The Same Sex School Paradox

Single sex education is something we don’t see a lot of. However in the past couple of decades it’s been picking up in popularity. “Across the nation, the number of public schools exclusively for boys or girls has risen from 3 in 1995 to 241 today…” This topic is very polarized with strong evidence on both sides. 

            There seems to be this tug of war going on. Males will usually outperform females in science and math, and girls will outperform males in reading and writing. When the class rooms are unisex then we see an interesting trend. Girls will do just as well in science and math compared to their male counterparts. Same goes for boys performing in reading and writing. This almost makes it an even playing field in academics.  Isn’t this what society wants, equality? Well ironically enough single sex schools promote gender stereotypes.

            The effects of unisex schools and classrooms have some consequences as well. “Research shows that segregation promotes stereotyping.” (How Can Single-Sex Schooling Be Harmful?). The conclusion I came to when reading about this, is to never segregate unless you have to. Whether it's segregation by race, sex, or religion, it always leads to something bad.  Another big con is that it “Doesn’t prepare students for work or family life. “(Single-Sex Education: Pros and Cons). This is a great point since; the rest of the world is not going to be divided up by sex. It’s interesting how much we value diversity and mixing everyone together. When something like same sex schools are becoming more popular as time goes on.

            Society is stuck in this equality paradox where same sex schools promote equality in terms of academics, but at the same time it will encourage gender stereotypes. Which ones more important? Well there is no clean cut answer.  I wish there was a way where we could have our cake and eat it too.

Sources

http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/singleeduc.pdf

https://thesanfordschool.asu.edu/acces/evidence-based-answers-0

Women in Combat Roles

            By January 1 of 2016 all combat roles will be made available for women in the United States. This decision has been met with much controversy.  Many people are saying that women are not physically capable of handling such roles. In response the United States Marine Core has conducted tests with all male squads against mix gender squads. The test results showed that the all-male squads outperformed the mix gender squads in every category. Now does this mean that women should not be allowed to enlist into the Marine Core? Well, no. We cannot base everything off of one test; there are too many variables in play, one of them being experience. “…many of the male study participants had previously served in combat units, whereas female participants, by necessity, came directly from infantry schools or from non-combat jobs.” (Narula). This is a clear advantage. These test need to be as even as possible for any conclusion to be made. Luckily these tests have not changed the United States Military’s decision of letting women enlist into any combat role.

The real test should be the training. If a woman can pass through boot camp like another guy, then is there a reason not to let her serve in a combat roll? One concern is that co-ed combat squads will suffer from gender bias and stereotypes. “There is no level playing field established for men and women in terms of respect, conduct…” (Germano). This is why we should encourage women to serve in combat roles; women need a chance to earn the respect they deserve.

Other countries are already leading the way. Nations like Germany, Romania, Canada, and Demark have let females enlist into combat roles for over a decade now. Some of these women have even been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, to serve their countries on the front lines. Sweden in particular has seen great success with their female troops in Afghanistan. “Swedish military women work well with local Afghan women, the study noted, and have been able to lead units to discover makeshift bombs before they exploded and locate suicide bombers before they could strike.” (Fantz). Many of these traits would be extremely useful for ground troops that are deployed overseas.

Women can play a key role in any part of the military.  We as a society have to take that leap and let women show us what they are capable of.

                                                                                    Sources

1.      http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/us/women-in-combat-globally/

2.      http://qz.com/499618/the-us-marines-tested-all-male-squads-against-mixed-gender-ones-and-the-men-came-out-ahead/

3.      http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/08/20/should-women-serve-in-combat-roles/make-the-standards-for-male-and-female-marines-equal