Gender and Education

While researching the issues of gender and education I came across the same problems that everyone else did because there is not a lot of current information out there about this topic. I was able to find the following graph done by UNICEF about the different gaps between men and women in primary and secondary education from 1990 and 2005. In both cases the percentage of females net enrollment ratios rose by a large amount. You can go to the website for some more information about the NER in primary and secondary education in countries around the world.

I did find some information on a different interpretation of Title IX that happened in January 2010. This happened in Mohawk, NY:

"The U.S. Justice Department intervention in the civil case of a former Mohawk Central School District student could lead to a broader interpretation of a federal law that prohibits gender discrimination by applying it to the harassment of a gay male... The 14-year-old openly gay student... alleges the district failed to stop other students and a teacher from bullying him because of his sexual orientation..."

"The government cities Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was passed to prevent gender discrimination, as the basis for joining the lawsuit filed last summer in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York. The teenager's lawyers Friday night might cast the case as a fight for basic human rights."

It has been reported that since then "the Justice Department stepped in. Federal lawyers argued that Title IX does not only protect students from gender discrimination. They said the law also covers discrimination based on gender expression. That is to say, boys who act like girls. It's a legal argument the government had not made since the Clinton administration." (NPR)

I think that this case alone shows the key issues that exists now surrounding gender issues in education, it doesn't necessarily need to be black and white male and female issues. It can now surround issues involving sexual orientation. I also feel that there is still gender discrimination in America but definitely nothing compared to what it was in the past, and nothing compared to the problems that other countries across the world are dealing with at this moment.