Studied by 2 people
McRobbie
In the 1970s, magazines emphasised the importance of getting married and not being 'left on the shelf', whereas nowadays, they contain images of assertive, independent women.
Sharpe
Interviews with girls in the 1970s and the 1990s show a major shift in the way girls see their future.
O'Connor
Study of 14-17 year olds found that marriage and children were not a major part of their life plans.
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim
Trend towards individualisation in modern society, where independence is valued more strongly than in the past. A career has become part of a woman's life project because it promises recognition and economic self-sufficiency.
Fuller
For some girls in the study, educational success was a central aspect of their identity. They saw themselves as creators of their own future and had an individualised notion of self.
Reay
Limited aspirations reflect the limited job opportunities they perceive as available to them.
Biggart
WC girls are more likely to face precarious position in labour market so see motherhood as the only option. Hence, they see less point in achieving in education.
Gorard
Gender gap in achievement was fairly constant from 1975 until 1989, when it increased sharply. The gender gap in achievement is a product of the changed system of assessment rather than any more general failings of boys.
Mitsos and Browne
Concludes girls are more successful in coursework because they are more conscientious and better organised than boys. Girls spend more time on their work, take more care with presentation, are better at meeting deadlines, bring the right equipment and materials to lessons.
Elwood
Although coursework has some influence, it is unlikely to be the only cause of the gender gap because exams have more influence than coursework on final grades.
French
When they analysed classroom interaction, they found that boys received more attention because they attached more reprimands.
Francis
While boys got more attention, they were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers, who tended to have lower expectations of them.
Swann
Gender differences in communication styles. Boys dominate in whole-class discussion, whereas girls prefered pair work and group work.
Weiner
Since the 1980s, teachers have challenged such stereotypes including reading schemes portrayed women mainly as housewives and mothers, physics books showing them as frightened by science, and maths books depicting boys as more inventive.
Jackson
The introduction of exam league tables has improved opportunities for girls: high-achieving girls are attractive to schools, whereas low-achieving boys are not. This tens to create a self-fulfilling prophecy because girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools, they are more likely to do well.
Slee
Boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties and are four times more likely to be excluded.
Liberal feminists
View of girls' achievement: They celebrate the progress made so far in improving achievement. They believe that further progress will be made by the continuing development of equal opportunities policies, encouraging positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotypes.
Radical feminists
More critical. While they recognise that girls are achieving more, they emphasise the system remains patriarchal.
Archer at al.
Conflict between working-class girls' feminine identities and ethos of the school. By performing working-class feminine identities, the girls studied gained symbolic capital. But, this brought them into conflict with school, preventing them from acquiring education capital (qualifications) and economic capital (middle-class careers)
Evans
Study of 21 working class sixth form girls in a south London comprehensive school. She found girls wanted to go to university to increase their earning power. But, this was not for themselves, but to help their families. The girls' motivation reflected their working-class feminine identities.
Skeggs
Caring is a crucial part of this identity, and the girls in Evans' study wished to remain at home and contribue to their families.
Archer
A preference for the local is a key feature of working-class habitus.
DCSF
The gender gap is mainly the result of boys' poorer literacy and language skills. Parents may spend less time reading to their sons.
Mitsos and Browne 2
Decline in male employment opportunities has led to an 'identity crisis for men'. Many boys now believe they have little prospect of getting a proper job.
Sewell
Reported as claiming education have become feminised. That is, schools do not nurture masculine traits such as competitiveness. Instead, they celebrate qualities more associated with girls, like methodical working and attentiveness in class
Francis 1
Two-thirds of 7-8 year olds believed the gender of teachers do not matter.
Read
Critical of the claim that the culture of primary schools is becoming feminised and that only male teachers can exert the firm discipline that boys need to achieve. To test the claims, Read studied the type of language teachers use to express criticism of disapproval of pupils' work and behaviour. She identifies disciplinarian discourse and liberal discourse.
Epstein
Examined the way masculinity is constructed within school. She found that working-class boys are likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic abuse if they appear to be 'swots'.
Francis 3
Found boys were more concerned that girls about being labelled by peers at swots, because this labels is more of a threat to their masculinity than it is to girls' femininity.
Ringrose
Belief that girls have succeeded at the expense of boys who are the new disadvantaged has contributed to a moral panic about 'failing boys'. This moral panic reflects a fear that underachieving working-class boys will grow up to become a dangerous, unemployable underclass that threatens social stability.
Osler
The focus on underachieving boys has led to a neglect of girls. This is partly because girls often disengage from school quietly.
McVeigh
Similarities in girls' and boys' achievement are far greater than the differences, especially when compared with class or ethnic differences. For example, the class gap in achievement at GCSE is three times wider than the gender gap.
Connolly
Certain combinations of gender, class and ethnicity have more effect than others. For example, being female raises performance when 'added to' being black Carribean than it does when 'added to' being white.
Institute of Physics
The proportion of A-Level physics students who are girls have been 'stubbornly consistent', at around 20% for over 20 years.
Norman
From an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities.
Bryne
Teachers encourage boys to be tough and show initiative and not to be weak or behave like sissies. Girls are expected to be quiet, helpful, clean and tidy.
Murphy and Elwood
Differences in socialisation lead to different subject choices. Boys read hobby books and information texts, while girls read stories about people.
Ross
Children's beliefs about 'gender domains' are shaped by their early experiences and the expectations of adults. By gender domains, they mean the tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male or female 'territory' and therefore as relevant to themselves. For example, mending a car is seen as falling within the male gender domain, but looking after a sick child is not.
Murphy
Boys and girls pay attention to different details even when tackling the same task. In general, girls focus more on how people feel, whereas boys focus on how things are made and work.
Kelly
Science seen as boys' subject. Science teachers are more likely to be men. Examples teachers use and in textbooks often draw on boys rather than girls' interests. In science lessons, boys monopolise the apparatus and dominate the laboratory, acting as if it is theirs.
Colley
Computer studies is seen as a masculine subject as it involves working with machines which is part of the male gender domain. The way it is taught is off-putting to females. Tasks tend to be abstract and teaching styles formal, with few opportunities for group work which girls favour.
Leonard
Analysing data to 13,000 individuals, Leonard found compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in girls' schools were more likely to take maths and science A-Levels, while boys in boys' schools were more likely to take English and languages.
Paetcher
Found because pupils see sport as mainly within the male gender domain, girls who are not 'sporty' have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype.
Dewar
Study of American college students and found male students who call girls 'lesbian' or 'butch' if they appeared interested in sport.
Fuller 2
Most working-class girls studied by Fuller had ambitions to go into jobs like child care or hair and beauty, reflecting their working-class habitus.
Lees
Identifies a double standard of sexual morality in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits, but call a girl a 'slag' if she doesn't have a steady boyfriend or dresses and speaks in a certain way.
Parker
Boys were labelled gay simply for being friendly with girls or female teachers.
Mac an Ghaill
Male gaze is a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued.
Mac an Ghaill 2
A study of Parnell school examines how peer groups reproduce a range of different class-based masculine gender identities.
Redman and Mac an Ghaill
Found dominant definition of masculine identity changes from that of the macho lads in the lower school to that of the real Englishmen in sixth form.
Ringrose 2
Small-scale study of 13-14 year old working-class girls' peer groups in a South Wales school found that being popular was crucial to the girls' identity. As the girls made a transition from a girls' friendship culture into a heterosexual dating culture, they face a tension between an idealised female identity and sexualised identity.
Currie et al.
While relationships with boys can confer symbolic capital, this is a risk game. This is because girls are forced to perform a balancing act between these two identities.
Reay 2
A 'boffin' identity involved the girls having to perform an asexual identity, presenting themselves as lacking any interest in boyfriends or popular fashion.
Francis 4
Middle class female boffins may respond in kind by defining other working-class girls as 'chavs'
Haywood and Mac an Ghaill
Found male teachers told boys off for 'behaving like girls' and teased them when they gained lower makers in tests than girls.
Askew and Ross
Male teachers behaviour can subtly reinforce messages about gender.
