5.7.2: Social changes and gendered achievement

changing expectation and attitudes

• sharpe - women saw education as main route and became more ambitious

• girls became increasingly wary of marriage - declining priority

• divorce rate rapidly rose

• women were becoming increasingly financially independent

• changing expected and attitudes reflected by parents and schools

  • Francis and skelton

the women’s movement and feminism

mitsos and browne

changes in the labour market

• expanded employment opportunities for women

• rise in young women’s educational ambitions

• increased incentive to gain educational qualifications

• Francis and skelton

• Jamal

individualisation and the risk society

• beck

• increasing emphasis of construction of self and creation of identity

• francis and skelton

educational achievement of boys

• general improvement in educational achievement of boys in the last 50 years

• working class boys do badly compared to other social groups

• girls educational performance has improved at a faster rate than boys

• significant widening of the gender gap

• underachievement caused moral panic

constructions of masculinity

• school = major setting for construction of masculinity

• form of masculinity constructed in classrooms contributes to the underachievement of male students

• jackson

• students want to do well academically but also be cool and popular

  • solution = reject schoolwork, requisite amount of messing around, work secretly at home

  • favours MC boys with home-based resources

• laddish behaviour holding boys back = parallels the widening of the gender gap

pressure to succeed and fear of failure

• competitive individualism and individual responsibility widespread today

• promotes fears of academic failure

• directs responsibility for failure to individual

• laddish behaviour as a response to this

  • uncool to work as an excuse for poor academic performance

• marketisation of schools = further pressure on students

  • schools compete

  • increasing emphasis of exam success

  • growing pressure to achieve high grades

  • laddish behaviour = defensive strategy to reduce fear of poor academic performance or excuse the reality of failure

crisis of masculinity

• linked to changes in labour market

• rapi decline of unskilled and semi-skilled manual jobs

• macho manual jobs = reflect traditional male WC identities

• disappearance has left identities uncertain and under threat

• new jobs in service sector = require feminine skills and sensitivities

• WC boys have responded to these threats by turning to laddish behaviour to restore masculinity

  • believe that males no longer have a clear cut role in society

educational aspirations and attitudes

rampino and taylor

conclusion

• boys underachievement is a major concern

• large amounts of time and money spent on government initatives aimed at raising boys educational attainment

• critics argue that the whole question of equality of educational opportunity has been reduced to gender to focus on boys

• diverted attention from girls, class, ethnicity

• ball