Socially Learning to not Critically Think: Women's Roles in Society

As I am standing in front of my Intro to Communication class, lecturing them on symbolic interactionism, social construction, and stereotypes, I hear myself telling them that our perceptions of “how the world is” can change over time. And as I utter these words, I find myself wondering, will anything really change? During my time as an undergraduate I was constantly amazed at how little the people around me cared about anything outside of themselves. I’m not trying to say that I am perfect, but at least I took the time to read the news instead of the tabloid magazines in the morning. Today I stand on the other side of the classroom, trying desperately to encourage these learners to become critical thinkers, so they can evaluate the conditions of society, and when they see a problem, they are capable of determining a solution.

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix titled, Miss Representation. This film explored the ways that women are represented, or not represented in the media. Films, television shows, magazines, even news broadcasts project an image of an ideal woman. She is tall, thin, sexualized, and to be seen, not heard. This pervasive image has real repercussions on our society. The documentary cited evidence such as, “women make up 51 percent of the U.S. population, yet comprise only 17 percent of congress,” “only 34 women have ever served as governors compared to 2319 men,” and “the U.S. is 90^th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures.” The growth of women in politics is growing at an alarmingly slow rate, and it is not difficult to conclude that this is largely due to the way that women are represented, and the way that they are socialized. At one point in the documentary, Caroline Heldman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Occidental College states, “Little boys and little girls, when they are 7 years old, an equal number want to be president of the United States when they grow up… but then you ask the same question when they’re 15 and you see this massive gap emerging.” I was amazed at how true that felt for my own experiences. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be president. I can still clearly remember my decision calculus in determining why I did not want to pursue that route: positives – I would be doing something productive with my intelligence, I would be serving the needs of others, and I would have the potential to make a difference in the world. On the other hand, I don’t want to deal with the emotional repercussions of being scrutinized for my physical appearance. Decision made.

All of this relates directly to Chapter 5 of Jarvis, Holford and Griffin’s book, The Theory and Practice of Learning (1998). In this section, the authors discuss the ways we learn socially. Socialization refers to “the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs and norms of behavior of the society into which they are born” (p. 38). They argue that failure for the individual to conform to these norms means that the society will not survive. It seems to me that to internalize the values and beliefs of a society means blindly accepting them, perhaps sub-consciously. The authors turn to a number of theorists to develop this idea. Jarvis criticizes the idea of the individual as merely passive and conformist, and says that there is more of a mutual relationship between society and the individual. Mead claims that through interactions with social structures the individual acquires habitual ways of acting. Bandura is more in line with the idea of reciprocity, but clarifies that people have the potential to influence their own destiny, but act neither as free agents, nor as passive conformists.

All this informs our ideas about how individuals function, but what about society as a collective? After all, as critical thinkers, isn’t the goal to influence and change social constructions that we see as problematic? The chapter concludes with the idea that the collective learning process is greater than the sum of its parts, and in competitive environments, groups or organizations adapt to survive. As a born and raised American, and a member of the American education system I look at how America has learned. It seems that although there are some deviant individuals, some members of society that act against the traditional roles of men and women, we are overwhelmingly still a patriarchal society.

So, with these ideas in mind, we as educators should continue to challenge our students to be problem-solvers, to be reflective thinkers, and to envision ways in which they can be a positive impact on society. It is one of my goals as an educator to illuminate for my students the unconscious barriers to their critical thinking and, unfortunately for women, patriarchy has been an impediment to their learning and critical thinking.

-HSJ