that girls are frequently interrupted when they speak? Maybe you observe that, in a classroom environment, boys are subtly rewarded for being aggressive and competitive, and their inattention or hyperactivity is often passed off as "boys will be boys," while girls are expected to be cooperative, nurturing, and attentive. Or perhaps while reading with a child you are tutoring, you become aware that many children's books portray female characters as nice, pretty, and quiet, whereas male characters are depicted as daring, adventurous, and fun. These observations reveal some of the subtle ways in which learning environments can reinforce gender stereotypes. When educators approach boys and girls with different expectations, role models, and discipline guidelines, they limit their pupils' growth and pay a disservice to girls and boys alike.

National service program staff and members have a responsibility to be aware of the many ways in which gender stereotypes have an impact on their own assumptions, their program structure and activities, and their relationships with students. Gender equity is not a matter of who will get the "best" education at the expense of the other; it's about ensuring equal opportunity for girls and boys-to learn, to prepare for future education and careers, and to set high expectations for themselves, regardless of gender. As a tutor, you have an extraordinary opportunity to inform a child's perception of herself/himself and the life opportunities to which she or he aspires. Here are some check points for tutors to help them ensure that girls and boys are encouraged to explore, to succeed, and to achieve.

• Check in with your assumptions. Get in touch with how gender bias is affecting your thinking about your tutees; how do you think men and women, and boys and girls are different? Check in with yourself from time to time to be sure that you are challenging, praising, and disciplining your tutee in response to who the child is as an independent person, rather than who you think she or he should be based on her/his gender. A good checkpoint is to ask yourself if you would handle the situation differently if the child were of the opposite sex.

• Check in with your materials. Look for "learning moments." For example, when gender stereotypes are found in a book you are reading together, you and your tutee can discuss what a stereotype is and what messages it sends to readers. The best way to support your child is to consistently use these teachable moments rather than forcing the issue or pushing it beyond where she or he is comfortable addressing it. Review the books you will be reading ahead of time so that you will feel prepared for these moments when they arise. Here are some pointers drawn from Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism by the Council on Interracial Books for Children:

• Check the illustrations. Look for stereotypes. Some stereotypes seem flattering but can be harmful, because they typify an entire group and don't respect individual differences. Do the illustrations depict women in subservient and passive roles or in leadership or action roles? Are the male characters the active "doers" and the females the inactive "observers"?

• Check the storyline. How are problems presented, conceived, and resolved in the story? Who causes most of the problems? Who solves the problems? Are the achievements of girls and women based on their own initiatives and intelligence, or are they due to their appearance or their relationships with males? Could the same story be told if the genders were reversed? Are both men and women shown as heroes?

  • Consider the effects on the child's self-esteem. The reader may compare herself/himself to the norms that are established by the story. What happens to a girl's self-image when she reads that boys perform all of the brave and important deeds? What about a girl's self-esteem if she is not slim or doesn't have long, blond hair?

  • Watch for Loaded Words. A word is loaded when it has offensive overtones, such as "crafty" and "docile." Look for sexist language and adjectives that exclude or in any way demean girls and women. Look for the use of the male pronoun (he) to refer to both males and females.

• Check in with your behavior. You are a role model to your tutee. He or she is acutely tuned in to how you interact with other children, tutors, parents, and teachers. Make sure you are modeling responsible information about how and who to be in the world. The following suggestions from Girl's Incorporated's manual, What's Equal: Figuring Out What Works for Girls in Coed Settings, can help you be conscious of the many active ways in which you can support gender equity:

  • Encourage girls to take appropriate risks, explore, ask questions, and make mistakes.

  • Engage girls actively in group discussions and interactions, especially during coed activities.

  • Ensure that girls receive adequate attention.

  • Pay careful attention to group formation and dynamics; be a deliberate group manager by structuring some group activities to be collaborative and some to be competitive and assigning group membership to mix styles and skills.

  • Assist girls with taking leadership roles.

  • Support girls in sticking to challenging tasks.

  • Maintain the same behavior standards for girls and boys, emphasizing their taking responsibility for resolving conflicts and for monitoring their own and the group's behavior.

  • Address students by their names: avoid using nicknames and terms to minimize and limit girls, such as "honey," "darling," "little girl," and "little lady."

  • Be mindful of the messages girls receive and the effects those messages are likely to have.