page_title: Sex segregation
section_title: In human development
hierarchical_section_title: Sex segregation / Significance / In human development
caption_attribution_description: English: A note at the male public toilet in Edinburgh Airport.
context_page_description: Sex segregation is the physical, legal, and cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by sex without any connotation of illegal discrimination. In other circumstances, sex segregation can be controversial. Depending on the circumstances, it can be a violation of capabilities and human rights and can create economic inefficiencies; on the other hand, some supporters argue that it is central to certain religious laws and social and cultural histories and traditions.
  The term gender segregation is used in a similar way to sex segregation, even though sex and gender are usually considered distinct concepts. The term gender apartheid is used by opponents of this segregation, drawing a linguistic analogy with the overthrown South African racial apartheid system.
context_section_description: For most children, sex segregation manifests itself early in the socialization process via group socialization theory, where children are expected to behave in certain sex-typed manners and form sex in and out-groups. In pre-school classrooms, for example, making gender more salient to children has been shown to lead to stronger gender stereotypes and intergroup biases between sex groups. These evident tendencies were also manifested in decreased playtime with children of the opposite sex, or a kind of early, selective sex segregation based on preconceived social norms. While specifically segregating by sex for playtime has not been linked to any long-lasting effects on women's rights compared to men, these different manners of socialization often lead to communication and power struggles between men and women and to differential life decisions by each sex based on these long-established gendered identities.
  In elementary and secondary education, sex segregation sometimes yields and perpetuates gender bias in the form of treatment by teachers and peers that perpetuates traditional gender roles and sex bias, underrepresentation of girls in upper level math, science, and computer classes, fewer opportunities for girls to learn and solve problems, girls receiving less attention compared to the boys in their classes, and significantly different performance levels between boys and girls in reading and math classes. Sometimes in elementary schools teachers force the students to sit boy, girl, boy girl. Sex segregation in educational settings can also lead to negative outcomes for boys such as boys in coeducational classrooms having academic scores higher than boys in single-sex classrooms. On the contrary, girls in single-sex classrooms have academic scores higher than girls in co-educational classrooms. Boys academically benefit from a coeducational environment while girls do from a single-sex environment, so critics and proponents of both types of education argue that either single-sex or coeducational classrooms create a comparative disadvantage for either sex. Athletic participation and physical education are examples where appeals to differences in biological sex may encourage segregation within education systems. These differences can impact access to competition, gender identity construction, and external as well as internalized perceptions of capabilities, especially among young girls. 
  Separation of public toilets by sex is very common around the world. In certain settings the sex separation can be critical to ensure the safety of females, in particular schoolgirls, from male abuse. At the same time, sex segregated public toilets may promote a gender binary that excludes transgender people. Unisex public toilets can be a suitable alternative in many cases.
  A special case presents with choirs and choruses, especially in the tradition of the choir school which uses ensemble and musical discipline to ground academic discipline. Male and female voices are distinctive both solo and in ensemble, and segregated singing has an evolved and established aesthetic. Male voices, unlike female voices, break in early adolescence, and accommodating this break in an educational program is challenging in a coed environment. Coeducation tends to stigmatize males, as is often the case in expressive arts, unlike athletics.
caption: A note at the male public toilet in Edinburgh Airport about the fact that female cleaners might work there.
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