Unit3GenderDifference新编大学英语第二版文翻译

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. 从文化角度看性别角色1 在过去的几十年里，已经无数次地证实了这样一个事实：构成男子阳刚之气和女子阴柔之气的各种不同类型的行为、情感、和兴趣都既是遗传又是文化熏陶的结果。在成长的过程中，每个孩子学会了细微的行为举止，数量之多数以百计，这一切都带有文化的烙印，成了他们性

17、别特征的一部分。有些行为举止是直接学到的。也就是说，别人教孩子如何恰如其分地行事, 男有男的规矩, 女有女的标准。另一些跟性别有关的具体举止是无意识地或间接地学会的，因为文化为女孩子和男孩子提供的形象、向往的目标以及成人的榜样各不相同。2 例如，最近对美国公立学校的一项研究显示，在教育中存在一种男孩比女孩更受偏爱的文化偏见。据研究人员反映，这种偏爱是无意的、不知不觉的，但它确实存在，并每年都在影响着数百万计学生的生活。为了研究在教育中存在的性别偏爱，戴维赛德克博士和迈拉赛德克博士夫妇录制了教师在课堂上课的情形。他们的研究显示，许多自认为无性别偏爱的教师惊奇地发现，从录像带上看他们竟是那么偏心。

18、从幼儿园到研究生课程，都可以看到教师们请男生回答问题的次数远比女生多。这对学习过程有着巨大的影响，因为总的来说，那些积极的课堂活动参与者对学习更加乐观有信心，并能在今后取得更大的成就。事实上，在20世纪60年代末期，当美国东北部多所最好的女子学院向男生开放之后，教授们和女学生们都发现男孩们正在“接管”课堂讨论，而女生积极参与的程度则明显下降。近年来，在法学院和医学院的课堂上也发现了类似的情况：与男生相比女生处于次要的地位。3 赛德克夫妇所做的研究显示，教师有时候会按照固有的性别模式给女孩子和男孩子不同布置的任务，这样便不知不觉地使女孩子不能像男孩子一样积极地参与。例如，有位教师在给幼儿园的孩子

19、上自然科学课时，不断地让小男孩去操作科学“实验”，而让女孩子只是做一些安放材料的工作。既然使用课堂材料动手操作是早期教育的一个重要方面，这些女孩子就这样被剥夺了重要的学习经历，这会影响到她们今后的整个人生。4 美国教师中一个具有代表性的想法是，男孩擅长数学和自然科学，这些学科都是“难懂的”、“适合于男性的”，而女孩会在语言和阅读技能上比男孩强。这是教育中性别偏见的另一种表现。结果美国的男孩们确实在阅读上出了问题，而在数学方面女孩尽管在九岁以前一直比男孩强，但此后却落在了他们后面。这成了预言自我应验的一个例子。然而这些特征是文化造成的，而非遗传的原因。例如，在德国，读书学习都被看作是“适合于男性

20、的”，于是在阅读上有问题的便是女孩子了。而在日本，由于早期教育似乎不分性别，女孩和男孩在阅读上就旗鼓相当。5 在教育过程中对女孩和男孩的不同态度始于家庭。例如，有一项研究显示了这样一种情况：让学龄前儿童看一幢房子的图片，然后要他们说出家里允许他们走开多远，这时男孩所指的范围要比女孩大得多，女孩指出的范围很有限，而且离家很近。女孩们不像男孩那样受到鼓励去发展求知欲和动手能力，尽管这些正是与外部世界打交道时有用的；对女孩灌输的结果是：对自己家外面的世界充满了恐惧，且期望别人对自己的优良品格和循规蹈矩的服从精神加以认可。这类教诲从家庭一直延续到课堂。于是，在课堂里我们常常可以看到女孩们更依赖教师，更

21、注重作业的形式和整洁而非内容，更在乎她们所给的答案是否“正确”而不在乎智力方面的独立自主以及分析能力和创造能力的提高。教育过程占据了孩子除睡眠以外的大部分时间，社会则通过这一过程加强了它固有的价值观，并按其传统的、期望的模式造就了不同性别的人。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. 男生是老师的宠儿1教室是男生的天下；即使在他们人数并不占多数时，老师三分之二的注意力仍花在他们身上。他们被允许取笑女生，他们作业做得马虎却受表扬，要是女生做这样的作业就得不到宽容。男生们已经习惯于做老师的宠儿。如果女生也得到同等待遇，男生就会抗议，甚至扰乱课堂。2以上这些话是伦敦大学教育学院的讲师戴尔·斯彭德在她本周出版的一本书中讲的。她认为在男女同校的学校里，歧视女生的现象太典型了，唯一的解决办法是实行男女生分班上课。3她是根据她自己和其他老师的课堂录

36、像这样说的。像斯彭德一样，许多老师曾有意给女生公平的机会。斯彭德说：“有时我甚至觉得我做得太过分了，我花在女生身上的时间比男生多。”4录像显示并非如此。在录了像的10节课(包括中学和大学课堂)里，斯彭德对女生的关注从未超出42(平均为38)，而对男生的关注均超过58。其他男女老师的情况也都相似。5也就是说，当老师花在女生身上的时间超过三分之一时，他们就觉得自己剥夺了男生应得的时间。男生们自己也这样认为。“她老是问女生问题，”当老师在课堂上给了女生34注意力时，一位男生这样说“她不喜欢男生，她只听女生发言，”另一个班上的一位男生说而在他的班上，老师对男生的关注占到63。6男生认为老师花三分之二的

37、时间在他们身上是公平的如果少于这个时间，就会在课堂上捣乱，甚至向上级主管投诉。一位老师说：“吸引他们的注意力是非常重要的，不然他们会表现得很糟糕。”7根据斯彭德的研究，课堂教学普遍实行双重标准。“当男生提问、表示反对甚至质疑老师时，他们通常得到尊重和奖励；而女生这样做却常常受到批评和惩罚。”8当男生需要老师关注时，能很快得到老师的回应。“然而女生的要求会被忽视；她们长时间地举着手，通常很礼貌地请求帮助但老师不予理睬，因为老师必须关注那些男生。”9一位女生在谈及一位男教师时评论道：“如果你是个女生，起火了你都不想举手告诉他。因为在他问你想说什么之前，我们已全都烧死了。”10斯彭德说，男生的书面作

38、业也是按不同的标准来评判的。当她让教师评判学生的论文和课题时，在告诉老师这是男生做的之后，同样的作业给的分数会高些。一位教师在谈到一项关于发明的课题时说：“当男生决定把作业当回事时，没有哪个女生能比得上他。”但实际上，这项课题是一位女生完成的。ll女生交上来的整洁干净的作业被嗤之以鼻。“我想她本可以多花些时间补充些事实，而不是花时间让作业显得美观，”一位老师这样评论。“很典型，是不是?所有的努力只是为了让它好看些你不能因为女生关注外表而揍他们一顿啊，”另一位老师这样看。但是当斯彭德指出作业是一位男生做的以后，语气就明显地改变了。12斯彭德总结说，女生在男女混合班中总处于不利的地位。如果女生像男

39、生一样吵闹、野心勃勃，那么她们会被认为“没有教养”；如果她们安静而顺从的话，又会被忽视。13斯彭德说，有些学校推行了数学课和自然科学课男女分班上课的办法，并且发现女生的成绩有显著的提高。她建议说，最有希望的解决办法是在学校内对某些课程实行男女分班上课而不是像过去那样男女分校上学。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