The Rev. Genny Hurst and Deanna Langle’s titles were corrected Feb. 12 at 10:05 p.m.

The article that ran Feb. 6 reporting on the GenderSpeak workshop provided an accurate description of Tammy Hughes’ presentation; therefore, the article is not what we take issue with but rather the presentation itself.

Hughes began her presentation with declaring that her comments were supported by “research,” and then went on to only refer to research that supported her thesis that men and women are simply “hard-wired” for certain behaviors.

Not only did she limit an understanding of “gender” but also perpetuated sexist and heterosexist stereotypes of men and women.

She stated several times throughout her presentation that men and women “learn” certain behaviors such as men are goal oriented, women are process oriented, boys like power, girls favor relationships, yet she never acknowledged “how” they “learn,” other than being “hard-wired.”

What are the implications of teaching that women and men are physiologically “hard-wired” to behave and respond in certain ways?

There was no acknowledgement, beyond her narrow and particular focus of research, that men and women are socialized into gender roles.

In giving “scientific” power to “prescribed” gender responses, do we not risk reinforcing divisive differences and shutting down bridges for understanding?

In shuttling men and women into normative roles – as stated in the article: “help(ing) people to adjust to the level of each gender in their workplace” – it seemingly becomes an uphill battle for men and women to think of themselves outside of these norms.

In leaving out the impact of socialization on gender roles, how are growth and transformation possible? How are possibilities for growth and transformation circumvented? As stated in the article, Hughes said “adjusting to one another in the workplace is the most important thing.” For whom and at what cost?

Hughes shared numerous funny stories about conflict between men and women in the workplace. What happens when the stories aren’t so funny? In what ways did the information taught at this workshop help women and men work together? And in what ways did it cause further damage to relationships between colleagues, however they might define gender?

Our letter is to raise awareness that there are multiple possibilities for thinking about how notions of gender are constructed.

The Rev. Genny Hurst is a reverend at Brite Divinity School from Fort Worth and Deanna Langle is a graduate student at Brite Divinity School from Fort Worth.