But the idea that the "schools shortchange girls" is wrong and dangerously wrong. It is girls who get higher grades in school, who do better than boys on standardized tests of reading and writing, and who get higher class rank and more school honors. It is young women who enter and graduate from college far more frequently than young men. It is women who have made dramatic progress in obtaining professional, business, and doctoral degrees. The great gender gap of the 1960s in advanced degrees has almost closed, especially in the professional fields to which ambitious women aspire. In the view of elementary and high school students, the young people who sit in the classroom year after year and observe what is going on, both boys and girls agree: Schools favor girls. Teacher think girls are smarter, like being around them more, and hold higher expectations for them.

• Women attained over 40% of professional degrees awarded in 1994, up from almost none in 1961
• Minority women made especially large gains in attaining professional degrees. African-American women received 57% of professional degrees awarded to African-Americans in 1994, outdoing African-American men
• Most women with professional aspirations seek law degrees. In 1994, 43 percent of law degrees were awarded to women.

• In 1994, women received the majority of professional degrees awarded in veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and optometry.

  
  Business Administration Degrees. Women are also catching up in receiving business degrees, especially the advanced MBA.

• In 1995, American women received over 37 percent of the MBAs awarded American citizens (NCES, 1997b, Table 269).

• The number of MBAs awarded to women since 1965 has increased more than a hundredfold. In 1965, women received only about 300 MBAs. In 1995, women received almost 35,000 MBAs (NCES, 1997b, Table 281).
  

  Doctoral Degrees. The gender gap in doctoral degrees is also closing. Since the 1960s, women have made enormous progress in gaining doctoral degrees. Women in 1994 Attained About 40 Percent of Doctoral Degrees, Up from About 10 Percent in 1961.
  

• In the biological and life sciences, American women in 1994 received over 40 percent of the doctorates, up from 12 percent in 1962
• In mathematics and the physical sciences, American women in 1994
  received over 20 percent of the doctorates, up from only 4 percent in 1961

  ...

  In short, women are moving into high status occupations in enormous numbers. Ambitious women, however, are seeking professional degrees far more often than doctoral degrees in mathematics and the physical sciences (Bae & Smith, 1997, p. 18). Among women who were college freshmen in 1996, twice as many women (20 percent) aspired to professional fields compared to men (less than 10 percent). More men did seek careers in the physical sciences and mathematics (3 percent) compared to women (2 percent), but these numbers are minuscule. The emphasis on the gender gap in mathematics and science has diverted attention from the great strides large numbers of women are making in the high status careers they are choosing---the professions.

  Gender Differences in Classroom Participation

  If girls make higher grades in school, get higher class rank and more academic honors, surpass boys on standardized tests in two subjects (reading and writing) and lag behind in two subjects (mathematics and science), graduate from college more often but attain a slightly smaller proportion of advanced degrees, what then is the basis for the charge that the schools shortchange girls? A fair judge might call such a pattern a draw: females do better in some academic areas and males do better in others.

  The charge that the schools shortchange girls is not based on such hard and comprehensive measures of educational attainment but instead on soft and slippery issues, like the "silencing" of girls in the classroom. The AAUW report (1992) emphasizes dramatic, highly publicized findings from research by David and Myra Sadker:
  
  

  Whether one looks at preschool classrooms or university lecture halls, at female teachers or male teachers, research spanning the past twenty years consistently reveals that males receive more teacher attention than do females...

  Researchers David and Myra Sadker have studied these patterns for many years. They report that boys in one study of elementary and middle school students called out answers eight times more often than girls did. When boys called out, the typical teacher reaction was to listen to the comment. When girls called out, they were usually corrected with comments such as, "Please raise your hand if you want to speak." (p. 68)

  The Sadkers' findings are indeed shocking. The problem is that the research on which these dramatic findings were based has strangely disappeared (Sommers, 1994; Kleinfeld, 1996). It is hard for a study to disappear---ordinarily many copies are made and circulated. I telephoned David Sadker to ask him directly about the serious charge that his famous study had disappeared. He could not send me a copy of the report. He disingenuously directed me to his university's proposal office and asserted that many other studies of classroom interaction support the contention anyway that boys receive far more attention than girls in the classroom.

  Leaving the Sadkers' "lost" study aside, what evidence do we have from other studies of classrooms that teachers do give more attention to boys or even that boys talk more in the classroom? This seems like a straightforward question, but the question actually contains a tangle of murky issues. First, the question carries a hidden assumption---that differences in teacher attention actually influence how much students learn. But we actually have no evidence that talking in class or getting attention from the teacher makes any difference to student achievement, as Lindow, Marrett, & Wilkinson (1985, pp. 13-14) point out in their summary of the major studies on classroom interaction.
  
  Second, the meaning of "getting attention from the teacher" is unclear. Suppose, for example, that a teacher asks a fourth-grade boy a question in class. Is this a genuine academic question, which will help him learn? Or is the teacher's question actually a reprimand in disguise? The teacher may see that the boy is acting up and use the question to get him back on task.

  Third, studies of classroom interaction are expensive and difficult to conduct, so we do not have large, representative studies of what goes on in different classrooms, in different subjects, and in different locales. To get a stable and reliable measure, a well-trained researcher must sit in the classroom for many hours and count who talks, who asks questions, who answers questions. Unlike achievement tests or college graduation rates, we have no nationally representative data on the question.

  Finally, most classroom interaction studies, especially in recent years, have been conducted in classrooms where females are suspected to be, and most likely are, at a disadvantage. These are high school mathematics and science classrooms, subjects where females generally do not excel, and law school classrooms, where an aggressive style of classroom questioning has long been considered crucial to preparing students for the combat of legal discourse (Reviewed in Young, forthcoming). The research on gender interaction in the classroom does not feature studies conducted in literature classes or foreign language classes, areas of female strength. In these classrooms, the results might be quite different.

  
  Sex differences in classroom participation, as measured by observers, are small, inconsistent, and variable. Some results show teachers favoring boys while others show teachers favoring girls.
  
  

  ...

  In a nutshell, no consistent pattern of male or female favoritism appears. Teachers do give more attention to boys but this attention has to do with keeping boys in line. Whether teachers give more academic attention to boys, the kind that might indicate bias, is unclear.

  ...

  The AAUW's own commissioned research in fact undercuts the position it trumpets---that girls receive less attention than boys. The AAUW sponsored a nationwide survey of 3,000 children between grades four and ten which forms one important statistical base for its glossy, highly publicized reports (American Association of University Women [AAUW]/Greenberg-Lake, 1990). When I tried to obtain a copy of this report, I had a difficult time.

  While the politicized version, How Schools Shortchange Girls (1992) is available for a mere $16.95, obtaining the full data report requires a payment of $85.00 for unbound xeroxed pages. The AAUW provides an 800-number for ordering its reports, but the person I called at this number knew nothing about the full data report. I then called the AAUW offices, left messages, and waited for weeks to get telephone calls returned until I finally located someone who knew of this report.

  That the AAUW should make the report difficult to obtain is understandable. The data from their own report do not back up the charges they publicize---that girls receive less attention from teachers.
  When asked about their personal experience, boys and girls reported receiving virtually identical amounts of attention from their teachers (Table 13). The gender differences that occur are trivial, and sometimes favor boys and sometimes favor girls.

  ...

  When asked about teacher bias in teacher attention, boys and girls do report bias. But what they see is bias against boys. Boys and girls agree "by overwhelming margins," in the report's own words, that teachers give more attention to girls (AAUW/Greenberg-Lake, 1990, p. 64).

  Table 14: Boys and Girls Believe Teachers Give More Attention to Girls
  

  ...

  In sum, the research on classroom interaction does not show consistent teacher favoritism toward boys or girls. Whether we look at studies by observers sitting in the classrooms or the perceptions of the students themselves, what we see are small and inconsistent sex differences, some favoring girls and others favoring boys. We see no pattern of more academic attention going to boys, and, even if we did, we have no evidence that teacher attention in class has any relationship to achievement.

  Gender Differences in Self-Esteem

  The other highly publicized AAUW message---that girls have lower self esteem than boys---rests on equally shaky grounds. The commercial success of psychologist Mary Pipher's (1994) pop-feminist book, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, brought this message to the general public. A clinical psychologist who treats troubled girls, Pipher's anecdotes come primarily from her practice, not from any systematic, scientific comparisons of adolescent girls and adolescent boys. The message has been aired so often, on Oprah and the Today show, in Time and Newsweek, that its truth seems unquestionable. Everyone now knows, do they not, that girls have lower self-esteem than boys. Everyone now knows that girls suffer a severe drop in self-esteem at adolescence. Everyone now knows that boys gain confidence at adolescence while girls lose the vitality and confidence they displayed in childhood.

  When I began the research for this paper, I as well did not question these beliefs. The issue, I thought then, was whether girls' loss of confidence and vitality at adolescence had anything to do with what happened to them in the school. Perhaps the explanation for adolescent girls' loss of self-confidence had to do with the hormonal changes of puberty; I consulted physicians on the physiology of puberty and the relationship of hormonal change to mood disorders. Perhaps the explanation for girls' loss of self-confidence had to do with the Barbie doll standards of thinness and beauty that so many adolescent girls struggle without success to attain; I wanted to take a hard look at what adolescent girls' sense of themselves was based on---beauty, popularity, academic success.

  What I was not expecting to find was that the fundamental idea that I had simply taken for granted---that adolescent girls actually do have lower self-esteem than boys---might not be true. I did a computerized search of the recent research literature on self-esteem, with the assistance of a professional reference librarian. The database (PsychINFO) yielded 84 references to the combined keywords "human sex differences" and "self esteem" and "adolescence." A review of this literature suggests these conclusions:

  • Self-esteem is extremely difficult to measure. Different studies define and assess self-worth, self-acceptance, self-confidence, and related concepts in quite different ways.
  • The bases of self-esteem appear to be different in boys and girls and in different ethnic groups. What adolescents think about themselves is far more dependent on physical appearance and on relationships with friends than on what happens in schools.
  • While boys are more often reported to have higher self-esteem than girls, the differences are typically small and could easily be explained by a slight tendency of boys to choose extreme response categories on vague, multiple-choice questions. Some of the most careful research in the field shows no differences between boys and girls either in "self-esteem" or in "loss of voice."

  Common sense suggests that a person's response to a question like whether "I'm happy the way I am" (a core question in the AAUW/Greenberg-Lake study) depends on the person's mood and recent experiences. Many people with a solid opinion of their own self-worth might not say "Always True" [emphasis in original] in response to such a statement because such an answer would reveal a most unbecoming lack of modesty or a most unbecoming disinterest in self-improvement. Yet, these are the types of questions on which the AAUW bases its findings about low self-esteem among adolescent girls.

  Studies of adolescent self-esteem, moreover, reveal another problem which makes interpretation of these vague questions difficult. What adolescents say in response to such questions appears to be based on different criteria among females and males and among different ethnic groups (Thorne & Michaelieu, 1996; Tashakkori, 1993a; 1993b). Personal appearance and attractiveness and peer relationships play a large role in what adolescents think of themselves. This is the key point: Academic self-confidence, the kind nurtured by the schools, does not show much relationship to general self-esteem in any gender or ethnic group (Tashakkori, 1993a).

  Leaving aside these serious problems in measuring self-esteem, the research actually shows no large, consistent gender differences in self esteem at adolescence. Some of the most well-known researchers who specialize in the study of self-esteem, such as Susan Harter (1997), find no gender gap at all either in measures of self-esteem or in confidence in revealing your opinions and who you are (termed as "lack of voice" in Harter's research). Using carefully developed measures, Harter (1997) examined "lack of voice" among approximately 900 boys and girls from grades 6 through 12. Contrary to the feminist argument that "voice" declines for females as they enter adolescence, Harter (1997) finds:

  There is no evidence in our data for loss of voice among adolescent females as a group....The mean levels we obtain (average scores of around 3.0 on a four-point scale reveal that levels of voice are relatively high among young female adolescents. ...We have also found no evidence for gender differences favoring males... [Emphasis in original ] (pp. 25-26)

  Nor does Harter find that girls are more likely than boys to suppress their opinions in school because they don't want to seem smart and aggressive:

  It has also been claimed that girls, in particular, suppress their opinions within the school setting because they are fearful of looking too smart, which may cause them to risk rejection by their male classmates (Orenstein, 1994). We asked our low voice high school subjects to respond to items that tapped this issue directly (e.g., I don't say what I think because I don't want to look too smart). Once again, we found no gender difference supporting the claims that this is merely a problem for girls. Anecdotal reports from within the high school suggest that certain boys are fearful of being considered "nerds", "dorks", or "brains", if they are too smart, risking peer rejection. (pp. 38-39)

  We need to pay attention to individuals, Harter emphasizes. Certain girls and certain boys do lack confidence and voice. But the problem is hardly limited to girls. "Reviving Ophelia," Harter (1997, p. 51) tartly concludes, "is certainly a worthy goal. However, Hamlet also displayed serious problems of indecision and lack of voice."

  It is important to point out once again that the research literature on gender differences in self-esteem is full of inconsistencies. Some studies do show differences in global measures of self-esteem in favor of boys (Dukes & Martinez, 1994; Chubb, Fertman, & Ross, 1997; Francis & James, 1996). Careful analysis of such reports, however, raises the question as to whether such measures of self-esteem discriminate against girls who may not be as inclined as boys to brag or choose extreme responses on surveys.

  The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, released in 1997, provides a recent example of the politicization of trivial sex differences in self-esteem (Schoen et al., 1997). The glossy report and media kit trumpet the standard, politicized message---a gender gap exists in self-confidence that widens in adolescence. I noted that the scoring system for the measure of self-confidence was most unusual---a lot of weight was placed on extreme responses in deciding who fell into the category of "high self-confidence." I telephoned the Commonwealth Fund to ask for a copy of the actual results for each question and, to their credit, the Commonwealth Fund promptly faxed to me the actual tabulations.

  What this survey actually shows is remarkably similar levels of self confidence among boys and girls. Boys are more apt to give extreme responses. This could indicate higher self-esteem but it could also indicate a lack of verbal subtlety or what some might consider an unfortunate lack of modesty. The following table presents the actual responses of boys and girls to these questions phrased in a straightforward, positive way:
  Table 15: Adolescent Boys and Girls Both Express High Levels of Self Esteem
  

  Belief	Strongly Agree	Somewhat Agree	Total
  I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others.
  Girls	63%	27%	90%
  Boys	67%	21%	89%
  I feel that I have a number of good qualities.
  Girls	67%	26%	93%
  Boys	70%	22%	92%
  I am able to do things as well as most other people.
  Girls	52%	35%	87%
  Boys	57%	30%	87%
  I take a positive attitude toward myself.
  Girls	49%	35%	84%
  Boys	59%	27%	86%
  On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.
  Girls	46%	35%	81%
  Boys	55%	29%	84%

  Source: From The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, by C. Schoen, K. Davis, K. S. Collins, L. Greenberg, C. Des Roches, and M. Abrams, 1997, New York: The Commonwealth Fund. Data Tabulations provided by the Commonwealth Fund.
  
  Virtually no important difference between adolescent boys and girls appears, and both sexes express virtually the same positive opinions of themselves when the "strongly agree" and "somewhat agree" categories are added together. Yet, these findings are sent to the media as more proof of the gender gap in self-confidence.

  In terms of academic self-confidence, the type of self-esteem that depends on what happens in schools, teachers boost girls' academic self confidence far more than they do that of boys.

  These are the basic findings about adolescent self-esteem promoted by the AAUW Report, How Schools Shortchange Girls (1992).

  A nationwide survey commissioned by the American Association of University Women in 1990 found that on average 69 percent of elementary school boys and 60 percent of elementary school girls reported that they were "happy the way I am"; among high school students, the percentages were 46 percent for boys and only 29 percent for girls. (AAUW, 1992, p. 12).

  The AAUW report implies that the schools are to blame. Self-confidence is one more area where the schools shortchange girls. When I obtained the actual report on self-esteem on which this charge was based, I found no evidence that the schools eroded girls' self-confidence. The reason that so many teenage girls were not "happy with the way I am" at adolescence, as the actual AAUW/Greenberg-Lake report (1990) clearly shows, was that the girls are more dissatisfied with their physical appearance. As the report itself puts this point:

  The Importance of Appearance. For boys and girls of all races feelings of attractiveness are a fundamental part of overall self-worth. Evaluations of personal appearance (as measured by responses to the statement, "I like the way I look") correlate strongly with more general statements about self-esteem (such as "I'm happy as I am" and "I like most things about myself"). Other specific assessments of self-esteem, including academic performance, relationships with peers and family, feelings of importance and acceptance, are all less central to self-esteem than is appearance (p. 31).

  
  
  The AAUW/Greenberg-Lake report (1990) does not show that the schools shortchange girls, that the schools in any way contribute to girls' dissatisfaction with themselves at adolescence. The report in fact shows the exact opposite. Girls see the school as an arena where they receive disproportionately more positive messages about themselves. Boys make the same judgment---teachers favor girls and boost their self-esteem. These are the findings hidden in the statistical tables which the AAUW makes it so difficult to obtain:
  

  Table 16: Teachers Bolster Girls' Self-Esteem in the Classroom Far More than Boys' Self Esteem
  

  Perceptions of the School Environment	Boys' Answers	Girls' Answers
  Who do teachers think are smarter?
  Girls	69%	81%
  Boys	26%	13%
  Who do teachers compliment more often?
  Girls	81%	89%
  Boys	15%	7%
  Who do teachers punish more often?
  Girls	8%	5%
  Boys	90%	92%
  Who do teachers like to be around?
  Girls	73%	80%
  Boys	21%	12%

  Source: Adapted from Expectations and Aspirations: Gender Roles and Self-Esteem (p. 18), by AAUW/Greenberg-Lake, 1990, Washington, DC: Greenberg-Lake.

  
  Another AAUW report, released without publicity, also undercuts the message that the climate of the schools shortchanges girls (Lee, Chen, & Smerdon, 1996). This study is based an excellent sample, the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, a carefully drawn sample of more than 9,000 students in almost 400 schools. Its authors explain that they had intended to examine school climate in the middle grades because of the "research identifying early adolescence as the developmental stage when a gender gap favoring boys often emerges in self-perception and school performance (AAUW, 1992)."

  But the findings did not support this position at all. The study found only small to moderate gender differences, "favoring girls as well as boys" (Lee et al., 1996, p. 1). To the authors' chagrin, poor schools shortchanged boys far more than girls. The more orderly the school and the higher quality instruction, the more boys became engaged in learning and the larger the gender gap became, in favor of boys.

  In a coup de grace to the AAUW's much publicized findings about the low self-esteem of adolescent girls, the 1997 Metropolitan Life Survey comes to the opposite conclusions. The Met-Life report on gender issues is one of a series of reports with the policy goal of bringing understanding to current issues that affect the nation's schools. As previously discussed, this survey sought the opinions of a nationally representative sample of 1,306 students from grades 7-12 and 1,035 teachers in grades 6-12 on girls' and boys' experiences in the schools and aspirations for the future. The conclusions flatly contradict the message that the schools shortchange girls:

  1. contrary to the commonly held view that boys are at an advantage over girls in school, girls appear to have an advantage over boys in terms of their future plans, teachers' expectations, everyday experiences at school and interactions in the classroom;

  2. minority girls hold the most optimistic views of the future and are the group most likely to focus on education goals;

  3. minority boys are the most likely to feel discouraged about the future and the least interested in getting a good education; and

  4. teachers nationwide view girls as higher achievers and more likely to succeed than boys.

  (Emphasis in original, p. 3)

  
  
  The Met-Life study is based on teachers' and students' beliefs, not objective measures of actual school achievement. But the wealth of evidence reviewed in this paper shows that objective measures of achievement support these beliefs. Girls surpass boys in reading and writing skills. Girls are more apt to go to college and graduate with baccalaureate and masters' degrees. Girls have higher aspirations for professional degrees and have made dramatic progress in attaining both professional and doctoral degrees. Far from shortchanging girls, the schools encourage and favor girls.

  Conclusion

  The charge that the schools shortchange girls is false political propaganda. In their zeal to advance the interests of women, the American Association of University Women and other advocacy groups have distorted the achievements of women and the experience of girls and boys in schools. But what harm has been done, a sensible person might ask? Government agencies, foundations, and teachers have directed attention and resources to girls and have developed their skills in those areas where girls do lag behind, science and mathematics.

  The myth that the schools shortchange girls, one might argue, is nothing more than what Plato called a "noble lie"---a falsehood in the service of a desirable political good (Plato, trans. 1942, pp. 302-304). But this noble lie, it turns out, is not so noble. It draws attention and resources away from the group the schools truly fail, African-American males. This lie has other, more insidious, effects on the culture of schools. The problem was evident in a workshop I attended for the teachers of gifted and talented students. I was on a panel with several school counselors. The moderator posed the question, "What can we do to help girls, who suffer such a loss of self-esteem at adolescence?" One of the counselors on the panel launched into a fiery description of the emotional problems of teenage girls. Girls she knew had changed from vigorous children who spoke their minds to bored and passive teenagers. This counselor was not aware that she was repeating the message of the AAUW report. These ideas had been promoted in workshops and education courses for years. They were just in the air.

  I came next on the panel and thought about what I should do. Should I flat out contradict this counselor and tell the teachers in the audience that the research shows no important difference between teenage boys and girls in self-esteem, that this research has been politicized to make girls look like victims? As diplomatically as I could, I made these points. The counselor's reaction astonished me.

  "I'm so glad you said that!" she proclaimed. "I know that boys have problems, too. But we just don't give the boys much attention."

  Other teachers agreed, with a palpable sense of relief. "Come to think of it, I have four suicidal adolescents in my classes this year, and all four are boys," one said.

  "Write a newspaper article about this. Get the word out," said the sole male teacher at the workshop. "We're too busy to read the professional literature. We didn't know this."

  The school counselor bemoaning the problems of girls, it turned out, had actually developed a valuable program for teenage boys. She had invited a male graduate student from the university to talk with several troubled boys. The same boys who wouldn't talk to her, she observed, sprawled on the floor with this graduate student, talking with intensity. But she hadn't bothered to describe her program to the other teachers. Troubled boys were not on the list of topics important enough to discuss.

  Indeed, boys came up only indirectly when the panel was given the question of what to do with bright students who complain that they are "bored" in school. I could tell that most of these students were boys from the teachers' examples. One described a boy, for example, who hated math class because the class was too slow for him. His teacher forced him to do pages of problems that he already understood. What was the solution? "Let bored students know that it is not acceptable to say 'I'm bored' to teachers," was the consensus of the school counselors. Figuring out a way to provide more advanced instruction in mathematics, for either boys or girls, was not on the agenda.

  In the hectic, crowded world of the classroom, teachers have limited time, attention and energy. Teachers are concentrating on the problems of girls, but they are dismissing the problems of boys and neglecting the problem of how to educate the most gifted students. The focus on promoting female success gives the schools an excuse for ignoring their gravest failure with minority boys. The "noble lie" that the schools shortchange girls is not so noble, after all.

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