Abstract
This article responds to research on classroom climate for women by considering how sexism operates specifically within speech communication. It identifies three areas of disciplinary concern: public speaking and debate, public address and rhetoric, and communication as a medium through which discrimination is enacted. The article argues that women’s participation as speakers has historically conflicted with conventional gender expectations, making public speaking and debate especially difficult contexts for women students. It also critiques the teaching of public address, noting that speech anthologies and curricula have often excluded women rhetors and thereby reinforced the idea that public eloquence is primarily male. The article frames these patterns as both curricular and communicative problems, emphasizing that speech communication has a particular responsibility to examine how language, classroom interaction, and disciplinary traditions reproduce exclusion. It concludes that reducing the “chilly climate” for women and minorities requires changes in teaching, curriculum, and administrative support.
Recommended Citation
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs
(1985)
"The Communication Classroom: A Chilly Climate for Women?,"
Association for Communication Administration Bulletin: Vol. 51, Article 19.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/aca/vol51/iss1/19
