Education- Femminism Flashcards
What do feminist perspectives focus on in society?
Gender inequalities in society
What is the main role of education?
To maintain gender inequality
What has feminist research revealed?
-The extent of male domination and the ways in which male supremacy has been maintained
How do feminists argue discrimination occurred in education?
-The 11+ exam
-The pass mark for girls was higher so girls were artificially failed so boys could succeed
-Liberal femminists
What do feminists argue about subject choice?
-Female students avoid STEM subjects
-‘Boy’ and ‘Girls’subjects
-‘Girls’ subjects have a lower status
How have gender stereotypes been found in education according to feminists?
-Reading schemes from the 1960s and 70s presented boys as more adventurous, physically stronger, having more choice
-Whereas Lobban (1974)argued girls were presented as followers, not leaders
-Girls were more emotional and caring
How are women presented in the curriculum?
-In the background, 2nd place or missing entirely
-History ‘his story’
Define patriarchal
-A male-dominated society in which men are the rulers and leaders and they exercise their power throughout society
How does gendered language affect education?
-He, him, man referred to more than women which is degrading to women
How do schools enforce gender roles?
-School textbooks tend to present males and females in traditional gender roles Heaton and Lawson (1996) (hidden ciriculum)
Give some positives of the feminist approach
-Exposes gender inequality in education
-Sexism in reading schemes has disappeared
Today focus is on the underachievement of boys rather than the discrimination of girls
-still clear that there is a glass ceiling and a gender pay gap so the education system might be creating lots of highly qualified girls, but they are still losing out to their male peers when it comes to top jobs and higher incomes
-more likely to take time off for child-rearing, work part-time and carry out the majority of housework tasks which is normalised as many highly qualified women think it’s inevitable
Give some negatives of the feminist approach
-Women’s grades at GCSE and level are significantly higher
-More women than men are in higher education
- Education is an increasingly female-dominated sector (most teachers are women, and an increasing number of managers are women
What does Banyard argue?
-Sexual harassment in education and how it is not treated as seriously as other forms of bullying
What does Sue Sharpe argue?
- London schoolgirls in the 1970s had completely different priorities and aspirations from similar girls in 1996.
-In the 1970s girls’ priorities were marriage and family, in the 1990s this had switched dramatically to careers. - legislative changes such as the 1970 Equal Pay Act and the 1976 Sex Discrimination Act are likely to have played their part
