Adam Spargue

Dr. Adam Sprague is the Student Success Center Coordinator and Assistant Professor of English at Bellin College where he teaches Composition, Professional Writing, Empathetic Listening, Identity, and Illness, and Health Communication. As of 2019, Dr. Sprague has published 10 academic manuscripts on a wide variety of topics, 2 book reviews, and 24 works of poetry and fiction. He has also led 13 conference presentations and 37 academic workshops across the nation. When he isn't teaching or writing, Adam enjoys bowling and being walked by his corgi, Grizz.

Reflections on Sexism in Higher Education Classrooms and Suggested Readings for Strategies to Help Instructors Tackle Sexism and Gender Bias

A Culture of Sexism

Despite the progress colleges and universities have made moving away from gender bias over the past few decades on a national scale, numerous female instructors continue to experience such bias on a daily basis at their workplace. Having taught at both large and small universities and colleges in four different states, nowhere was gender bias so apparent than in the state of Georgia.

While I, a 35-year-old male professor at the time, received no pushback in my very first (and only) year at the college, female professors regularly received regular pushback from students. During faculty meetings in our English Department, female professors also reported that this backlash came from male, not female, students about 75% of the time.

For example, I remember one female professor who outlined an essay assignment that served as the students’ midterm paper. Of the students that did not turn in the paper, over 90% of them were males. Additionally, males were much more likely to verbally disrespect and challenge female teachers. During my first year, not one of my 240+ students verbally challenged me in class in any way. However, numerous female professors reported male student outrage in class as a “growing and incredibly scary problem.”

At a Faculty-of-the-Whole meeting (a meeting with all college faculty are present with the Provost and President of the college), multiple professors voiced similar concerns from various departments. One professor described a male student who would stand up on a desk in the back row of class and call the professor a “sexist b***h” any time the student scored lower than an A on any quiz or assignment. Taken aback, she tried to ignore it and press forward rather than address the student directly--likely because she did not have the support network to do so. This must end.

As she spoke, I reflected on how I had plenty of students who had Cs, Ds, and Fs in my courses, but not a single student challenged me in class let alone called me a slur of any sort--rather they stated they knew the course was hard and would try again next semester--in my section--to do better. There was never a connection vocalized that I was the result of their poor grade, rather it was the students taking the blame for their own faults in the course. The Faculty-of-the-Whole meeting continued on with other female professors voicing similar concerns and ended by the Chair of the Business Department asking for meetings to help her instructors tackle sexism and gender bias in the classroom. The President of the College promised such meetings would occur in following Spring semester and quickly moved along to the topic of where faculty needed to park next week for an upcoming campus event.

The promised meetings never came.

This is when the danger of gender bias becomes clear--those being targeted by sexism begin to feel unsafe in their work environments due to the direct harassment, or violence against them, that they must endure daily with no support from their superiors. More specifically, those in power seemed entirely uninterested and unwilling to do anything about it, content to avoid confrontation at all costs in regard to issues related to gender bias.

I must admit that it was not until these brave women voiced their concerns that I fully realized just how many unspoken, unrealized benefits I was inherently receiving simply by being male. The level of disrespect these women faced irritated me immensely as there were no questions about the qualifications of my female colleagues as excellent teachers and scholars.

It also came to my attention that while my female colleagues and I both held Ph.D.s, students would regularly refer to me as “Doctor” while referring to my female colleagues as “Miss” or “Mrs.”. This was initially surprising to me, but I soon found that according to Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies and a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, male and female alike tend to ignore female professors’ titles but address male professors by their earned ranks.

I casually mentioned this to my colleagues. This led to an open and longer discussion at our next English Department meeting in which my female colleagues confirmed this to be true and voiced concerns about how they were being addressed in emails with casual greetings versus formal greetings including their titles. I remember pulling up my own email and immediately noticing how nearly every email started with “Dr. Sprague,” and theirs started with no greeting at all or simply a “Hey.” Other female professors spoke out that they were regularly mistaken as students by students on campus if they did not dress formally, whereas the vast majority of male professors simply wore jeans and a polo--not having to think about how their credibility and value as a person might be judged as a result of their morning clothing selections.

Strategies

So, what can be done about such gender bias toward female instructors? Well, one step is to simply raise awareness about such issues by writing essays like this. More specifically, though, in the realm of academia, we may need to do more than simply make our voice heard--we may need research on our side and a back pocket full of classroom strategies to help us tackle sexism and gender bias in the classroom until the change we want to see becomes the norm. In other words, it is time to be more assertive than ever.

First, we must take steps to include statements and policies of inclusion on each and every syllabus our departments create. Students must realize that there are real-world consequences for treating others disrespectfully. A simple statement emphasizing the fact that we are all adults and must treat each other with mutual respect is a beginning step in the right direction and makes visible the fact that we must think critically about the ways in which we speak with one another. Instructors can then also refer back to this policy if they should experience targeted harassment as a means to excuse the student or refer them to their Program Director or Dean.

Another method is to be an advocate to those in power to make changes. To do this, we must bring research along with us. If our personal stories are not being heard, we must work to bring research to those in power that highlights strategies for admitting sexism exists in our classrooms, confronting such sexism, and building our courses in ways that eliminate and reduce the odds for such sexism to occur.

In an effort to help you do this, whether you are a student, teacher, parent, or otherwise interested reader, I have provided to you a brief annotated bibliography of eight sources in the following section of this essay that will enable you to describe the impact of gender bias on female teachers and students, better identify forms of sexism and gender bias in higher education, and apply specific strategies to confront sexism and promote more inclusive environments in schools. It is my belief that all people want to reduce the suffering of others, but we do not always know how to do so (e.g. The President of a college hurrying past raised gender bias concerns to instead discuss a much safer topic like faculty parking). It is my hope that this annotated bibliography, then, empowers those readers who know they need to enact change to feel confident in pursuing that change. Each source is cited below so that you may easily find it for your own needs and contains my brief summary of the text immediately below each citation.

Annotated Bibliography

Boysen, G. A. (2013). Confronting math stereotypes in the classroom: Its effect on female

college students’ sexism and perceptions of confronters. Sex Roles, 69(5-6), 297-307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0287-y

This article reported the findings of two studies designed to examine the effect of confronting math stereotypes in a college classroom. The first study found that instructors were seen more positively when confronting the stereotype and that the confrontation resulted in a reduction of students’ self-reported sexism. The second study examined the effects of a teacher and a student intervening and found that both the student and the teacher were perceived more positively when they confronted rather than disregarded the stereotype. This study confirms the importance of teachers confronting sexist stereotypes in the classroom.

Bradley-Geist, J. C., Rivera, I., & Geringer, S. D. (2015). The collateral damage of ambient

sexism: Observing sexism impacts bystander self-esteem and career aspirations. Sex Roles, 73(1-2), 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0512-y

This work investigated the impact of ambient or benevolent sexism. As opposed to hostile sexism, benevolent sexism manifests in suggestive, but no less damaging, prejudices. When observing ambient sexism directed toward a female job applicant, females were more negatively affected than men. This impact was measured in performance-based self-esteem which affected career goals. This article reinforces the point that even subtle or benevolent sexism can have harmful effects.

Brinkman, B. G., & Rickard, K. M. (2009). College students’ descriptions of everyday gender

prejudice. Sex Roles, 61(7-8), 461–475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9643-3

This study examined gender diversity in experiences of gender stereotypes for undergraduate university students. The relevant findings were that the participants experienced an average of 2.8 events per day, with the majority of events being reported by women. Furthermore, the setting with the second largest number of events for both men and women was at school or in the workplace. This study highlights that sexism is a common experience for women that extends into the university classroom; addressing sexism in the classroom is thus an important topic for instructors.

Dasgupta, N., Scircle, M. M., & Hunsinger, M. (2015). Female peers in small work groups

enhance women’s motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(16), 4988-4993.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422822112

This investigation lends support to the idea that working in small group environments, particularly those including women, results in improved outcomes for female students. The authors created small groups in an engineering classroom and experimented with varying proportions of females. They found that for first-year students, groups composed of mostly females lessened anxiety, increased participation, and increased confidence. This gives instructors a specific way to improve learning outcomes for female students.

Killpack, T. L., & Melón, L. C. (2016). Toward inclusive stem classrooms: What personal role

do faculty play? CBE Life Sciences Education, 15(3).

https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-010020

Killpack & Melón provide concrete recommendations to faculty attempting to create an inclusive classroom environment. The recommendations are general in nature, as they pertain to all types of inclusion (sex, race, culture), however, they are relevant to and can be modified for making the classroom gender-inclusive.

Logel, C., Walton, G. M., Spencer, S. J., Iserman, E. C., von Hippel, W., & Bell, A. E. (2009).

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1089–1103.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015703

This paper analyzed the effect of interacting with a sexist man for women in engineering. This particular discipline was chosen as it is an area in which women are already the minority and are already negatively stereotyped. The major conclusions were that interacting with sexist men resulted in decreased academic performance on exams. These findings highlight how interacting with sexist men can have negative academic outcomes for women.

Morris, L. K., & Daniel, L. G. (2008). Perceptions of a chilly climate: Differences in traditional

and non-traditional majors for women. Research in Higher Education, 49(3), 256-273.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-007-9078-z

This study examined how perceptions differ between students in female- versus male-dominated fields of study. Primarily, the study found that women perceived the climate chillier than men and that students in female-dominated fields perceived the climate chillier than students in male-dominated fields. The article ends with important tips for instructors and educators on how to “warm” the climate.

Sadker, D. M., & Zittleman, K. (2007). Practical strategies for detecting and correcting gender

bias in your classroom. In D. Sadker & E. S. Silber (Eds.), Gender in the classroom:

foundations, skills, methods, and strategies across the curriculum (pp. 259-273).

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.