When we were discussing Cerriere's Answer today, I thought Jessica brought up an interesting point about how women sometimes worry that they come across as "too edgy" when they speak. (Jessica, please correct me if I didn't accurately understand what you were saying). A female friend of mine here has mentioned this very issue to me on a couple occasions. She claims that female students, more often than male students, have a tendency to ask questions instead of make statements, of if they make a statement to soften it with a qualification such as "I feel like...."

Coincidentally, an article posted today on CLS' homepage mentions this as well. Professor Carol Sanger was honored at The Columbia Law Women’s Association annual Myra Bradwell Dinner, and this is a small excerpt from her speech:

“It is my sense and I hate to say, my experience, that women are still often reticent to claim and to aspire to accomplishment. To give but two minor examples, I rarely hear men in class start a question with the apology that “This may be a stupid question, but ….” And I almost never hear men turn a declarative statement into a question by tilting the sentence upward at the end.

These may not be perfect examples but they do to some extent represent a degree of lack of confidence. To claim accomplishment or authority takes ambition and somehow ambition is not ladylike.”

If there are others in the class that feel this way I think it would be valuable to hear why. Are there things that male students in particular do to perpetuate this, or is it just a product of larger social pressures that extend beyond the classroom?

-- DanKarmel - 21 Apr 2010

My own opinion is that Sanger goes a bit too far-- I do not believe such behavior necessarily reflects lack of confidence or ambition. I would say that perhaps female students speak the way they do in class because they are more aware of how nuanced the particular topic is upon which they are commenting. Why women want to provide the "correct" answer while men are satisfied with throwing out their "opinion" is surely the result of some society-ingrained process I won't try to speculate upon here. Isn't this a possibility, too?

On a final note, I have often been called out on for not being "ladylike." And yet, if I chose to behave "ladylike," say, in front of a powerful man with an eye to obtaining a job, that would be criticized. Except then I would be called a "whore" or a "slut," using my feminine prowess for evil. Whatever.

-- KalliopeKefallinos - 21 Apr 2010