Sexual Harassment

Teachers who make disparaging remarks about or implicitly devalue students for their gender or sexual orientation can undermine students' academic, professional, and personal growth just as much as those who make discriminations based on race, religion, age, or other physical or cultural characteristics.

Examples of this type of sexual harassment include

1. Explicit use of derogatory terms or stereotypic generalizations. 

2. Use of "humorous" images or statements that demean or trivialize people because of gender or sexual orientation. 

3. Reinforcement of sexist stereotypes through subtle, often unintentional means, such as using classroom examples in which professional people like psychologists, managers, or politicians are always referred to as men. Similarly, gays and lesbians may habitually be associated only with certain professions.

4. Continual use of generic masculine terms such as to refer to people of both sexes or references to both men and women as necessarily heterosexual. 

5. Statements which imply that certain racial or ethnic groups are more sexually active than others.

6. Habitually recognizing and calling on one gender more than another during class discussions.

7. Interrupting one gender more often than another or allowing others in the class to do so.

8. Addressing the class as if only one gender were present.

9. Listening more attentively and responding more extensively to comments made by one gender than the other.