Gender-Based Obstacles In Career Technical Education

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Career technical education programs are required by Business Industry Certification (BIC) to report on how non-traditional students are recruited and establish numerical enrollment and completion goals for nontraditional students in Career and Technical Education programs of study. Students should be encouraged to explore career options based on their abilities and interests, not gender. Gender-based obstacles appear in the early stages of formal instruction.
In October 2005, the National Women’s Law Center published Tools of the Trade, a report examining CTE enrollment patterns in twelve geographically diverse states. This report revealed that girls make up almost 90% of the students enrolled in classes leading to traditionally female occupations
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Title IX provided that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance" Gordon (2008). Legislatively, in order to increase the participation of girls and women in nontraditional career training, the Carl D. Perkins Act of 1984 required that states assign an individual, known as the "sex equity coordinator," to direct efforts to overcome gender bias and stereotyping in vocational education. Unfortunately, when Perkins was reauthorized in 1990, just 3% of federal funds were required to be allocated to gender equity programs (Toglia, T. V., 2013). Furthermore, according to Gordon (2008), the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 continued "to push for race and gender equity" (p. 143). More specifically, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006, while speaking to gender equity and addressing performance measures, states, “Core indicators of performance must be defined for secondary and postsecondary CTE students in the state plan. These indicators must be valid and reliable, and at a minimum, must include student participation in, and completion of, CTE programs that lead to employment in nontraditional fields” (Toglia, T. V., 2013). Policies, such as Title IX, have attempted to address the issue inequalities in education. Since the creation of Title IX, females have made very little progress in “blue-collar” technology and trades occupations. Male students continue to dominate in courses that lead to high-skill, high-wage jobs, while female students fill the low-wage, low-skill tracks (National Coalition for Woman and Girls in Education, 2008). Changes have occurred in the