Muted Group

Max Browning

April 10, 2015

Observation 3

Before I was a communication major, I studied Math Education which is a gender role nightmare.  When it came to math classes, men were expected to succeed, but when it came to the education classes, we were expected to keep our mouths shut.  This created an interesting dynamic that led to me changing my major; however, in the math classes, it was very uncommon for women to speak up in classes.  The professors were predominantly male and clearly had a bias towards the male students.  They would often treat the female students with less respect and mock their questions.

For the muted group theory to take place it is important to note that the women in the class were not silenced, but rather muted.  They still were completely able to communicate with the class and professor; however, their opinions and comments were not taken as seriously because they were female.  I think that many of the males in the class began to cringe when a female classmate would raise her hand because we assumed that the comment would not be productive (usually she would pose a question from five steps behind).  In order for a woman's comment to be respected, she would have to prove herself multiple times throughout the semester and gain her male classmates respect.  Additionally, it would be expected that she communicated in a logical manner free of any feelings or tag questions.  In a logic and numerically driven field, we did not care how she felt about the topic, but rather the methodology behind her comments.  Because many females ended their comments with a tag question, it was difficult for most of the class to respect the comment.  If she was not confident in her ideas, then no one found it necessary to listen or take it seriously, you know?