Gender differences in middle school clubs

Read these two middle school club descriptions and take a quiz on how boys and girls in this school are treated.

History Club – Mr. X

The History Club runs the annual National Geography Bee, as well as other activities during the year. We have "Historical Movie" nights where we show movies based on historical events (Pearl Harbor, The Alamo, etc). During these nights we serve pizza and soda. We have enjoyed Saturday field trips to West Point and other historical places.

International Club – Ms. Y and Ms. Z

The International Club is designed to promote sensitivity, understanding, and an appreciation of one another and what makes all people so special. The members are involved in activities such as discussion sessions on cultural topics, culinary lessons, and excursions to museums, theaters, special libraries, and the United Nations.

Questions:

1. How many gender stereotypes can you find in the club descriptions?
2. Which club attracts more boys, and which attracts more girls?
3. Do you think the clubs are designed to target specific genders, or does this just occur by happenstance?
4. Is it a good idea to organize these club around specific interests that may appeal to one particular gender?  If not, what changes would you make to these clubs?
5. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I'll hold my opinions, but . . .

Gender disparity at the geography bee

From Mark Perry:

National Geographic Bee - GW law professor Jonathan Turley reports that Minot State University professor emeritus Eric Clausen has been battling the National Geographic Society (NGS) in federal court over his claims that the national contest discriminates against girls because virtually no girls have won the national title.... 

According to Professor Clausen only 2 out of the state winners in 2009 were girls and only one girl advanced to the national finals in 2010. Clausen also claims that the “NGS knows and has known since the Geographic Bee competitions began that the contests do not provide girls with an equal opportunity to participate in the higher-level competitions.”

It appears that only five girls won state competitions in 2011, so the trend continues.

Related to this story are my observations during a recent 8th grade class field trip to Washington DC.  During our visits to the museums and other attractions, the boys appeared significantly more interested than the girls in history and politics.  They asked many more questions, including plenty of inappropriate ones.  Last time I checked, the middle school history club was mainly boys.

It could be that one of the reasons boys are drawn more to geography and history is that they tend to be the gender with a stronger interest in wars.  A quote by writer Ambrose Pierce comes to mind:  "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."  Curiously, the trend in history social studies classes seems to be to downplay the military details of wars in favor of an increased focus on the human suffering and victimization aspects.  This causes me to speculate it might be a conscious strategy designed to draw more girls into the subject of history.

On the other hand, take this quiz about two middle school clubs to consider another way our schools might be dealing with gender differences when it come to the study of history.