Why Should We Care About The Gender Difference in Classroom Participation?

It has been commonly understood and empirically demonstrated that co-ed undergraduate and graduate classrooms tend to derive greater male class participation from course discussions than from female students. Despite their equal ability to contribute substantial comments toward course topics female students still do so less frequently. In this paper, I present a normative argument for why we should care about this occurrence because of its impact on facets of a woman’s personal and professional development.