Unit3GenderDifference新編大學英語第二版文翻譯

1、Unit 3 Gender DifferenceGender Roles from a Cultural PerspectiveOver the past few decades, it has been proven innumerable times that the various types of behavior, emotions, and interests that constitute being masculine and feminine are patterned by both heredity and culture. In the process of growi

2、ng up, each child learns hundreds of culturally patterned details of behavior that become incorporated into its gender identity. Some of this learning takes place directly. In other words, the child is told by others how to act in an appropriately feminine or masculine way. Other details of gender b

3、ehavior are taught unconsciously, or indirectly, as the culture provides different images, aspirations, and adult models for girls and boys. Recently, for example, a study of American public schools showed that there is a cultural bias in education that favors boys over girls. According to the resea

4、rchers, the bias is unintentional and unconscious, but it is there and it is influencing the lives of millions of schoolchildren every year. Doctors David and Myra Sadker videotaped classroom teachers in order to study gender-related bias in education. Their research showed that many teachers who th

5、ought they were nonsexist were amazed to see how biased they appeared on videotape. From nursery school to postgraduate courses, teachers were shown to call on males in class far more than on female students. This has a tremendous impact on the learning process for, in general, those students who be

6、come active classroom participants develop more positive attitudes and go on to higher achievement. As a matter of fact, in the late 1960s, when many of the best all-women's colleges in the northeastern United States opened their doors to male students, it was observed by professors and women st

7、udents alike that the boys were "taking over" the classroom discussions and that active participation by women students had diminished noticeably. A similar subordination of female to male students has also been observed in law and medical school classrooms in recent years. 3 Research done

8、 by the Sadkers showed that sometimes teachers unknowingly prevented girls from participating as actively as boys in class by assigning them different tasks in accordance with stereotyped gender roles. For instance, one teacher conducting a science class with nursery school youngsters, continually h

9、ad the little boys perform the scientific "experiment" while the girls were given the task of putting the materials away. Since hands-on work with classroom materials is a very important aspect of early education, the girls were thus being deprived of a vital learning experience that would

10、 affect their entire lives. Another dimension of gender-biased education is the typical American teacher's assumption that boys will do better in the "hard", "masculine" subjects of math and science while girls are expected to have better verbal and reading skills. As an exam

11、ple of a self-fulfilling prophecy, American boys do, indeed, develop reading problems, while girls, who are superior to boys in math up to the age of nine, fall behind from then on. But these are cultural, not genetic patterns. In Germany, for example, all studies are considered "masculine"

12、;, and it is girls who develop reading problems. And in Japan, where early education appears to be nonsexist, both girls and boys do equally well in reading. The different attitudes associated with the educational process for girls and boys begin at home. One study, for example, showed that when pre

13、schoolers were asked to look at a picture of a house and tell how far away from the house they were permitted to go, the boys indicated a much wider area than the girls, who generally pointed out a very limited area close to the home. Instead of being encouraged to develop intellectual curiosity and

14、 physical skills that are useful in dealing with the outside world, as boys are, girls are filled with fears of the world outside the home and with the desire to be approved of for their "goodness" and obedience to rules. These lessons carry over from the home to the classroom, where girls

15、 are generally observed to be more dependent on the teacher, more concerned with the form and neatness of their work than with its content, and more anxious about being "right" in their answers than in being intellectually independent, analytical, or original. Thus, through the educational

16、 process that occupies most of the child's waking hours, society reinforces its established values and turns out each gender in its traditional and expected mold. 從文化角度看性別角色1 在過去的幾十年里，已經(jīng)無數(shù)次地證實了這樣一個事實：構成男子陽剛之氣和女子陰柔之氣的各種不同類型的行為、情感、和興趣都既是遺傳又是文化熏陶的結果。在成長的過程中，每個孩子學會了細微的行為舉止，數(shù)量之多數(shù)以百計，這一切都帶有文化的烙印，成了他們性

17、別特征的一部分。有些行為舉止是直接學到的。也就是說，別人教孩子如何恰如其分地行事, 男有男的規(guī)矩, 女有女的標準。另一些跟性別有關的具體舉止是無意識地或間接地學會的，因為文化為女孩子和男孩子提供的形象、向往的目標以及成人的榜樣各不相同。2 例如，最近對美國公立學校的一項研究顯示，在教育中存在一種男孩比女孩更受偏愛的文化偏見。據(jù)研究人員反映，這種偏愛是無意的、不知不覺的，但它確實存在，并每年都在影響著數(shù)百萬計學生的生活。為了研究在教育中存在的性別偏愛，戴維賽德克博士和邁拉賽德克博士夫婦錄制了教師在課堂上課的情形。他們的研究顯示，許多自認為無性別偏愛的教師驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，從錄像帶上看他們竟是那么偏心。

18、從幼兒園到研究生課程，都可以看到教師們請男生回答問題的次數(shù)遠比女生多。這對學習過程有著巨大的影響，因為總的來說，那些積極的課堂活動參與者對學習更加樂觀有信心，并能在今后取得更大的成就。事實上，在20世紀60年代末期，當美國東北部多所最好的女子學院向男生開放之后，教授們和女學生們都發(fā)現(xiàn)男孩們正在“接管”課堂討論，而女生積極參與的程度則明顯下降。近年來，在法學院和醫(yī)學院的課堂上也發(fā)現(xiàn)了類似的情況：與男生相比女生處于次要的地位。3 賽德克夫婦所做的研究顯示，教師有時候會按照固有的性別模式給女孩子和男孩子不同布置的任務，這樣便不知不覺地使女孩子不能像男孩子一樣積極地參與。例如，有位教師在給幼兒園的孩子

19、上自然科學課時，不斷地讓小男孩去操作科學“實驗”，而讓女孩子只是做一些安放材料的工作。既然使用課堂材料動手操作是早期教育的一個重要方面，這些女孩子就這樣被剝奪了重要的學習經(jīng)歷，這會影響到她們今后的整個人生。4 美國教師中一個具有代表性的想法是，男孩擅長數(shù)學和自然科學，這些學科都是“難懂的”、“適合于男性的”，而女孩會在語言和閱讀技能上比男孩強。這是教育中性別偏見的另一種表現(xiàn)。結果美國的男孩們確實在閱讀上出了問題，而在數(shù)學方面女孩盡管在九歲以前一直比男孩強，但此后卻落在了他們后面。這成了預言自我應驗的一個例子。然而這些特征是文化造成的，而非遺傳的原因。例如，在德國，讀書學習都被看作是“適合于男性

20、的”，于是在閱讀上有問題的便是女孩子了。而在日本，由于早期教育似乎不分性別，女孩和男孩在閱讀上就旗鼓相當。5 在教育過程中對女孩和男孩的不同態(tài)度始于家庭。例如，有一項研究顯示了這樣一種情況：讓學齡前兒童看一幢房子的圖片，然后要他們說出家里允許他們走開多遠，這時男孩所指的范圍要比女孩大得多，女孩指出的范圍很有限，而且離家很近。女孩們不像男孩那樣受到鼓勵去發(fā)展求知欲和動手能力，盡管這些正是與外部世界打交道時有用的；對女孩灌輸?shù)慕Y果是：對自己家外面的世界充滿了恐懼，且期望別人對自己的優(yōu)良品格和循規(guī)蹈矩的服從精神加以認可。這類教誨從家庭一直延續(xù)到課堂。于是，在課堂里我們常常可以看到女孩們更依賴教師，更

21、注重作業(yè)的形式和整潔而非內容，更在乎她們所給的答案是否“正確”而不在乎智力方面的獨立自主以及分析能力和創(chuàng)造能力的提高。教育過程占據(jù)了孩子除睡眠以外的大部分時間，社會則通過這一過程加強了它固有的價值觀，并按其傳統(tǒng)的、期望的模式造就了不同性別的人。Boys Are Teachers' PetsThe classroom is a man's world, where boys get two-thirds of the teachers' attention even when they are in a minority. They are allowed to teas

22、e the girls and they receive praise for sloppy work that would not be tolerated from girls. Boys are accustomed to being teachers pets, and, if girls get anything like equal treatment, boys will protest and even disrupt lessons. These claims are made in a book out this week, written by Dale Spender,

23、 a lecturer at the London University Institute of Education. She argues that discrimination against girls is so typical of co-educational schools that single-gender classes are the only answer. Her case is based on tape-recordings of her own and other teachers' lessons. Many of them, like Spende

24、r, had deliberately set out to give girls a fair chance. "Sometimes," says Spender, "I have even thought I have gone too far and have spent more time with the girls than the boys." The tapes proved otherwise. In 10 taped lessons (in secondary school and college), Spender never ga

25、ve the girls more than 42 percent of her attention (the average was 38 percent) and never gave the boys less than 58 percent. There were similar results for other teachers, both male and female. In other words, when teachers give girls more than a third of their time, they feel that they are deprivi

26、ng the boys of their rightful share. And so do the boys themselves. "She always asked the girls all the questions," said one boy in a classroom where 34 percent of the teachers' time was allocated to girls. "She doesn't like boys, and just listens to the girls," said a bo

27、y in another class, where his gender got 63 percent of the teacher's attention. Boys regarded two-thirds of the teacher's time as a fair dealand when they got less they caused trouble in class and even complained to a higher authority. "It's important to keep their attention,"

28、said one teacher. "Otherwise, they behave very badly." According to Spender's research, double standards pervade the classroom. "When boys ask questions, protest, or challenge the teacher, they are often met with respect and rewards; when girls engage in exactly the same behavior,

29、 they are often met with criticism and punishment." A boy seeking attention will quickly get a response from a teacher. "But girls can be ignored; their hands can be held up for ages, and their often polite requests for assistance are disregarded as the teacher is obliged to remain with th

30、e boys." One girl, talking about a male teacher, commented: "You wouldn't want to have your hand up to tell him there was a fire, if you were a girl. We'd all burn to death before he asked you what you wanted to say. Boys' written work, too, is judged by different standards, sa

31、ys Spender. When she asked teachers to mark essays and projects, the same work got better marks when teachers were told that it came from boys. "When a boy decides to make a thing of it, there's not a girl that can match him," one teacher said of a project on inventions. But, in fact,

32、the work had been done by a girl. Neat and tidy work from girls was treated with some contempt. "I think she could have spent more time on getting some facts than on making it look pretty, was one comment. "Typical, isn't it? All that effort just to make it look niceYOU can't beat

33、girls for being concerned with appearances," was another. But when Spender indicated that the work came from a boy, the tune changed dramatically. Spender concludes that, in mixed classes, the girls are at a disadvantage. If they are as noisy and ambitious as the boys, they are considered "

34、;unladylike" if they are quiet and passive, they are ignored. A few schools have introduced single-gender groups for math and science, says Spender, and have found significant improvements in girls' results. Separating boys and girls within schools for certain subjectsrather than a return t

35、o single-gender schoolsis the most hopeful solution she suggests. 男生是老師的寵兒1教室是男生的天下；即使在他們人數(shù)并不占多數(shù)時，老師三分之二的注意力仍花在他們身上。他們被允許取笑女生，他們作業(yè)做得馬虎卻受表揚，要是女生做這樣的作業(yè)就得不到寬容。男生們已經(jīng)習慣于做老師的寵兒。如果女生也得到同等待遇，男生就會抗議，甚至擾亂課堂。2以上這些話是倫敦大學教育學院的講師戴爾·斯彭德在她本周出版的一本書中講的。她認為在男女同校的學校里，歧視女生的現(xiàn)象太典型了，唯一的解決辦法是實行男女生分班上課。3她是根據(jù)她自己和其他老師的課堂錄

36、像這樣說的。像斯彭德一樣，許多老師曾有意給女生公平的機會。斯彭德說：“有時我甚至覺得我做得太過分了，我花在女生身上的時間比男生多?！?錄像顯示并非如此。在錄了像的10節(jié)課(包括中學和大學課堂)里，斯彭德對女生的關注從未超出42(平均為38)，而對男生的關注均超過58。其他男女老師的情況也都相似。5也就是說，當老師花在女生身上的時間超過三分之一時，他們就覺得自己剝奪了男生應得的時間。男生們自己也這樣認為?！八鲜菃柵鷨栴}，”當老師在課堂上給了女生34注意力時，一位男生這樣說“她不喜歡男生，她只聽女生發(fā)言，”另一個班上的一位男生說而在他的班上，老師對男生的關注占到63。6男生認為老師花三分之二的

37、時間在他們身上是公平的如果少于這個時間，就會在課堂上搗亂，甚至向上級主管投訴。一位老師說：“吸引他們的注意力是非常重要的，不然他們會表現(xiàn)得很糟糕?！?根據(jù)斯彭德的研究，課堂教學普遍實行雙重標準?！爱斈猩釂?、表示反對甚至質疑老師時，他們通常得到尊重和獎勵；而女生這樣做卻常常受到批評和懲罰?！?當男生需要老師關注時，能很快得到老師的回應?！叭欢囊髸缓鲆?；她們長時間地舉著手，通常很禮貌地請求幫助但老師不予理睬，因為老師必須關注那些男生?！?一位女生在談及一位男教師時評論道：“如果你是個女生，起火了你都不想舉手告訴他。因為在他問你想說什么之前，我們已全都燒死了?！?0斯彭德說，男生的書面作

38、業(yè)也是按不同的標準來評判的。當她讓教師評判學生的論文和課題時，在告訴老師這是男生做的之后，同樣的作業(yè)給的分數(shù)會高些。一位教師在談到一項關于發(fā)明的課題時說：“當男生決定把作業(yè)當回事時，沒有哪個女生能比得上他。”但實際上，這項課題是一位女生完成的。ll女生交上來的整潔干凈的作業(yè)被嗤之以鼻。“我想她本可以多花些時間補充些事實，而不是花時間讓作業(yè)顯得美觀，”一位老師這樣評論。“很典型，是不是?所有的努力只是為了讓它好看些你不能因為女生關注外表而揍他們一頓啊，”另一位老師這樣看。但是當斯彭德指出作業(yè)是一位男生做的以后，語氣就明顯地改變了。12斯彭德總結說，女生在男女混合班中總處于不利的地位。如果女生像男

39、生一樣吵鬧、野心勃勃，那么她們會被認為“沒有教養(yǎng)”；如果她們安靜而順從的話，又會被忽視。13斯彭德說，有些學校推行了數(shù)學課和自然科學課男女分班上課的辦法，并且發(fā)現(xiàn)女生的成績有顯著的提高。她建議說，最有希望的解決辦法是在學校內對某些課程實行男女分班上課而不是像過去那樣男女分校上學。Stereotypes and Individual DifferencesStereotypes are types of generalization that are useful in organizing the massive amounts of information to which people a

40、re exposed. As with any generalization, the formation of stereotypes downplays the behavior of specific individuals and stresses trends across large numbers of people. 1 After many observations of different individuals, people from all over the world are likely to see more aggressive behavior in men

41、, more nurturant behavior in women, more assertion of leadership among men, and more passivity among women in mixed-gender groups. These observations become part of the universal stereotypes of men and women. When drawing their conclusions about men and women, observers do not focus on individual di

42、fferences. They do not focus their attention on the individual aggressive woman or the passive man. In their studies, Williams and Best found that passivity was part of the stereotype of females in 25 cultures. Other parts of the stereotype were that females were respectful, nurturant, and sociable.

43、 In addition to an explanation based on biological differences that lead to responsibilities for child care, Williams and Best asserted that additional arguments need to be made about the reasons for the stereotype. One argument is that people become comfortable believing that members of each gender

44、 either have or can develop the characteristics that are necessary to carry out tasks in a smooth-functioning society. If females are to have a principal responsibility for the care of the young, it is reassuring to believe that they can beor can becomeaffectionate, gentle, patient, sympathetic, and

45、 so on. If males are to serve as hunters and warriors, it is comforting to believe that they can beor can becomeadventurous, aggressive, courageous, energetic, independent, self-confident, and the like. It may be in this context, the "justification of necessity" with regard to different so

46、cial roles, that many of the gender-trait stereotypes originated. Once established, the beliefs concerning the psychological makeup serve as norms for the behavior of adult men and women and provide models for the socialization of girls and boys toward their assigned gender roles. Another needed par

47、t of the explanation is consistent with some feminist approaches to the analysis of gender differences. According to these studies, once men are socialized to act in a dominant manner, they become comfortable with their power over women and develop norms that keep women in inferior positions. People

48、 who hold power learn to enjoy it and are unwilling to let go of it. When men have power, they often develop beliefs that maintain it (e.g. "We are better at making tough decisions.") Further, they develop other beliefs that make it difficult for women to gain access to power (e.g. "T

49、hey are really happier in homemaker roles.") Returning to the arguments about gender, the tendency for women to become passive in the company of men does not have to dictate behavior among adults in today's world. After all, it is possible for women, who find themselves deferring to men dur

50、ing arguments and discussions in the workplace, to try to break old habits. They can, for example, make a point of asking relevant questions and of becoming more active participants in the discussion. In other words, they can make a conscious decision to move beyond traditional male-female tendencie

51、s. The liberation that stems from moving beyond traditional gender roles can benefit members of both sexes. Men who have a tendency to dominate meetings, for instance, may want to make a point of listening to and respecting the contributions of others. They may find that the meetings will be much mo

52、re productive. Time and energy will be spent on developing good ideas rather than on sorting out positions in the dominance hierarchy. As women decide to move into roles that were traditionally denied them, there is a decrease in the number of sharp distinctions that once marked the behavior of men

53、and women. School-related performance is an example. If there once was a stereotype that women perform less well than men in mathematics and better in language and the arts, the differences today are almost nonexistent. Once females are encouraged to take advanced mathematics courses, and once males

54、 are encouraged to pursue interests in language and the arts, they are able to take advantage of a school's offerings without the prejudice that "boys do better in math, girls do better in areas involving verbal skills". In an ideal world, once opportunities within a society are opened

55、 up to members of both genders, individuals can pursue various goals based on their abilities and interests. Further, they can pursue their goals without the constant concern that there will eventually be limits placed on them. This ideal world does not yet exist, but there has been research in diverse cultures that has given insights into what a society without unnecessary gender restrictions might look like. Research has focused on the pressures for movements