Recently, in my digital rhetoric writing class an interesting thing happened. We were discussing political tweets, and about halfway through the discussion the professor stated an observation. She pointed out that the class was divided cleanly in half with all those actively participating in the discussion on one side, and all those remaining fairly quiet on the other. As it turns out one half was entirely men and the other women. It was brought up that girls are often socialized to not speak up and engage in conversations, especially about politics.
Yet, I have noticed that in general, the males dominate the conversations in the class. There is a clear gender divide. It seems to be a clear example of how boys and girls are socialized differently. Males are taught to be commanding and to take charge, whereas females are often taught to shy away from being too outspoken. The difference is very clear in my class.
At first glance, this divide may seem harmless enough. We hear that women tend to be more driven by relationships and men by missions or goals. So, it would make sense that women would learn to be less aggressive in these conversations for the sake of maintaining good relationships right? Perhaps. But the problem is that if women are not engaging in these conversations as much as men, then the thoughts, ideas, and overall progress of society is still being dominated by men, causing change to favor males over females. In order to achieve a truly egalitarian future, all voices need to be heard equally, and if my writing class is any indicator, we still have a ways to go.
D. Matthew Ray
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