1.6 Gender (Pt 2)

Question 1

Archer et al’s Study

Answer 1

1. Symbolic Capital: conflict between WC feminine identities and ethos of schools. Symbolic capital is status gained from others. This brought conflict preventing educational and economic capital.
2. HHFI: many invested in ‘glamarous’ HHFI. (combined black urban, American styles with unisex sportwear and ‘sexy’ clothes, make=up and hairstyles)

Conflict: punished for appearance. Bourdieu describes this as ‘symbolic violence’. Archer: ideal female pupil is desexualised and MC.

3. Boyfriends: having a BF brought symbolic capital.

Conflict: Got in the way of schoolwork and lowered aspirations. (Settle down, have children and work locally in WC feminine jobs)

4. Being ‘loud’: some WC girls adopted ‘loud’ identities

Conflict: Failed to conform to passive female pupil.

WC Girls’s Dilemma: Either gaining symbolic capital or gaining educational capital. Many tried to define themselves as ‘good underneath’ to cope with this

Question 2

Successful WC Girls

Answer 2

• Some do succeed and go onto higher educaiton
• Evans: girls wanted to go to uni to increase earning power, not for themselves but to help their families
• Skeggs: ‘caring’ is a crucial part of this identity

Question 3

Boys and Achievement

Answer 3

1. Literacy: DCSF: Gender gap is mostly the result of poorer literacy skills. Parents spenless time reading to their sons. Mother does most of the reading so reading is perceived as a feminine activity.
   Boy’s leisure pursuits (football) do little to help language skills. Girls ‘bedroom culture’ centred around talking to friends.
2. Globalisation: Since 1980s, decline in blue collar industries. Mitsos and Brown: decline in male employment has led to an ‘identity crisis for men’. Little prospect of emplyment leads to lack of motivation.
3. Feminisation of Education: Sewell: boys fall behind because education become feminised. Schools do not nurture ‘masculine’ traits (competitiveness and leadership) Celebrate qualities associated with girls (attentiveness to class). Tony sees coursework as a major cause of gender differences in achievement and argues it should be replaced with final exams.
4. Lack of Male Teachers: 14% of primary school teachers. 42% said presence of a male teacher made them work harder.
5. Are more needed? Francis: 2/3 of 7-8 year olds believed gender of teacher does not matter. Read: Disciplinarian / liberal discourse.
6. Laddish Subcultures: Epstein (WC boys likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be ‘swots’) Francis: boys more concerned about being labelled as ‘swots’
7. Moral Panic about Boys: Ringrose argues there is a moral panic about ‘failing boys’ growing up to become a dangerous, unemployable underclass that threaten social stability. This has caused a shift in educational policy that ignorese problem of disadvnatged pupils. Ignores problems faced by girls. Osler noytes that the focus on underachieving boys has led to neglect of girls. (disengage quietly)
8. Gender and class: boys achieve more than they did in the past. Class gap is 3x wider than gender gap.

Question 4

Subject Choice (Problem)

Answer 4

1. National Curriculum Options: Design and Technology is compulsory, girls tend to choose food tech and boys choose graphics.
2. AS and A Levels: Soc: 75%, French: 69%, Drama: 69&
   Institute for Physics: Girls taking physics has been “stubbornly consistent” at 20% for 20 years

Question 5

Explanations of Gender Differences in Subject Choice

Answer 5

1. Gender Role Socialisation: Norman (boys and girls are dressed, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities) Bryne: Teachers encourage boys to be tough and not behave like sissies. Murphy and Elwood.
2. Gender Subject Images: Kelly: science is a boys’ subject because: 1. science teachers are usually men, 2. examples teachers use often draw on boys’ rather than girl’s interest. 3. Boys monopolise lab and apparatus
   Colley: computer studies is a masculine subject as 1. it involves working with machines (male gender domain) 2. way it is taught is off-putting to females.
3. Single Sex Schooling: Pupils who attend single-sex schools tend to hold less stereotypes subject images and make less traditional subject choices (Leonard: compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in girls schools were more likely to take maths and science A levels. Boys more likely to take English and Languages)
4. Gender Identity and Peer Pressure: Boys tend to opt out of music and dance because such activities fall outside their gender domain. Paechter: girls who are ‘sporty’ have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype. Dewar: found that male students would call girls ‘lesbian’ or ‘butch’ if they appeared to be interested in sport.
5. Gendered Career Opportunities: Important reason for differences in subject choice is the fact that employment is highly gendered. Sex-typing affects boys’ and girls ideas about what kind of jobs are possible.
6. Gender, Vocational Choice and Class: Fuller: WC girls had ambitions to go into jobs such as childcare. This reflected their WC habitus.

Question 6

Pupil’s Sexual and Gender Identities

Answer 6

1. Double Standards: Lees identifies a double standard of sexual morality in which… boys boast about sexual exploits. Girls are called ‘slags’ if they don’t have a steady boyfriend. Sexual conquest is approved of and given status by male peers and ignores by male teachers, promiscuity among girls attracts negative labels. Feminists: see double standards as an example of a patriarchal ideology that justifies male power.
2. Verbal Abuse: Hegemonic Masculinity is upheld through what Connell calls a ‘rich vocabulary of Abuse”. Lees: Boys call girls slags if they appear to be sexually available and drags if they didn;t. Paechter: labels such as ‘gay’, ‘queer’ and ‘lezzie’ are ways in which pupils police each other’s sexual identities. Parker: boys labelled gay for being friendly with girls and female teachers.
3. Male Gaze: Visual aspect to how pupils maintain hegemonic masculinity. Mac an Ghaill: refers to this as the male gaze (way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down seeing them as sexual objects) This is how boys prove their masculinity and avoid being labelled gay.
4. Male Peer Groups: Epstein: boys in anti-school subcultures often accuse boys who want to do well at school of being gay or effeminate. Mac an Ghaill: WC ‘macho lads’ were dismissive of other WC boys who worked hard and had MC aspirations. MC ‘real Englishmen’ projected image of effortless achievement (Mac an Ghaill and Redman: dominant definition shifts)
5. Female Peer Groups: Ringrose being ‘popular’ was crucial to WC girls identity. As they made a transition from friendship to heterosexual dating culture, they experienced conflict between an idealised feminine identity (loyalty to peers) and a sexualised identity (competitng for boys)
6. Teachers and Discipline: Askew and Ross: male teachers often had a protective attitude towards female colleagues and would ‘save’ them.