Gender Talk: Men And Women Handle Competition Differently

Students at Bluffton University heard about gender and how it relates to competition. 

Kathy DeBoer, executive director of the Volleyball Coaches Association, spoke to students on Tuesday about gender-specific stereotypes and how men and women handle competition differently. 

She says males tend to have a worldview framed around hierarchy, and females have a view that leans toward a more integrated-collaborative fashion. 

DeBoer says it's important we understand these differences, but also keep in mind people's individuality, regardless of gender.  

"As human beings, patterns and pattern recognition is something we start learning at a very young age, and the patterns that boys and girls do things is very different. We have to see these differences without discriminating," she said. "Blindness to difference is still blindness. We have to be able to see difference without doing it in a discriminatory way." 

Forum lectures will be held at Bluffton University the first Tuesday of every month through April.