This week, many of us are back in school. You’ve printed the schedules and planned the lessons. It may be an exciting time for you – full of new students, new school supplies, or new studies. For others of you, this time of year may be ridden with anxiety and questions – will you get along with your colleagues? Are you up to the tasks ahead of you? In order to get organized for the school year, I usually start with a massive to do list but just writing that list is not nearly as satisfying as checking off the individual items.

Here, we’ve assembled a back-to-school checklist of a different kind to share with you. This one has some suggestions for ways to combat gender inequities in schools and universities. Basically, we’d like to cross these off our lists for good.

Calling women “abrasive”, “aggressive”, or “shrill”

These are terms that are often applied to women, especially when they speak up or express an opinion that is contradictory. This year, I would love to see these adjectives go away. There are plenty of ways to state that you disagree with someone, but let’s stop labeling the personalities of women who disagree with us in these words, especially when we see aggressive as a characteristic we like to see in men. Sure, disagree with each other. Dislike each other’s ideas and engage in great debate. But let’s leave the name calling out of it.

Calling female students “overly emotional” or “hysterical”

In the same way that we call women names when they express perfectly reasonable thoughts and emotions, we tend to label teenage girls as being hysterical when they express emotions. It is a quick way to dismiss their feelings but it makes them feel terrible and demeaned. Instead, how about we find ways to help all students talk about their emotions in a healthy way! This is definitely something that I am going to work on this year and I hope that you will do the same.

Headlines with binary characterizations of women’s leadership

Clickbaity articles continue to ask why women can’t be both caring and commanding or nurturing and no-nonsense. Hackneyed alliteration aside, these titles continue to perpetuate the myths which suggest there are two kinds of leadership – one traditionally masculine and one traditionally feminine – and women have to both exist in that binary and choose one way of existing in a leadership role. Research is very clear that women in leadership positions are particularly skilled at both navigating the traditional role expectations and transcending them in order to create something altogether new in leadership. I’m ready for a headline about that.

Hiding salaries

Salary information is often kept well under wrap, even among employees of public institutions like schools and universities. Sure, there used to be some taboo about discussing something as gauche as what you make in order to sustain your own life, but haven’t we moved passed that? As of 2018, studies show that women make an average of $2000 less than men at the instructional level and about $4000 less than men in administrative positions. That gap balloons to an average $20,000 - $30,000 gender gap among superintendents. The main reason this continues is that no one talks about it but it significantly influences whether or not women pursue upper administrative positions. Salary transparency benefits women and people of color – so let’s talk money.

If you have anything to add, feel free to leave us a comment.

-Lauren and Amy