Bias in Gifted Identification and Education: Is Being Gifted as a Girl Easier Now Than it Was 50 Years Ago?
Welcome to Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog. This is our first installment in our series, Bias in Gifted Identification and Education. I’m Hanna David, counselor of gifted children and their families. My former position was at the Tel Aviv University; I’m retired now. In this article, we’ll discuss whether being a gifted girl is easier now than it was 50 years ago.
World has opened to gifted girls in the last 50 years
Is being a gifted girl easier now than it was 50 years ago? Well, the short answer is “yes and no”. The long answer – well, I’m going to share it in five minutes, maybe six. First the “yes” answer. Many think it’s much easier, more comfortable and more rewarding to be a gifted girl now than it was 50 years ago. Many things have been opened for girls in general and for gifted girls in particular. That has been true here in my country, as well as everywhere else.
If you are a gifted girl, you are not going to hear time and again, “It’s okay to be a gifted girl, you can make it, you can do it – the world is open.” The world has actually opened up a lot in the last 50 years for women. First, in the academic world. Second, in the world of law, in politics – everywhere. I’ll give just two examples of things that happened in my country. Let’s consider medicine and the law. In medicine, 30 years ago, there was no Israeli-born doctor in the city where I lived. All of them were either non-Israelis or born a male doctor. Now, more than half of the doctors in my hometown are Israeli-born. The revolution brought the newcomers from the ex-U.S.S.R. countries. The new immigrants were from Russia, and they didn’t even understand the problem of a girl who goes to medical school. They didn’t understand what we were talking about.
Now, 30 years have passed since then, and more and more Israeli-born girls started learning medicine. For the past five years, more than half of the students in medical schools are female. So that revolution has been realized in my country. You’re not going to hear that you can’t make it as a female. If you’re interested in medicine, you can be a childcare doctor or you can be any expert you want to in the medical field. Everything is open for women – three of the chiefs of the main hospitals in Israel are female. You do not even have to speak about challenges for women in career advancement anymore. The second area where women excel is in the world of law. We have the Supreme Court with women at the top – at the top hierarchy you have women. There is nothing surprising about it because most law students are female as well, not just in medicine.
So the facts are there, and you don’t have to speak about them. You don’t have to persuade a girl that the world is open – she knows it, she sees it. She does not have to have a role model. You don’t have to make any effort about it – it’s just there. So it’s easier, it’s more accessible for women to achieve successful careers. And you can be happy about the way that has been done, but, and here’s the big but, why is the “no” answer relevant when we consider if being a gifted girl is easier now than it was 50 years ago?
Two main things have happened – I would call both of them a backlash, if you will. The first one is that the stay-at-home mother is not very popular anymore, especially in my country. I don’t know if you know that, in Israel, the average number of children per family is the highest in the developed world. So you have to be both a career woman, a woman who has made it because you’re a gifted girl, so you have to materialize your giftedness on the one hand – and on the other hand, you have to be a mother. You’re judged by being a good or bad mother. People judge you – if your child is not a good student or he or she behaves badly, you are to blame. It’s always the mother who is to blame.
It’s a double responsibility and it’s very hard for women. While 50 years ago, you could have your mother-in-law take care of your children while you worked, that does not exist anymore. The mother-in-law works, sometimes the grandmother works as well, which is the case for my grandchildren; both grandmothers work, and we do our best to help our children – our daughters – but it’s not as possible as it was years ago.
A big factor influencing the perception of gifted girls today is social media, which has placed an enormous pressure on every gifted girl, to look nice, to behave nicely – to do it in a world that does not belong to her. While 50 years ago, you could be a good student, and you could be the girl who is not interested in makeup or going out in it when you are still very young; it was okay because you had the future as a scientist, as a doctor, anything you would like to be and now it’s not possible to avoid these societal pressures. It’s difficult for gifted girls to choose between not being popular and doing your own things and being popular and doing things that you are expected to do. And these pressures are public. It’s not like 50 years ago, you could be you – you could do your own things and not worry about how others are reacting. But now, it’s very public and gifted girls are exposed to many humiliations and depression because of the pressures of social media.
Thank you for reading our article on Bias in Gifted Identification and Education. We hope that Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog will continue to be a good resource for you. If you have any comments or questions, please explore our website or call Vanguard at (224) 213-0087. We would love to talk to you about your gifted girls.