Shame and Gender

Reading Sandra Lee Bartky's essay on shame and gender, I was confronted with a number of social aspects which interested me. The unassertive nature before the "other" that many women have is seen as a result of society standard of normalcy. A societal normative standard is set and all that do not fit within the threshold of normalcy are put to shame. That many women would feel inadequate in many setting because of this is a result of a sexist society. I think that Barky's classroom examples of men being more assertive, women talking in "women's language", and the difference in the confidences of both groups does paint an interesting picture of the gender shame consciousness gap. I wonder however if this same phenomenon is still as prevalent today. I remember reading many news articles about young boys falling behind in academic performance while many girls and rising in standard. Does this lead to a a change in confidence or is it completely unrelated to performance and is more socially created as Bartky implies? Still I think society is definitely changing. Social controls are is not uniform in their ability to use identity transforming power.