The Intersection of Gender and Culture in Argumentative Writing

Our study explores the intersection of gender, socio-cultural background, and argumentative socioscientific writing. We compared argumentative essays written by Haredi men and women students to argumentative essays written by both genders of PE graduates who studied in coed schools. While PE women and men share similar argumentative patterns and quality, in the Haredi group two distinct argumentative patterns and differences in quality were found. The Haredi men’s argumentation is characterized by dialectics, complex positions, rebuttals, and improper writing structure. In comparison, Haredi women’s argumentation patterns are different: They ‘hide’ their position, and put less emphasis on rebuttals, and many of their essays have none at all.