{"id":31,"date":"2011-11-07T21:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T02:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/wordpress\/?p=31"},"modified":"2018-04-17T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T19:36:11","slug":"the-woman%e2%80%99s-high-heeled-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"The Woman\u2019s High-Heeled Manifesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women to the Right of You, Women to the Left of You:<\/strong>
\nThe Value of Single Gender Classrooms, Labs, Trainings<\/strong><\/p>\n

As more young women are encouraged to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math, yet another area for the raging controversy re: single gender environments emerge.\u00a0 Do we do a service or disservice to females putting them in a single gender atmosphere?\u00a0 Some would propose that without the opportunity to learn \u201creal world\u201d gender behavior we do females a disservice.<\/p>\n

When the AAUW first published Short Changing Girls, Short Changing America there was no question that girls were treated differently in the classroom than boys.\u00a0 They were often ignored, not challenged to provide in-depth answers, and generally held to lower expectations.\u00a0 The controversy rears its head again in STEM collegiate laboratories across the country, school districts studying the value of single gender classrooms and trainers, like me, who offer female only workshops.\u00a0 Read the article by Martha Irvine about Dr. Elizabeth Harbron\u2019s lab at the University of William and Mary.\u00a0 This lab is a perfect example of the value of single gender environments.\u00a0 Though she didn\u2019t set out to create a \u201cfemale only\u201d lab, that is what emerged and what led many female students to flourish.<\/p>\n

As women, we ask ourselves why we often reach our highest potential in single sex classrooms, labs, or training environments.\u00a0 It\u2019s an opportunity to practice, practice, and practice.\u00a0 Practice identifying our opinions, beliefs, and perspectives free from testosterone fueled bravado.\u00a0 If you have never been asked your opinion, never been asked to \u201cprove your case\u201d, or stand your ground then chances are your confidence level is shaky.\u00a0 Add a pinch of shaky plus a big cup of bluster and what do you get?\u00a0 You create an atmosphere much like the asinine chaos of Sports Center.\u00a0 If you have ever watched the \u201cdesk wars\u201d on Saturday morning prior to or during a collegiate football game then you know what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 Who can interrupt the loudest, most frequently, and with greatest arrogance?\u00a0 Is it any wonder that many women would prefer to test their confidence and skills in an environment that at least is civil?<\/p>\n

On those occasions that my seminars have both female and male participants, this \u201cstep up and speak out\u201d issue arises even for mature professionals.\u00a0 Time after time, I have observed competent, bright, and articulate women defer to the men in the room.\u00a0 If grown women will continue to yield to men in professional training workshops, then it should be no surprise you that school girls and college women struggle.\u00a0 Given the opportunity, find every opportunity to create environments where women can test their wings without male wing clippers on the loose.\u00a0 Every corporation that has Women\u2019s Initiatives should be applauded.<\/p>\n

\u00a9Copyright 2011.\u00a0 Kay Fittes.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women to the Right of You, Women to the Left of You: The Value of Single Gender Classrooms, Labs, Trainings As more young women are encouraged to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math, yet another area for the raging controversy re: single gender environments emerge.\u00a0 Do we do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qkhe-v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}