Are the Schools a 'Feminized Society'? (1973)

In a November 1973 article from Educational Leadership, Albert H. Yee makes his case that schools have become "feminized," saying, "Studies report that the values and practices of elementary schools favor girls and discriminate against boys."

Read the article: "Are the Schools a 'Feminized Society'?" (PDF)

The evidence Yee cites isn't quite overwhelming, though. Perhaps most entertainingly, Yee quotes P.O. Sexton, author of The Feminized Male: Classrooms, White Collars, and the Decline of Manliness. Sexton describes boys and schools as "locked in a deadly and ancient conflict that may eventually inflict mortal wounds on both." Yee also cites researcher J. D. McNeil's argument that boys' reading achievement is worse than girls' when taught by a female teacher, but equal to girls' under auto-instructional methods.

Perhaps more interestingly, Yee looks at how the U.S. perception of teaching as a feminine occupation has influenced both the type of people who become teachers and the way in which the profession is viewed and supported. As a former male teacher, Yee relates personally to Margaret Mead's description of men in teaching as dealing with "a self-classification of being a 'man teacher,' thus tacitly acknowledging that he is a male version of a role which is felt to be feminine."

Ultimately, Yee emphasizes that gender is only one of many factors influencing teaching and learning and cautions against making too many assumptions based on gender alone. He advises focusing on "revolutionary change of schools as institutions" rather than simply recruiting more men as teachers.

Yee's article doesn't come to any easy conclusions, addressing in a nuanced way an issue that, particularly in elementary schools, remains an ongoing concern.