Synthesis of Research Findings II

"...Boys are seen as "toxic" creatures "who will infect girls with some kind of social cooties..."

Women Are Superior to Men in Languages

“…Girls’ acuity with language results in a deeper, more imaginative engagement with the writing process and with reading material” (Vandrick , p15) Part of the reason females outperform males in language is their high level of socialization (Ehrman & Oxford, p72). The primary goal of languages is communication, a skill for which women are renowned. Girls use a more polite and standardized (grammatically correct) form of language than men than continues into adulthood. Men tend to use more “report or status” style of speech. Women see themselves as “facilitators” of the language. They are cognizant of their partner’s needs because they value social connections and relationships. (Brown, 2002, pp259-260)

Men and women use different brain processes to acquire and maintain language learning

Micheal Ullman, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University conducted research that studied the relationship between sex and cognitive process. He concluded that men perform better on aspects of grammar and structure because they use a logical process to govern the rules of the language. Women create a “mental dictionary” of words and phrases and make associations and relationships between words. (Anitei, http://news.softpedia.com/news/Sex-Hormones-Influence-Language-Learning-in-Men-Women-42726.shtml)

The male mind operates as more of a “hierarchy” fashion more oriented towards separation where as the female mind operates in a more “web-like” fashion oriented towards relationships.(Oxford, p72)

Gender Stereotyping Has No Cultural Borders

We saw a case of gender stereotyping in Redman’s Case 1, pp 11-12. Ms. Bell only praised the girls in her class for their secretarial skills and creativity, and the boys received praise for the academic portions of their group assignments. According to field studies by Mathis on Japanese and American citizens, research concluded that both Aristotle and Confucius both taught principles of male superiority, and not much has changed since the two of them passed. The Japanese still hold firm to the belief that men should assume occupational roles and women take on more domestic roles. Americans tend to say use generalizations “Well, traditionally…” when discussing gender specific roles, but then corrected themselves and distanced their personal beliefs with tradition. Younger Americans displayed a more “gender equal” attitude, but women still demonstrated frustration with limited career opportunities and job satisfaction due to obstacles. (Mathis, 2003, http://www.tokyoprogressive.org.uk/gale/articles/mathis.html) In general, the Japanese attitude is similar to the attitudes of Arab men and women towards their set roles in society.