Looking Back To The Past

In my small-town high school, I never really thought about whether there were equal rights to both sexes. Yet after senior year, I managed to realize that equality was not a strong part in my district. I simply assumed that boys were in math, science, construction, engineering, and automatics because they wanted to be. And that girls took cooking classes, citizenship, art, english, history, and foreign language only because they wanted too. Today, I realize that in my high school, as a woman I was pushed towards fields considered to be more feminine regardless of my likes or dislikes. For example, in my AP Biology class, in which I special permission had to be granted to get into the class, there were 28 students and only 6 were girls. On the other hand, the same year in my AP English Language class, there were 22 students and only 3 were boys.
I never realized at the time how drastic the numbers were between genders in classes, until I became part of the Board of Education. When debates arose about providing the STEM, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics, academy into our school district, the gender divide became apparent. Not only did boys outnumber girls by 2 to 1, it appeared to be only Anglo- Saxon high class males. A professor from a nearby college came in telling us this pathway has great benefits because it expands the abilities of gifted students. While a teacher in the system explained how the academy had isolated him and made him socially inept. He only knew how to deal with upper class white boys, and especially had no experience with girls. Eventually my county agreed to start this program. After reading the applications not only were the majority of the applicants boys, but seventy percent of the accepted students were males. No one should ever have to be forced into a pathway. Although, on the surface the school system says there are equal opportunities, some of my experiences show otherwise.