Bringing Gender Sensitive Teaching into the Classroom: Tapping into the Aspirations and Abilities of Evangelical College Aged Women

Cornerstone Ballroom Side A

Evangelical women pursing Higher Education often experience a unique tension between their personal aspirations and gender role ideology. Understanding the gender climate in in the evangelical community and its impact on female students is pivotal to effectively preparing and teaching evangelical females. In this presentation I describe how I use transformational learning theory and concepts from drawn from gender sensitive mentoring to foster leadership development in evangelical women pursing higher education. Vignettes based on student experiences are used to illustrate the tension of personal aspirations and gender role ideology that evangelical women experience when pursuing their undergraduate degree. I suggest that gender sensitive teaching is needed to appropriately prepare evangelical women to pursue both their professional and personal priorities. This presentation provides participants with examples of teaching methods, activities, and assignments used in the classroom to help women navigate the gendered messages they receive regarding their personal and professional aspirations.