Administrators do their best to create classes with equal amounts of males and females, but for optional courses this often is not possible. As a result, gender ratios in electives are often very skewed.

Junior Jared Shanks is the only male student in his intermediate modern/jazz dance class. Shanks said he thinks there is a stigma attached to dance, which is why so few boys take it.

“I think it stems from the sports. Sports are a male thing. Guys do sports,” Shanks said. “And so the girls who don’t want to do sports, because it’s whatever, go dance and it becomes a girl-heavy thing. Everyone should take the class, because it’s a cool place to be.”

Shanks said he believes being male and taking a dance class should not be a big deal. For him, it is not about what classmates think, because it is a personal choice to take a particular course.

“For me, at least, it’s a very introspective class,” Shanks said. “How can I move my body in a different way? How can I make sure that I’m doing this in the proper way that makes it so I can do the best that I can do?”

Performing arts teacher Carolyn Castellano has observed that her Digital Music Production class and Jazz Band class have been predominantly male. Because the trend is for the majority of students to be male, girls are less likely to take the class, according to Castellano.

“You like to be in a place where you feel comfortable, where you feel like you can relate to somebody,” Castellano said.

Castellano often tries to recruit girls into her classes to help better balance them.

“If I have girls in some of my classes, I’ll try and say, ‘Oh hey, why don’t you try out for Jazz Band?’ and try to encourage them to try and do it,” Castellano said.

However, the gender imbalance tends to be less of an issue once the girls are enrolled in the class itself. Junior Korey Caron is one of two girls in Jazz Band. Caron said the imbalance in gender rarely get in the way of her performance in the class.

“In the class, it’s really more about the music, not who’s playing the instrument,” Caron said.

Science Curriculum Coordinator Ed Wiser said, “More boys gravitate toward chemistry, while females gravitate more toward life sciences.”

“A lot of research has been done, and a lot of it stems from the fact of boys and girls having different likes and dislikes in terms of solving mathematical problems,” he said. “I think that girls are very good at it and very capable, but they gravitate towards things that are along the lines of life science.”

While boys and girls may tend toward different disciplines, according to Wiser, the quality of teaching could potentially determine how balanced the gender ratios in classes are.

“In schools that do a bad job of teaching math and physics, you will see no girls in physics classes,” he said. “None.”

The best way to encourage more balanced gender ratios in classes is to let students know they are supported and have options, Wiser said.

Senior Emy Metzger, one of four girls in Advanced Placement European History, said although the class is good, it can be intimidating.

“[It’s] absolutely terrifying and amazing at the same time,” Metzger said. “I’m not one to generally be scared of menfolk, but the guys in the class are very dominant and outspoken. It’s not so much that they’re men. It is more that they’re very vocal men with a lot of ideas.”

According to Metzger, the imbalanced gender ratio is not a huge deal. Rather, it is something that only occasionally hinders her performance in class.

“The girls tend to sit together, but other than that we’re doing just fine,” Metzger said. “[The boys] are actually all very polite. However, there’s sometimes a bit of hand-raising competition because everyone wants to share their ideas. Plus, they have longer arms.”

Ethan Roubenoff and Pearl Choi can be contacted at [email protected].