2.4 gender differences in education Flashcards
the gender gap in achievement
difference in achievement in education: starting school, keystage 1-3, GCSE’s, A-level, vocational courses.
- girls ahead of boys in all areas of assesment
- girls do consistently better: widest gap in english, gap narrower in maths and sciences
- girls around 10 % points better than boys
- more likely to sit, pass and get higher grades than boys but gap is much narrower
- girls perform better, more likely to get distinctions even in male dominated courses
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what are the 4 external factors and gender differences in achievement
- the impact of feminism
- changes in the family
- changes in womens employment
- girls’ changing ambitions
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what is feminism?
a social movement that strives for equal rights for women in all areas of life.
external factors and gender differences in achievement
since what year has feminism challenged traditional views?
1960’s
external factors and gender differences in achievement
feminism has raised…through…
womens standards, expectations and self esteem through changes in laws and rights, increasing equality
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what did Angela McRobbie’s study show in 1994 show about the change in girl’s magazines?
- 1970- emphasised the importance of getting married
- today- images focussed on assertive, independant women
external factors and gender differences in achievement
how does the impact of feminism explain improvements in educational achievement?
effects girls self-image and ambitions with regard to career and family.
external factors and gender differences in achievement
4 major changes in the family since the 1970’s
- an increase in the divorce rate
- increase in cohabitation
- increase in lone-parent families
- smaller families
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what does increased numbers of female-headed lone parent families lead to
- women will need to take on the role of the breadwinner
- therefore creates a new role model for girls- the financially stable independant woman
- to achieve this women need good jobs and therefore good qualifications
- same situation with the divorce rate increasing
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what has been the effect of the 1970 equal pay act and the 1975 sex discrimination act in women’s employment
- since 1975 the pay gap has halved from 30% to 15%
- proportion of women in employment has risen from 53% (1971) to 67% (2013)
- women are now breaking through the ‘glass cieling’ which keeps women out of high level and managerial jobs
external factors and gender differences in achievement
how have the changes in women’s employment changed the way girls see their future?
- see their future as paid work rather than as housewives
- provide an incentive for girls to want to get better qualifications
external factors and gender differences in achievement
who studied girls changing ambitions?
- sue sharpe
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what did sue sharpes study show
- in the 1970’s girls had low aspirations: they believed educational success was unfemine and unattractive, prioritising husbands and children over a career
- however in the 1990’s girls ambitions changed to focus on a career and being independant
external factors and gender differences in achievement
how does Beck link trends in modern society to girls changing ambitions?
- society has become more individualistic and independance is valued more strongly than in the past
- a career has become more part of a womens life project as ir promises economic self-sufficiency and recognition
external factors and gender differences in achievement
in what ways does class limit how far girl’s ambitions have changed?
- some working class girls still have gender-stereotypes ambitions for marriage and children and expect to go into a traditional low paying womans job
external factors and gender differences in achievement
what does Diana Reay argue?
- that traditional gender identity (e.g. marriage) offers them a source of status
- and that their limited aspirations limit what jobs they believe to be available to them
external factors and gender differences in achievement
why did biggart say that working class girls see less point in education?
- more likely to face a insecure job in the labor force and mother hood is seen to be more viable
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
examples of equal opportunity policies that encourage girls to pursue a career in non-traditional areas
- GIST- girls into science and technology
- WISE- women in science and engineering
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
how did the introduction of the national curriculum in 1988 remove a source of gender inequality?
- made girls and boys study mostly the same subjects
- which was often not the case previously
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
how has the increase in female role models impacted girl’s educational achievement?
- women in senior positions- role models for girls, showing them they can achieve positions of importance
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
when did the gender gap in achievement become evident?
- fairly constant from 1975 to 1989 when it increased sharply
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
4 reasons why girls are more successful in coursework
- spend more time on their work
- take more care with the way it’s presented
- better at meeting deadlines
- bring the right equipment and materials to lessons
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
effect of the greater use of oral exams
- benifits girls because they generally have better developed language skills
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
how does the early gender role socialisation help girls
these characteristics (e.g. being neat, tidy and patient) have become more valued in todays assessment system
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
who argues against coursework impacting acievement and what does she say?
- Jannette Elwood
- unlikely to be the only cause of the gender gap in education as it often only makes up for a small proportion of the final grade
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
who analysed classroom interaction?
Jane and Peter French
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
what did peter and jane french find about receiving attention in the classroom?
boys recieved more attention as they attracted more reprimands
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
what did Swann find about gender differences in communication styles
- boys dominate class discussions, whereas
- girls are better at listening and communicating and prefer pair/group work
- when working in groups, girls speech invloves turn-taking, but hostile interuptions characterise boys speech
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
how does SFP link to teacher attention
- teachers may respond more positively to girls (cooperative) than to boys (disruptive)
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
ways stereotypes been challenged in the curriculum?
- removing gender stereotypes from textbooks (e.g. woman on dtf textbook)
- reading schemes (only men like shakespeare..)
- in 1970s and 80s
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
how does the marketisation policy league tables increase gender gap in achievement?
Jackson:
girls perform better so more likely to be attractive to good schools
Slee:
boys more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties making them less attractive to schools
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
what are two of the different views on girls’ achievement?
liberal feminists and radical feminists
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
what view do liberal feminists take on girls’ achievement?
- celebrate the progress made so far
- believe that further improvement will be made by the continuing of developing equal opportunity policies, encouraging positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotypes
- similar to functionalist view (all have equal opportunity to achieve
internal factors and gender differences in achievement
what view do radical feminists take on girls’ achievement?
- more critical
- believes that the system still remains patriarchal and that it is still a “man’s world”
- for example:
sexual harrassment continues at school
education still limits girls career paths
most head teachers are male
women are still underrepresented in many areas of the curriculum e.g. in history
identity, class and girls achievement
what is symbolic capital?
the status, recognition and worth that we are able to gain from others
identity, class and girls achievement
how did working class girls gain symbolic capital and what conflict did this cause?
- by performing working class feminine identities: adopting a hyper-herterosexual feminine identity, having a boyfriends and being”loud”
- prevented them from aquiring educational capital (qualifications) and economic capital (middle-class careers)
identity, class and girls achievement
what did the hyper-heterosexual style consist of?
- black urban american styles
- unisex sportwear
- sexy clothes
- makeup
- hairstyles
identity, class and girls achievement
how does the hyper-heterosexual identity clash with school
- punished for having the wrong appearance e.g. too much jewellery/makeup»_space;> because the teachers saw appearance as a distraction from engaging in education
- led to the school “othering” the girls- defining them as “not one of us” incapable of educational success and therefore less worthy of respect (bordieu claims this to be symbolic violence- harm done by denying someone symbolic capital)
identity, class and girls achievement
what did Archer claim the ‘ideal female pupil’ to be according to the schools POV
de-sexualised and middle class
identity, class and girls achievement
how does having a boyfriend (symbolic capital) reduce girls’ aspirations?
- losing interest in going to univerisity
- studying ‘masculine’ subjects
- gaining a proffessional career
- instead, theses girls aspired to be ‘settled down, have children and work locally in wc feminie jobs e.g. childcare
- may have to drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy
identity, class and girls achievement
how does ‘being loud’ clash with education
- led to them being outspoken, independent and assertive e.g. questioning teachers’ authority.
- failing to conform with the schools stereotype of an ideal female pupil of passive and submissive to authority, bringing conflict to the teachers who took this as agressive rather than assertive
identity, class and girls achievement
what was the dilema most wc girls faced?
- either gaining symbolic capital or educational capital
identity, class and girls achievement
what did Evans find the motivation was for w/c girls to go into higher education?
- earning power- not for themselves, but for their families
identity, class and girls achievement
w/c girls who attended university generally lived…
- at home
- which made HE more affordable
- however it also limited their choice of university to something local
- it also reflected their w/c identites that puts more emphasis on the local and family
boys and achievement
what factors may be responsible for boys falling behind in education?
- poorer literary skills
- decline in traditional men’s jobs
- feminisation of education
- shortage of male school teachers
- ‘laddish’ subcultures
boys and achievement
why do boys have poorer literary skills?
- parents spend less time reading to their sons
- mothers do most of the reading to children- becomes associated as a feminine activity
- boys leisure pursuis (e.g. football) do little to help compared to girls ‘bedroom culture’- staying in and talking
boys and achievement
what policies has the government introduced to help improve boy’s literary skills?
- the raising boys achievement project- range of strategies e.g. single-sex schooling
- the reading champions scheme- uses male role models talking about their reading interests.
