Bob Seidel raised the issue and Howard A. Berry said in
response:
To the S-L List,
Bob Seidel raises an interesting inquiry about the ratio of
women to men students in S-L programs... One of my own
opinions, not entirely facetious, is that young women are
more ventursome and risk-taking than young men, who often
are more occupied with other matters or with career
directions. It also suggests that those in service-learning
could fruitfully be more aware of other forms of educational
experiences so as to bridge the tendency to think that
service-learning is unconnected to issues of education and
development generally. Great comments, Howard!!!
This gives me the chance to throw out one of my favorite
quotes from the book, *In The Company of Men (Allen, 1993,
p. 13)*:
--- Few men are aware of the extent of their gender
conditioning. It's too subtle and all-pervasive for them to
see... society requires them to live in a box labeled MAN.
Scrawled on the outside othe MAN BOX are dozens of rules:
"Compete." "Succeed." "Perform." "Don't feel." Don't
reveal any weakness." "Get a grip." "Tough it out."
"ignore your physical symptoms." "Win at all costs." "Have
all the answers" "Fix the problem." And so on and so
forth. Some of these directives work to their advantage.
For example, their gender conditioning rewards them for
being tought, uncomplaining, and courageous - qualities that
can help them succeed in life. But others go against their
very nature and wound them psychologically and spiritually.
Nevertheless, "real men" are trained and conditioned to stay
in the box. ---
Service-learning activies may be perceived by many men
(probably with no real awareness) as being in the feminine
domain for some of the reasons implied by the quote above.
Would make for some interesting and publishable masculine
ideology research.
For any interested, I moderate a listserv dealing with men
and career issues through the National Career Development
Association. If you would like some information on that,
please email me a request to my other email address,
doerrdon@aol.com, and I will get something out to you in a
week or so.
Don Doerr
Experiential Learning Coordinator
University of Northern Iowa
&
Men's Issues Special Interest Group Chair
National Career Development Association