lauraonline
Oct 3, 2012
Essays / Essay on university access opportunities for women and men [2]
This is an essay for IELTS writing exam (250 words). Any feedback is highly appreciated
Access to knowledge and education should be a fundamental human right not biased by gender. In democratic countries this right should be promoted and protected even harder. To do so, the access of women and male to university should be performed on the basis of an objective criterion such as order of registration. In this way if a certain speciality presents a large number of males than females, it would only uncover a larger preference of the former towards that discipline. But it will not reflect a larger facility of men to get access to it. Although this might sound simplistic there are many admission criteria that appear to give equal access opportunities to men and women when it is not the case.
In some countries the access criteria is the candidate academic profile which is believed to be a very objective criterion. However - although some mark cut-off might be required in certain fields - it is very likely that this criterion could also be influenced by candidate gender. For example, in a recent scientific publication it was demonstrated that two candidates having the same curriculum have different opportunities to get a job in the scientific research field. When two groups of different referees were given the same candidate curriculum but changing the candidate name into a male or female one, there was a strong preference towards the male to perform the job.
I believe that in the academic profile of women it is very likely that in many cases her marks and opportunities could be subjected to gender biases in same way as in the aforementioned example. Moreover, their opportunities to access to the university can also be influenced by referee preferences towards a specific gender. This happens because most countries in our world, even the democratic ones, are still very patriarchal. They give preference to men in many circumstances. Hence, we have to work hard to create very objective criteria to give equal opportunities to men and women in order to create an enriched world where everybody can fit in and contribute with their whole potential and capabilities.
This is an essay for IELTS writing exam (250 words). Any feedback is highly appreciated
Access to knowledge and education should be a fundamental human right not biased by gender. In democratic countries this right should be promoted and protected even harder. To do so, the access of women and male to university should be performed on the basis of an objective criterion such as order of registration. In this way if a certain speciality presents a large number of males than females, it would only uncover a larger preference of the former towards that discipline. But it will not reflect a larger facility of men to get access to it. Although this might sound simplistic there are many admission criteria that appear to give equal access opportunities to men and women when it is not the case.
In some countries the access criteria is the candidate academic profile which is believed to be a very objective criterion. However - although some mark cut-off might be required in certain fields - it is very likely that this criterion could also be influenced by candidate gender. For example, in a recent scientific publication it was demonstrated that two candidates having the same curriculum have different opportunities to get a job in the scientific research field. When two groups of different referees were given the same candidate curriculum but changing the candidate name into a male or female one, there was a strong preference towards the male to perform the job.
I believe that in the academic profile of women it is very likely that in many cases her marks and opportunities could be subjected to gender biases in same way as in the aforementioned example. Moreover, their opportunities to access to the university can also be influenced by referee preferences towards a specific gender. This happens because most countries in our world, even the democratic ones, are still very patriarchal. They give preference to men in many circumstances. Hence, we have to work hard to create very objective criteria to give equal opportunities to men and women in order to create an enriched world where everybody can fit in and contribute with their whole potential and capabilities.