4 ms·

78% of the teaching staff is female at the school my girlfriend teaches at. Someone should really tell them that this horrible gender balance is a problem and

78% of the teaching staff is female at the school my girlfriend teaches at. Someone should really tell them that this horrible gender balance is a problem and get onto correcting it immediately.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
a) 90% > 78% b) if the teaching staff only ever refer to one gender when discussing hypothetical humans then that's probably something they should think about correcting
- parennoob 13y ago
  Not teaching staff. But I have seen children refer to an imaginary teacher as "she". Is that a problem? If so, it should be addressed with as much alacrity as this one.
  - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
    Fair point - as soon as you bring the innocence of youth into this debate, you pretty much win it :)
  - lazugod 13y ago
    I think you're being sarcastic, but yes, if a student uses "he" or "she" for an unknown or abstract person in an essay it would be corrected.
lyinsteve 13y ago
This is a mostly STEM related site. It is well known that women are underrepresented in the STEM community. Further, the majority of college professors are men, but the majority of k-12 educators are women. A different imbalance, and one to be considered, but separately from this issue.
- parennoob 13y ago
  > This is a mostly STEM related site. A lot of the material on this site is also related to teaching -- MOOCs, better way to teach science and programming, etc. > A different imbalance, and one to be considered, but separately from this issue. Classic misdirection, "oh yeah, we'll look at that later." No, it is intimately related to this issue. If you want perfect uniformity, everywhere is society, you should look at all of these little errors ASAP. The reason why there are so few women in tech is intimately related to gender imbalances elsewhere. So next time you are at a parent-teacher conference or your local nonprofit, make it a point to ask them, "Why do you have so few men? Have you looked at correcting this unfair gender imbalance?"
CJefferson 13y ago
I wish people would stop making comments like this. Education departments are well aware of the under representation of men, particularly in primary education, and are trying to fix it (although not doing any better than computing does, unfortunately)
- parennoob 13y ago
  If you work in education, do you hear people telling kids to refer to an imaginary teacher as "she"? (cause kids I know do that). I know a lot of people who work in the K-12 education sector, and I have never heard them saying that the gender ratio is unfair towards men.

78% of the teaching staff is female at the school my girlfriend teaches at. Someone should really tell them that this horrible gender balance is a problem and get onto correcting it immediately.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago

a) 90% > 78% b) if the teaching staff only ever refer to one gender when discussing hypothetical humans then that's probably something they should think about correcting

parennoob 13y ago
Not teaching staff. But I have seen children refer to an imaginary teacher as "she". Is that a problem? If so, it should be addressed with as much alacrity as this one.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  Fair point - as soon as you bring the innocence of youth into this debate, you pretty much win it :)
- lazugod 13y ago
  I think you're being sarcastic, but yes, if a student uses "he" or "she" for an unknown or abstract person in an essay it would be corrected.

lyinsteve 13y ago

This is a mostly STEM related site. It is well known that women are underrepresented in the STEM community. Further, the majority of college professors are men, but the majority of k-12 educators are women. A different imbalance, and one to be considered, but separately from this issue.

parennoob 13y ago
> This is a mostly STEM related site. A lot of the material on this site is also related to teaching -- MOOCs, better way to teach science and programming, etc. > A different imbalance, and one to be considered, but separately from this issue. Classic misdirection, "oh yeah, we'll look at that later." No, it is intimately related to this issue. If you want perfect uniformity, everywhere is society, you should look at all of these little errors ASAP. The reason why there are so few women in tech is intimately related to gender imbalances elsewhere. So next time you are at a parent-teacher conference or your local nonprofit, make it a point to ask them, "Why do you have so few men? Have you looked at correcting this unfair gender imbalance?"

CJefferson 13y ago

I wish people would stop making comments like this. Education departments are well aware of the under representation of men, particularly in primary education, and are trying to fix it (although not doing any better than computing does, unfortunately)

parennoob 13y ago
If you work in education, do you hear people telling kids to refer to an imaginary teacher as "she"? (cause kids I know do that). I know a lot of people who work in the K-12 education sector, and I have never heard them saying that the gender ratio is unfair towards men.