Gender differences in achievement

The impact of feminism

The impact of feminism

Girls’ expectations and self-esteem has improved

McRobbie

In the 1970’s, magazines emphasised the importance of being married, but now, they contain images of independent women.

Changes in the family

Increased numbers of female headed lone parent families may mean that more women need to take on the breadwinner role. To achieve this, women strive to get good qualifications and be well paid.

Changes in Women’s employment

The 1970 equal pay act. Some women are now breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’- the invisible barrier that keeps them out of high-level professional jobs.

Sue Sharpe

Girls’ changing ambitions.

What did Sue Sharpe’s study show?

In 1970’s, girls had low aspirations and saw ambition as unattractive. In the 1990’s, girls wanted to be independent with a career.

Biggart

Working class girls are more likely to face a precarious position in the labour market and see motherhood as the only possible option for their future.

Equal opportunities policies

GIST and WISE have encouraged girls to pursue careers in non-traditional areas. Female scientists have visited schools to act as role models for young girls,

positive role models in schools

There has been an increase in the proportion of women in senior positions at school. They act as role models for young girls, especially since being a teacher requires many qualifications.

Mitsos and Browne

Girls are more successful in coursework because they are more organised and take more care with presentation. This demonstrates why the gender gap increased so much after 1989, when GCSE’s were introduced.

Swann

Boys dominate in discussions whereas girls prefer group work and are better at listening. This is why teachers respond positively to girls and harsher to the boys. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, resulting in girls achieving better.

challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

The removal of gender stereotypes from textbooks in recent years has removed a barrier to girls’ achievement. Physics books used to portray women as people frightened by science, and maths books depicted boys as more inventive.

selection and league tables

Girls are more successful than boys and are therefore more attractive to schools and their league tables. This means that girls are more likely to get into better schools than boys, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Two views of girls’ achievement

Liberal and Radical feminists.

Liberal feminists

They applaud the progress in improving girls’ achievement yet still believe that more progress can be made. They believe that education is a meritocracy.

Radical Feminists

They argue that the system is still patriarchal and a ‘mans’ world. Sexual harassment of girls still occurs in schools and subject choices are still limited for girls.

Archer

The differences in achievement for working-class girls. She found that by performing their working class identities, girls would gain symbolic capital from their peers, however, this also caused conflict with the school and prevents them from gaining educational capital.

The girls’ strategies of creating a sense of self (Archer)

Hyper hetero-sexual feminine identities, having a boyfriend, and being ‘loud’.

Evans

Studied 21 working-class sixth form girls. She demonstrated that even for the more successful working class girls, the ‘caring’ aspect of the working class feminine identity produced a desire to stay at home with their family while studying. This creates a self-exclusion from elite universities.

Boys and Literacy

Parents spend less time reading with sons, most reading is done by the mother so it may be seen as too ‘feminine’. Boys leisure pursuits such as football don’t help to develop language skills.

The decline of traditional male jobs

Since the 1980’s, there has been a decline in heavy industries such as mining and engineering. Mitsos and Browne state that this has cause an ‘identity crisis for men’.

Sewell

Education has become ‘feminised’ as schools celebrate the qualities closely associated with girls instead of boys. He argues that coursework should be replaced with final exams.

Shortage of male primary school teachers

Male teachers are better able to impose strict discipline boys need in order to concentrate, unlike female teachers, who dominate a high percentage of primary school teachers.

Barbara Read

• Critical of Sewell view that school is becoming feminised

• identifies two types of language discourse used by teachers : masculine disciplinarian and liberal

• she found that both men and women used this discourse, meaning that women have just as much authority in the classroom than males.

Epstein

Laddish Subcultures

Laddish Subcultures

Working class boys are more likely to be harassed and labelled as sissies and ‘swots’. This is because in working class subculture, masculinity is equated with being tough and doing manual work, not non-manual work or schoolwork. As a result, working class boys reject doing schoolwork.

gender role socialisation

Girls and boys are socialised in two different ways. Boys read hobby books and information texts, whereas girls read stories about people. This explains why boys prefer science subjects and girls prefer english.

gendered subject images

the gender image of a subject affects who will want to choose it. Kelly argues that science is seen as a boys subject as science teachers are more likely to be men, and in lessons, boys dominate the laboratory.

single sex schooling