subject choice in school

Gender domains

task and activities that are seen as a male or female territory

Fixing a car can be seen as more masculine but looking after children is not

Patricia Murphy studies gender domains and found that boys and girls pay attention to different details even when tacking the same tasks.

Gendered career and opportunities

Employment is highly gendered: jobs tend to be either men’s or woman’s.

Woman’s just tend to be more like housewife’s such as health care and nursing.

Subject choice is effected by the careers available to males and females.

Gender roles socialisation

From a young age boys and girls are socialised into different gender roles. For example girls tend to be socialised to be passive to listen and to be white whereas boys are socialised to be active and play

This may explain why boys tend to pick subjects like PE or science

Gender identity and peer pressure

Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure to an individual if they disapprove of his or hers choice.

Boys might tend to opt out of music and dance as it can be seen as too feminine which can attract a negative response from peers.