Overview Write a 3–4-page evaluation of gender and education in the United States. This assessment asks you to consider the ways gender may concretely impact a major societal institution. Show Less By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria: Competency 1: Critically analyze issues related to gender and communication. Explain how K–12 schools can intentionally or unintentionally enforce gender roles. Describe how colleges and universities either support or disregard gender issues on campus. Competency 4: Identify effective leadership strategies that promote effective communication between men and women. Summarize the role of gender in the student–instructor dynamic. Describe how to reduce or eliminate gender bias in the classroom. Competency 5: Communicate effectively in a variety of formats. Communicate effectively and concisely using APA formatting. Context The Assessment 4 Context document reviews key findings from research on gender. You may wish to review the document for an overview of these key concepts and ideas. Assessment 4 Context We enter a gendered society at birth and continue to receive messages about gender throughout our lives. (Wood & Bodey, 2011, p. 100). Is gender learned? Are we born with a specific gender? What does the research suggest? These are the questions we often consider when we study gender. As you explore these questions, think about how foundational pieces of our identities are shaped throughout our life. It is important to understand that our identities are formed by our culture and other key influences that shape who we are as we grow and develop. The truth is that we do not passively receive gender, but, rather, we select messages to accept or reject over time. Gender is learned. We are born with our sex (male, female), and we learn our gender (masculine, feminine). We learn and express our gender through interactions with others and with the media. Cultures create gender by giving social meanings to biological sex. Gender differs from culture to culture. Currently, in the United States, masculinity is associated with strength, ambition, rationality, and emotional control. Currently, in the United States, femininity is associated with physical attractiveness, deferential and nurturing behavior, emotional expression, and concern with people and relationships. Gender is not stable. Cultural and individual meanings of gender can change over time and context. New identity labels (people who reject traditional gender categories) challenge our ideas about gender. Gender is a relational concept. We can only understand masculinity in relation to femininity, and vice versa. Changing ideas about one gender affect the other. Gender is a social, symbolic construction that varies across cultures, over time within a given culture, over the course of individuals' life spans, and in relation to the other gender. Self-as-object is a central process in personal identity formation. In this process, we are able to think about, reflect upon, and respond to ourselves. As we internalize others' views of us, their views become important to how we see and evaluate ourselves. Monitoring is a second process in identity formation, in which we engage in internal dialogues with these internalized perspectives. Through these dialogues, we remind ourselves what others have told us to think, do, look like, feel, and so on. References Wood, J. T. (2010). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture. Beverly, MA: Wadsworth. Wood, J. T., & Bodey, K. R. (2010). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture [Instructor's Resource Manual]. Beverly, MA: Wadsworth. Questions to Consider To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community. For the following questions, refer to the Resources (under the Internet Resources heading) for links to the Lieberman resource and the Barr resource: Do mothers and fathers generally differ in their interaction with children? If so, then how? Do today's fathers spend more time with their children than their own fathers spent with them? Do you think males and females are growing up at the same pace today as they did in previous eras? References Barr, K. R. (2013). Male and female communication styles [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/188130-male-and-female-communication/ Lieberman, S. (n.d.). Differences in male and female communication styles. Retrieved from http://www.simmalieberman.com/articles/maleandfemale.html Resources Suggested Resources The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom. Capella Resources Click the links provided to view the following resources: Assessment 4 Context. Capella Multimedia Click the links provided below to view the following multimedia pieces: Do Men and Women Use Language Differently? | Transcript. Gender and Communications | Transcript. This interactive will help you review the information you learned about men's and women's verbal and nonverbal communication. Pay particular attention to which characteristics fit with which sex. Key Terms | Transcript. This media piece focuses on the key concepts and definitions you must be familiar with as you go through the course. Show Less Library Resources The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course: Maher, F. A., & Ward, J. V. (2002). Gender and teaching. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum. Nel, P., & Paul, L. (2011). Keywords for children's literature. New York, NY: NYU Press. Gender bias learned. (2005, February 17). Wisconsin State Journal, p. F1 Jadva, V., Hines, M., & Golombok, S. (2010). Infants' preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: Sex differences and similarities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(6), 1261–1273. Steensma, T. D., Baudewijntje, P. C. K., de Vries, A. L. C., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2013). Gender identity development in adolescence. Hormones and Behavior, 64(2), 288–297. Course Library Guide A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the COM-FP3200 – Leadership, Gender, and Communication Library Guide to help direct your research. Internet Resources Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication. Lieberman, S. (n.d.). Differences in male and female communication styles. Retrieved from http://www.simmalieberman.com/articles/maleandfemale.html Barr, K. R. (2013). Male and female communication styles. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/188130-male-and-female-communication/ Bookstore Resources The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation. Wood, J. T. (2012). Gendered lives: Communication, gender, and culture (10th ed.). Beverly, MA: Wadsworth. Do Men And Women Use Language Differently? In your study this week, you will address women's communication and ways of speaking. Do women speak and write differently from men? We have previously engaged in a study concerning women's literary subject matter. But, does a gendered sentence exist and do women have linguistic and rhetorical strategies? The answer to all of these questions is "Yes." Women construct sentences differently from men and women generally adopt gender specific linguistic and rhetorical ways of addressing each other and the men in their lives. Language and gender becomes a study in disparity. The concept of language and gender receives attention from the fields of psychology, sociology, literary studies, and any other areas where an understanding of language differences become useful. The broader context of these studies centers around communication and harmonious discourse between genders. Seminal work has uncovered similar information and a unified understanding of how genders communicate. Edwards and Hamilton 2004; McGeorge et al 2004,;and Tannen 1990 all agree that women seek intimacy and men lean towards independence in their verbal communication. Such a disparity creates miscommunication and often friction. Women's interest in intimacy and communal structure to human contact is at odds with men's tendency towards aggression and competition. This phenomenon creates opposition and bewilderment between the sexes, since men's tendency towards competitiveness deviates from the woman's need to nurture and support. Does this communication come from a gendered sentence? Women communicate in specific ways, using certain key linguistic tags that easily identify the speaker's gender in both speaking and writing. Linguistic tags include liberal use of specific adjectives such as lovely, specific colors, and language intensifiers such as very or really. Other tags include tentativeness, which incorporate creating a sentence that ends in a question, offering disclaimers, and hedging during discourse with each other and men. A sentence ending in a question involves a short phrase that turns it into a question, ex. "She is a beautiful dog, isn't she?" The sentence hesitates and is not stated in a declarative or straightforward manner. Similarly, beginning a conversation with a statement that includes a disclaimer such as, "You might disagree, but . . . " and hedging by using words such as "maybe" or phrases such as "kind of," both indicate feminine discourse. On the other hand, men have more of a tendency to interrupt although women interrupt women as often as men interrupt women. Such an occurrence doesn't always translate to a position of dominance, since each of these ways of communication depends on context and the situation. This context involves either gender communicating with someone in power. Ultimately, each of these can be interpreted as rhetorical strategies. Rhetorical discourse depends on context and situation as well. However, specific differences do exist between men and women. A rhetorical convention for silence exists from the classical period onward. In his Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, Lanham (1991) offers the term aposiopesis: "becoming silent" (20). He also includes "Obticentia; Praecisio; Reticentia; ways of silence," all of which fit under the general umbrella of aposiopesis or silencing (20). Of these, reticentia (keeping silent) and praecisio (cutting off) apply most specifically to the concept of silence advanced in this study. Reticencia has been discussed in an earlier lecture. The other rhetorical term that applies to woman's rhetoric involves Aposiopesis-præcisio. Præcisio or cutting off of the voice threads its way throughout women's literature. This concept involves leaving things unsaid or saying just so much to get a point across. This concept isn't always a strategy; it often has to do with careful communication designed to remain safely underneath the surface of male dominated discourse. What might have been part of individual statements could be truncated or covered by safer statements such as we observed earlier in this lecture with overlays of hedging or issuing a sentence so tentative as to take away from the force and the voice of the speaker. The woman's voice and discourse differs distinctively with the man's. Men speak to dominate, assert status, and establish themselves in a hierarchal social comparison. Women receive instruction and criticism more easily than men and tend to work towards bonding and community in their speech. The benefit of these differences is expressed by Tannen as women's tendency to discuss their problems with men who offer problem- solving advice, while women nurture and listen as men speak to them. Each of these ways of communicating generally can be summarized stereotypically as men seeking avoidance and women speaking supportively. As you read this week, look for these ways of woman's communication: What type of woman's rhetoric is evident in the reading? Do I see any examples of the forms of women's silence. What types of the linguistic tags occur in the literature this week? References Edwards, R & Hamilton, M.A. (2004) You need to understand my gender role: An empirical test of Tannen's model of Gender and communication. Sex Roles. 50, 491-504. McGeorge, E.L., Graves, A.R., Feng, B., Gillihan, S.J. & Burleson, B.R. (2004). The myth of gender cultures: Similarities outweigh differences in men's and women's provision of responses to supportive communication. Sex Roles. 50, 143-47. Lanham, Richard A. (1991). A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Berkley: University of California Press. Tannen, D. (1990). You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: William and Morrow and Company. Credits Subject Matter Expert: Sue Perry Interactive Design: Alyssa Wilcox, Pat Lapinski Instructional Designer: JodiRae Foss Project Manager: Karen Dodd Voice Talent: Sue Perry Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Gender and Communication Verbal Women Feels that talk is a key part of playing As a child, often plays in small groups/pairs Uses communciation to create/maintain relationships Uses communication to show sensitivity/support for others Tentative in communication: verbal hedges/tag questions Is gentle when criticizing Men Uses talk to achieve a goal As a child, often plays in large groups Uses communication to assert ideas Is competitive with others As a child, includes roughhousing in play Uses communication to get/maintain attention Nonverbal Women Uses lot of eye contact Smiles often/more likely to return a smile Uses more facial expressions Stands close to others during conversation Plays with hair/clothing, places hands in lap In general, uses fewer gestures in conversation Men Uses less eye contact Smiles less Reveals little emotion through facial expressions Has more negative reactions to crowding Maintains greater physical distance from others Uses sweeping arm and hand gestures Credits Subject Matter Expert: Melissa Weaver Interactive Design: Alyssa Wilcox, Matthew Johnson Instructional Designer: JodiRae Foss Project Manager: Alan Campbell Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Assessment Instructions Many experts believe that education in the United States is gendered. That is, boys and girls are educated and treated differently throughout their academic careers. For this assessment, write an evaluation of gender and education in the United States. Address the following in your evaluation: Are boys and girls taught gender in our public school systems? Are female and male college students given equal support? What differences are there in how college students evaluate male and female instructors? How can gender bias be reduced or eliminated in the classroom? Use the Capella library to locate current journal articles pertaining to gender-specific training and education, and refer to at least four of those resources in your evaluation. Note: If you use Internet sources, they must be credible. For example, Wikipedia and YouTube are not credible resources. Additional Requirements Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message. APA formatting: Resources and in-text citations should be formatted according to APA (6th edition) style and formatting. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point, double-spaced. Use Microsoft Word. Number of resources: 4 or more. Length: 3–4 pages.

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