Gender Balance in the English Department

[onlyaworkingtitle]

There were two male English majors in my graduating class; there were 12 females.

Is there a similarly imbalanced M:F ratio at other schools? Why, when so much of the literature* we study is written by Dead White Men, are so few living men (of any race) involved in the field?






*tomatoes (read as: This Is Not the Thread in Which to Discuss What Literature Is)

[Fuck Yeah Dion]

I agree. There are only two other male English majors in my graduating class, and one of them is actually a Creative Writing major, but I keep forgetting that. For most of my college career, I was the only black person in the English department, and one of the few POC's. Now that my little brother is at my school as well, there are two black people in the English department. And yes, we are the only black males.

[Marina]

It is true, we had males in my major classes, but not nearly enough to balance out the ratio. It's kind of sad because sometimes I want to hear a male's opinion on certain subject matters and none that are present want to speak up. Race is another thing.... but that's for another thread.

[Fuck Yeah Dion]

I feel like I have to overcompensate a little because of my race and gender.

[onlyaworkingtitle]

Jun 8, 2011 22:16:12 GMT -5 Fuck Yeah Dion said:

I agree. There are only two other male English majors in my graduating class, and one of them is actually a Creative Writing major, but I keep forgetting that. For most of my college career, I was the only black person in the English department, and one of the few POC's. Now that my little brother is at my school as well, there are two black people in the English department. And yes, we are the only black males.

RRRGH YES. There were no black people in my graduating English major class! NONE.
Though I guess that's what I get for going to school in Nowhere Central, Upstate New York. Bit of a culture shock from the City. I missed the diversity.

[Marina]

I went to a state school, and we had a large variety of students, a lot of Asian kids, but barely any black kids. At least not in my classes, especially male blacks.

[Silva]

I'm not an English major quite yet, but I'm sure there will not be any males in my classes. It's an all-female college.

[Marina]

Jun 8, 2011 23:13:27 GMT -5 Silva said:

I'm not an English major quite yet, but I'm sure there will not be any males in my classes. It's an all-female college.

That would be a quite an interesting atmosphere. Meaning, this one time we only had one guy in an all female class, and teacher was a female too, and sometimes his answers gave an important insight that would not have been there if there were no guys at all.

[Marina]

What about this forum!? We even lack men on this forum? I've maybe seen four or five guys posting, all based on assumption though, but most others are girls!

[cyanea]

I'm not the most observant person in the world (buried in a book more often than not), but I have noticed that my large state school English department is mostly white and Asian, with few Hispanics or blacks. The ratio of male to female seems relatively balanced, however. In some classes, there are definitely more female students.

[rayyychul]

I think a lot of it has to do with how men and women were viewed by society then versus how they are viewed by society today.

100 years ago, women had no status in society. It was an incredibly hard time for a woman - using her real name - to publish a novel. Men, on the other hand, had no difficulties publishing novels (provided, of course, they were "good" novels). And obviously if you were a white man, you won Social Status Bingo.

Sadly, we now live in a society where we are taught to abide to strict gender roles (think: pink is for girls, blue is for boys) and that anyone who deviates from those standard gender roles is "wrong."

Society has decided that English/writing/reading/literature/etc. are "girly" or "feminine" crafts. On the other hand, sciences and maths are considered "manly" or "masculine" crafts. Both genders feel pressured to stick to "gender norms," which would explain the skewed F:M ratio in any English-language programs.

[Fuck Yeah Dion]

Nothing feels more awkward than having to be taught Huck Finn by a professor who probably hasn't taught a black person in years. That professor dropped nigger every chance he got, but when we came across cuze (cooze, cuse sp?) in The Things They Carried, he refused to say it because it was offensive to women hahaha.

I'm not saying he's a bad person. I can just tell that before I came along, he really hadn't taught many males or POC's at the school.

[invision]

Jun 8, 2011 23:18:34 GMT -5 Marina said:

What about this forum!? We even lack men on this forum? I've maybe seen four or five guys posting, all based on assumption though, but most others are girls!

I'm technically a male. Probably. I think. Hopefully.

A guy told me otherwise a few days ago, but it was a comment on my hair. ... I think.

OH MY GOD THIS IS THE WORST EPIPHANY EVER. BE RIGHT BACK, GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCHING.

[pjthefey]

I don't think this is true at the University of Washington. My senior capstone class had more women, but I think that is because the course title was "The Paranormal Romance."

[dayofthebees]

I'm not at university yet, but my English Lit class at Sixth Form is this way. There's 3 boys, and maybe 12-15 girls?
Although, to go against what rayyychul said about science and maths being more masculine, in my Physics class, there is 5 boys and 5 girls.