Differential Achievement - Gender Flashcards
The past - explanations of female underachievement - external factors
Sharpe ‘just like a girl’ study interviewed wc girls and found they prioritised marriage and family life rather than jobs and careers. They had traditional attitudes towards womanhood and viewed their future as defined around men and marriage.
The past - explanations of female underachievement - internal factors
Lobban - early years reading schemes reinforced gender stereotyping. Sample of 179 stories found women were portrayed in traditional domestic roles and men were mostly the heroes
Spender found gender regime where education is biased towards males in her invisible women study and 60% of teachers time is spent dealing with boys.
Stanworth in sixth form college found lecturers favoured male students and more likely to know their names
French said although more time spent on boys it is due to bad behaviour meaning overall less girl attention which could lead to underperformance
Improved achievement of girls - external factors
impact of feminism - Sharpe repeated interviews and founf majority girls found themsleves having a career and being independent from husband. McRobbie magazine analysis now feature strong independent women
changes in family - increased divorce, cohabitation and single parent families - new adult role model for girls so increased incentive to do well
changes in female employment - 1970 equal pay act and 1975 sex discrimination act, paid maternity leave and flexible working hours.
EVALUATION of improved girl achievement external factors
STRENGTHS
- genderquake - massive change in female attitudes and participation in paid work over last 3 years making education more relevant
WEAKNESSES
- overgeneralising - class also plays role - Biggart found that wc girls knew their jobs would be low pay and found motherhood more viable
- ignores internal factors
Improved achievement of girls - internal factors
Equal opportunities policies - National Curriculum gave girls equal opportunity to boys to study maths english and science. initiatives like GIST and WISE encouraged girls to study STEM subjects and make teachers aware of sexism.
Positive role models in schools and learning mats - majority teachers (61%) and heads (37%) in primary school are female - inspire young girls. Weiner found positive inspirational images of women now exist in textbooks.
GSCE and Coursework - Mitsos and Browne believe girls improved due to this as they spend more time on work, present it better and are more organised.
Teacher interactions - Francis found that boys are harshly treated and teachers have low expectations of them. Teachers respond more positively to girls. Could lead to self fulfilling prophecy
EVALUATION of improved girls achievement - internal factors
STRENGTHS
- liberal feminists suggest challenging stereotypes and creating equal opportunities has made school more equal for women
WEAKNESSES
- radical feminsits say patriarchy still exists in schools - girls harassed in schools
- obergeneralisation as not all girls do better now
- Archer - girl wc identity - heterosexual feminine identity
Define gender identity
How people perceive themselves in terms of their gender roles and biological sex.
Gender identity and power - hegemonic masculinity and exaggerated femininity
Connell suggests that in society the expression of masculinity which has the most status and power is what he calls hegemonic masculinity - a real man image of masculinity. Radical feminists believe thisis promoted in school.
Connell also discusses emphasised femininity - form of exaggerated femininity which has lots of status - involves being heterosexual, attractive - supported by Archer
Gender identity and power - peer pressure, teachers and discipline and male gaze.
Peer pressure - Paetcher suggests policing of gender and sexual identities in schools maintains it as a patriarchal institution as processes reinforce sterertypes eg girls criticised for seeming sexually available or unavailable
Teachers and discipline - Mac an Ghail found teachers ignored boys verbal abuse of girls and even blamed them for it
Male Gaze - Mac an Ghail suggested the male gaze existed in schools where male pupils eye up girls as sexual objects and make judgements. Double standard where boys sexual conquests are approved
Male underachievement - external factors
Boys and literacy - research indicates boys do worse in terms of language and literacy skills potentially due to socialisation at home as girls are read to more than boys as their hobbies are gaming and sport whereas girls have a bedroom culture of staying in and talking
Globalisation and decline of traditional male work - decline in manufacturing industry has caused crisis in masculinity accodring to Mitsos and Browne so men no longer have motivation to do well
Male underachievement - internal factors
Feminisation of education - Sewell says this is the idea education is dominated by women and no longer values masculine traits so males are doing worse
lack of male role models - DfES found only 14% of primary school teachers are male and more single parent families means exposure to positive male role modles is limited
laddish subculture - Epstein and Francis suggest it is not seen as masculine to be hard working in school so they reject it to assert their masculinity
EVALUATION of male underachievement
STRENGTHS
- clear statistical evidence of gender gap in achievement with men doing worse than women
WEAKNESSES
- male underachievement is a moral panic as men feel threatened
- more similarities when you take into account class and ethnicity
- overgeneralises boys
Gender and subject choice - A level 2013 trends
males outnumbered females in all maths, science and technical subjects apart from biology. men also dominated subjects like economics and geography. Females outnumbered in all other subjects with high ratios in social sciences, englishes and languages
Explaining gender differences in subject choice - external factors
Gender role socialisation - Norman says toys and encouragement can influence future interests and tastes in reading
Gender domains - Browne and Ross suggest children are socialised into having gender domains refers to tasks and activities that are seen as male or female teritory this can link to subjects making them more confident in ones they believe are in their gender domain
Gendered career opportunities - job market still highly gendered with over 50% of womens jobs still being in a small number of categories like shop work and cleaning
Explaining gender differences in subject choices - internal factors
Gender of teachers - Kelly says science is viewed as a male subject as science teachers tend to be male whereas english teachers tend to be female
Textbooks and reading scheme - Kelly content analysis of textbooks found in science books majority pictures male scientists
Gender bias in teaching - Kelly found science teachers allows boys to be agressive and monopolise equipment which made girls feel uncomfortable
Peer Pressure - Dewar found that girls who took sport were subject to homophobic taunts.
