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Women Students
Although women have been a part of the college scene for many years now and constitute approximately half of the undergraduate population at Ohio State, classroom practices that have arisen through a tradition of male-dominated instructional settings often are still in use and detract from learning opportunities for women. These practices are described extensively in Hall and Sandler (1982) and include use of sexist language and jokes, failure to recognize women during discussion or to employ eye contact with women, failure to intervene when male students interrupt or deny access to women in discussion situations, holding lower performance expectations for women than men, and routine assignment of dominant roles such as team leader to men rather than women.
The world view, epistemology, and curriculum content of most university instruction has been rooted in the male western tradition. Instructors can enhance learning opportunities for women as well as men by trying to incorporate in their teaching the contributions of women and other cultures and recognizing the value of multiple ways of knowing. They can see knowledge as constructed, rather than transferred, and learn to appreciate alternate ways of knowing, such as emotions, insight, and intuition.
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