High stakes spur females toward classroom success
Print Edition
Boys can’t keep up in the classroom and girls are to blame. That’s what “Save the Boys” campaign proponents claimed in recent interviews with the local media. Specifically they say the school system, which relies on rote memorization and test taking, favors girls because “they are good at memorizing and like sitting quietly to read.”
Apart from blaming girls for boys’ inadequacy, these activists don’t mention that regardless of who has an advantage in school, girls will face challenges for the rest of their lives that boys won’t. And it is because girls are aware of this glass ceiling that they strive to outperform boys in order to prove themselves.
I see this with most of my female students, who will often obtain leadership positions or create something innovative because they perceive a lack of women doing so. Unlike boys, girls are driven to achieve not because of personal considerations, but rather as a cause célèbre: it is not their victory, but that of women everywhere.
The unfortunate thing is that while these girls are praised and incentivized when they are young, once they become young women, they are warned about spending too many years at university and becoming shengnu, or “left-over women.”
Despite this, women have made enormous strides, and China is now the country with the most female billionaires: 49 compared to only 15 in the US. Still, this figure stands along widely-held cultural beliefs that women over 25 or with advanced degrees are “unmarryable.” What this means is that unlike boys whose success depends solely on their efforts, girls in China also have to overcome limiting societal beliefs on their way to the top.
The real issue is not with boys underperforming in the classroom, but rather taking the pressure off girls so they don’t feel like they have to run a mile for every meter a boy walks.
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