We live in a gendered and coed world. Boys, girls, men and women go to school, live, and work together. In our society, gender develops as men and women interact throughout their lives. Gender influencces how we learn, think, grow and develop, work, and interact with others.
Gender is an especially critical aspect in the development of children and adolescents.
The school system itself plays a significant role in creating and maintaining gender differences. Text books, computer software, and teaching styles perpetuate the gender difference. Male characters dominate children's literature and national studies have found that teachers favor boys over girls in classroom interactions. The traditional roles of men and women also dictate the focus of that which boys and girls learn in school. In 1972 the United States Department of Education passes Title IX, a set of amendments aimed at reforming gender inequality in schools.