Why Does Gender Effects the Options of Female and Male Students?

We might heard that it is good for boys to have bruises and girls must be free from any scratch. This fallacy was embedded in our culture from a long time ago. Parents then shaped their children’s attitude most likely according to their genders. Hence, the boys are into practical subject such as engineering while the girls are more toward theoretical subject such as in arts stream.

From the batch of 2015/16 in University of Malaya, two thirds of the classroom are females for the South East Asian studies and only one third of female in the civil engineering course. This somehow shows that many people still cannot break the dichotomy of being a female and male in today’s era.

Most of the students said that their parents were supportive in the decisions they made to take the course in the university. However, there’s a slight difference of the attitude of the parents between their daughters and sons. Parents with female child prefer her to take the arts stream and parents with male child want him to take engineering stream.

Noor Hashimah Binti Kamaruzaman, a student of the chemical engineering said that her parents were skeptical when she wanted to take this course because she is a woman. They were giving her advice to be only a lecturer after finishing her studies. But, she is positive that she can do the work practically rather than theoretically in the future. She does not want her studies in the field to be wasted.

“I want to be a professional chemical engineer. I want to contribute something big to the society and the nation as a whole,” she said. She prefers hands-on works and wants to be one of the top engineers in the field albeit her parents’ paranoia. She does not want her gender to be the limitation of what she can achieve.

On the other hand, Muhammad Syafiq Bin Noor Azman who is the student of civil engineering said he took it because of his parents. He were given two choices between engineering and medic. He then chose engineering because he got good result in his Malaysian Certificate of Education and his foundation.

“I wanted to take another course but since my parents against it, so I had no choice. I guess that most of the Malaysian parents look high to this course only,” he said and laughed. He said he is focusing in his studies and still searching for his ambition. He said that maybe an engineering student who had a family background in the field would know better the path of this course.

As for the arts stream, Nur Afiqah Binti Kamarul Zaman who is the student of social admin said that she always looking forward in this stream. My parents were not against this and they are also working in this field.

“I keep changing my ambition, I wanted to be a doctor, police, and sometimes teacher. When I grew up, I think I want to be just like my parents, that is why I took this course,” she said. Furthermore, her parents said that this course suits a woman. Hence, her parents gave her full support to take this course.

On the other hand, Sharifah Noor Balqis Binti Syed Ben Bella, a student from the Southeast Asia department said that she made her own decision for this course since her father does not mind of which streams she wanted to take. She is the first daughter of the family and she likes the course especially history subject. Besides, he father is proud of her to be in the university.

Most of the students who were being interviewed said either way from the above statements. The parents love their children equally but prepared them differently. They tend to encourage their boys to do tough activities and prefer their girls to be good theoretically. In short, some of the parents are in a way downgrading their daughters’ capabilities and dreams in the name of love.

Benjamin Spock, and American Pediatrician said that a child loves to play, not because it’s easy but because it’s hard. The scientist has developed a game named Risky Play for the children regardless of their genders. And from the game, the parents have to expose their daughters and sons to the same challenge without telling them what to do. Most of the parents tend to stop their daughters to do tough activities and let their sons to be free.

There are many great women such as Caroline Paul, Reshma Saujani, and Kimberly Davis who are preaching the parents about this issue. They said to never set boundaries for the children, let them think and not fear to do everything in this world regardless of their genders. That is why, Engineering not necessarily for men and arts not only for women.

There are female engineers such as Hedy Lamarr, Martha J and many more. And there are also males who majored in the arts stream such as James Franco, Abraham Lincoln and many more. Parents should look both engineering and arts stream have the same difficulties. There are differences in the studies, but it still requires the higher order thinking shills (HOTS).

We construct our generation by their genders. That is why girls are mostly in theoretical field and boys are in practical field. The parents should teach the same life skills without thinking about the do’s and don’ts of being a boy and a girl. So that when they grow up, it will be natural for a woman to be an engineer and a man to be in the arts stream.