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Post by Olive on Jun 9, 2011 8:29:49 GMT -5
There was a majority of women in my English classes, but it wasn't so skewed that there was ever a lone male. Also, most of my professors (actually, all of my English professors this past year) are males, as is most of the faculty in the department.
There's just a lot of women at this school in general. English is the biggest department (by quite a bit), Education is one of the schools major attractions (it was originally a teacher's college), and Nursing is the other thing we're known for (the hospital is practically attached to the school). Meanwhile, if you go 100 miles west, there's a Technological university that is overwhelmingly male. (A friend that goes there visited my dorm freshman year, and made the comment "wait, there are girls here!" >.>)
As in: Rayychul is pretty much right. I had actually been dead set on a science field until the end of my freshman year of high school... I think it's because that's when I realized that I didn't want to sit at a desk all day, staring at a computer and waiting for something to happen (read: astronomy). Writing sounded much more exciting, and was something I had always been passionate about, so here I am.
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Umbvix
Young Armadillo
SCHLURP :B
Posts: 64
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Post by Umbvix on Jun 9, 2011 9:11:21 GMT -5
It's about like that with Art majors, too. We had like, two male art majors (that I knew of, at least) and all the rest were girls. It was a bit uncomfortable, actually.
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casey
Armadillo Pup
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Post by casey on Jun 9, 2011 15:24:19 GMT -5
In my English classes there have been probably equal parts black people and white people. I also go to a university in Detroit, so everyone is black and everyone is white and everyone is middle eastern, equal parts, pretty much. I definitely have noticed that there are usually more girls in the major, but in my creative writing class there were quite a few guys, maybe half.
I haven't thought about it before but I really do appreciate diversity in discussion-based classes. If there were no black people in my classes I really think the conversation would have suffered. It is central to so much of what we have read. A lot of my professors are also male. I notice more of a sex discrepancy in my French classes. One male, 15 females, basically.
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Post by Dodger Thirteen on Jun 9, 2011 16:09:15 GMT -5
Society has decided that English/writing/reading/literature/etc. are "girly" or "feminine" crafts. This just absolutely fascinates me, considering how women weren't even allowed to learn to read hundreds of years ago. Just...it's amazing, to me, how large of a change that is. /history major As for my school's English program, I want to say it's about 2/3 females to 1/3 males, possibly even closer together; however, I go to a university, not a college, so we have a very, very large student population. |
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 9, 2011 19:44:01 GMT -5
In my class of 24, there are about six males, so 1/6 of the class is male. Similarly, in my philosophy class of ~15, there are five males, so more even than English, but still skewed.
However (since sciences have come up), my maths class was actually fairly even; there were probably a few more males than females, but it was pretty even considering it was a double-maths class, too. Chemistry had more males; biology more females. And, actually, medicine uni courses are 60:40, female:male, pretty much across the board.
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Post by Dodger Thirteen on Jun 10, 2011 0:12:22 GMT -5
It baffles me how y'all can have such small departments....
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invision
Armadillo Pup
Random Axe of Kindness
Posts: 47
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Post by invision on Jun 10, 2011 1:33:16 GMT -5
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. That makes absolutely no sense, considering that most popular authors are men, and that it is widely accepted for males to be writers and artists in general. There is, however, a good possibility that men just prefer science and math because, one, men are (on average) better at math than women, and two, science is where all of the jobs are right now, because most people are going into liberal arts majors. James |
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Post by onlyaworkingtitle on Jun 10, 2011 1:45:11 GMT -5
It baffles me how y'all can have such small departments.... I went to a college of about 450 students and 50 faculty. We're... a tight-knit school. The English department is one of the largest, if you can believe it. |
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Post by Silva on Jun 10, 2011 15:14:15 GMT -5
It baffles me how y'all can have such small departments.... I went to a college of about 450 students and 50 faculty. We're... a tight-knit school. The English department is one of the largest, if you can believe it. Holy crap, your school is smaller than the one I'm going to! Mine has more than 900 students and less than 1000, and only 200 incoming freshmen. I'm not sure how big the English department is yet, though, since I haven't even started classes there yet. I got told the English major was pretty popular, though. |
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Post by Fuck Yeah Dion on Jun 11, 2011 1:05:44 GMT -5
It baffles me how y'all can have such small departments.... Y'ALL! Love seeing that word online. |
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Post by cyanea on Jun 11, 2011 11:42:35 GMT -5
It baffles me how y'all can have such small departments.... I went to a college of about 450 students and 50 faculty. We're... a tight-knit school. The English department is one of the largest, if you can believe it. I think your entire school is like...the size of my English department. |
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Post by meggieinluckey on Jun 13, 2011 15:19:30 GMT -5
I think this is an emergence of two phenomena: more women are being admitted to universities than men, and what majors women are encouraged to go into vs men.
In my department (a large state school), we had a fair balance of men and women in English (I am unfamiliar with our official racial composition, but I would say it is fairly white wash) in both undergrad and graduate students. Also, we have a more balanced faculty than most schools, but again, most tenured folks are men.
I disagree w/the idea that men are inherently 'better' than women at maths and sciences. It is merely a byproduct of an educational system (I'm talking K-12 here, not just at the university level) which encourages men to get into math and science more than women, while women are (generally) encouraged more to go into the humanities or liberal arts (where there is GENERALLY a lower pay scale for graduates from those programs vs hard sciences).
Finally, I think that it is more telling to look at funding within graduate programs of English: while men can be seen as more of an anomaly at the graduate level, departments will probably fund a man before funding a woman, to show that they are more diverse.
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rayyychul
Armadillo
On ne voit bien qu'avec le c?ur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Posts: 159
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Post by rayyychul on Jun 13, 2011 15:39:24 GMT -5
The misogyny and ignorance in your comment is disgusting. For starters, the idea that men outperform women in sciences and maths is an outdated and incredibly sexist notion.
Men dominate fields in science and math because of socialisation wherein women are taught to steer clear of typically "manly" careers. Men are socialised the same way - to stay away for "womanly" careers, which include many careers that can be obtained with an arts degree.
Do you think women don't go into construction because they're fragile little creatures, or because society has taught them (be it directly or indirectly) that it's a "man's job"?
Here's something to think about: if there are more jobs in sciences, because more people have arts majors, then why aren't women taking advantage of these situations?
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 13, 2011 16:19:04 GMT -5
Do you think women don't go into construction because they're fragile little creatures, or because society has taught them (be it directly or indirectly) that it's a "man's job"? This is a little off-topic, but my sister has said that, were she not doing what she is right now, she'd love to be a builder, but she "could never tell" her boyfriend that because he'd laugh in her face/think it was too weird or stupid etc. for her to be a builder. |
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rayyychul
Armadillo
On ne voit bien qu'avec le c?ur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Posts: 159
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Post by rayyychul on Jun 13, 2011 17:09:10 GMT -5
I don't think it's particularly off-topic! It's a perfect example of how women and men are conditioned to adhere to the gender roles that society has taught them are appropriate. Your sister is afraid that her boyfriend will laugh at her for wanting to be a builder, because of the stigma that construction/building are "men's jobs."
I feel the same applies to arts. Let's face it: women outnumber men in arts and men outnumber women in sciences. There are a plethora of reasons for this, of course, but many of them have to do with unconscious biases towards women and men within certain fields.
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