Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls

by Myra Pollack Sadker and David Miller Sadker

Book Overview

Failing at Fairness, the result of two decades of research, shows how gender bias makes it impossible for girls to receive an education equal to that given to boys. Girls' learning problems are not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684195410
• ISBN13: 9780684195414
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 347 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

An Important Contribution

This book should be required reading for all teachers and educators of every sort. A very detailed view of how schools cheat girls by marginialising their roles in the classrooms of America. What makes this book so good, however, is that there are some potential solutions available; that is not to say that this book really has THE answers, but it is a step in the right direction. The statistics regarding the prefromance of females at all-girl schools are impressive, and may be of importance, since co-ed instituions often seem to neglect girls to a greater degree, but this only seems a temporary solution, as the workforce itself is co-ed, and females must get used to operating in such environments. The main thing that is necessary is for the educators to get educated themselves in what is going on; it seems all too likely that the most of the teachers who are doing these things are not even aware of it. If useful strategies are taught to future teachers as to how to combat gender bias, schools in the future may be a great deal fairer of their treatment of all students.

Relevant and Vital

For every woman who ever sat in a classroom and was afraid to raise her hand, hunched her shoulders, or found a strength in finally speaking out. For their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands and children. Contrary to the negative reviews of this book, Orenstein is not attempting to 'blame the system', but to improve it and make girls and women more aware of how they themselves can get 'more for their money', per say, from the school system. Read this book if you even KNOW a girl.

Excellent Analysis of Age Old Problem

In addition to being a well-researched text, Failing at Fairness provides important antedotal evidence on girls' experience in school. I find it amusing that the two negative reviews here either contain substantive grammatical errors (lol) or criticize the authors for using girls' actual experiences -- hello -- social and cultural history provide very acceptable and important insights into human behavior. This text is a "must read" for educators and parents.

If you work with girls and young women, this is a must-have.

This book has really opened the eyes of many parents and teachers on our planning committee. The more we investigated the issues raised, the more validity we discovered. And most of all, even from the "good" teachers who thought they were doing a great job. We have had lots of spin-off research as a result of this wonderful resource.

Very enlightening. Very thought provoking.

I am very glad I read Failing at Fairness. I am an early childhood education major and it is a useful tool for all new teachers. I never realized how much girls were being discriminated against. The book made me realize how outdated our textbooks and classroom materials are. When the book mentioned naming 20 famous women I admit I could not. The important role that women played in the history of this country is sadly overlooked in our history books. Being a future educator this book made me aware of some of the biases we may have and not even be aware of. I am well aware of racial discrimination in the classrooms but before I read "Failing at Fairness" I was unaware of gender discrimination. It made me realize there are subtle messages we send to our young female students. Messages that can destroy their self-esteem and prevent them from becoming the adult that they can be. I will be aware of how much time I spend correcting my male students and how much I call on them. Failing at Fairness is an excellent book, very well researched and a must read for anyone involved in education.