Tutors at Cambridge University asked not to call students “geniuses” due to the word’s association with men
The tutors at Cambridge University have been asked not to call students ”geniuses” due to the fact that the word has a strong association with men.
The examiners have been asked to avoid words such as “genius” and “flair” as they “carry assumptions of gender inequality”, according to Lecturer Lucy Delap. Moreover, Delap claims that men got more first class degrees at top universities Oxford and Cambridge because the “male dominated environment” makes it difficult for women to persevere and become successful there.
Regarding the use of particular words, Delap considers that some of them ”have a very long intellectual history where it has long been associated with qualities culturally assumed to be male.”
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“Some women are fine with that, but others might find it hard to see themselves in those categories,” she adds.
In order to support her idea, Delap pointed out that the reading lists are dominated by male authors and that most of the portraits in the halls of the buildings depict men.
“We want to use language that is transparent. We’re rewriting our first two years of our History degree to create a wider set of paper choices, to make assessment criteria clearer, and to really try and root out the unhelpful and very vague talk of ‘genius’, of ‘brilliance’, of ‘flair’ which carries assumptions of gender inequality and also of class and ethnicity,” she explains.
The move comes after Oxford decided to allow students to take history exams at home to help improve the marks of women, with the university finding itself in the midst of a huge scandal after critics labelled the move as being ”insulting” to women.
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