Education - Gender Flashcards
What are 4 factors that can explain girls achievement?
1- Impact of feminism
2 - Changes in the family
3 - Changes in women’s employment
4 - Girl’s changing ambitions
Impact of Feminism
- Changed laws, rights, voting, ect..
- Helped to change stereotypes of women
- Girls become more independent and motivated
Changes in the Family
- More variety in family structures in modern times (same-sex, non-married, single parent)
- Increase in divorce rates, smaller family sizes, increase in lone-parent families
- Suggets women shouldn’t rely on men to provide for them
- Women acting as the breadwinner becomes a role model for girls
Changes in Women’s Employment
- 1970 Equal Pay Act
- !975 Sex Discrimination Act
- Equality Act 2010
- Decrease in pay gap from 30% to 15% since 1975
- More women in powerful positions
- Girls see a future in paid work and therefore have to seek qualifications
What did Sharpe (1994) find out?
1970s - girls had low aspirations, considered education unfeminine, and prioritised love, marriage, husbands
1990s - girls had more focus on being independent and getting careers
What did O’Conner (2006) find out?
14 - 17 year olds didn’t have marriage or children in their major life plans
What did Beck-Gernsheim (2001) find out?
They linked these changes in ambitions to individualisation and independence being valued more strongly than in the past
What did Fuller (2011) find out?
Girls saw educational success as a central aspect of their identity, amining for a professinal career to support themselves, which requires qualifications
What did Reay (1998) argue about class and gender?
Some w/c girls still have stereotypes aspirations of marriage with children, forcing them into low paid work. Marriage is a tangible concpet and is something achieveable which gives them status
What does Biggart (2002) argue about class and gender?
Working-class women are more likely to find themselves in a financially unstable position, therefore they seek out motherhood. There is little point in educational success, therefore lowering the expectations of w/c girls
What was the purpose of introducing the national curriculum in 1988?
To remove one source of inequality as it made both genders study the same subjects, which wasn’t the case previously
What do some sociologists argue about GCSEs?
Some argue that the coursework in GCSEs means that girls find it easier to achieve
What did Gorard (2005) suggest?
Gorard discovered that the gender gap in achievement increased after 1989, when GCSEs and coursework were introduced
What did Mitsos + Brown (1998) suggest?
They concluded that girls are better at coursework as they:
- Take more care with presentation
- Meet deadlines better
- Bring the right equiptment
- Spend more time on their work
What did Elwood (2005) suggest?
They argued that coursework is unlikely to be the only factor in gender gaps as exams have more influence on final grades
How are boys disciplined in the classroom?
They are disciplined more harshly than their female peers
How were both genders portayed in textbooks?
Women were majorly presented as housewives and mothers, whereas men were presnted as being more inventive
What did Weiner (1995) suggest?
Teachers have been increasinly challenging of gendered stereotypes. There has also been a shift in how women are portrayed in learning materials, which presents young girls with a more positive image.
What does Jackson (1998) suggest about league tables?
Jackson suggesrs that girls have benefited from league tbales as their competitoin as they achieve higher results, therefore being attratced to the best establishments.
What does Slee (1998) suggest about league tables?
Slee suggests that boys are less attractive to schools as they are more likely to have behavioural issues. They are seen as a liability and may impact on their league tables.
How do liberal feminists view girl’s achievement?
- They celebrate the progress made so far
- They believe further progress will be made
How do radical feminists view girl’s achievement?
- More critical
- Emphasise that the system is still patriarchal
- Sexual harassment still exists in schools
- Male teachers are still more likely to become headteachers
- Women are under-represented in the curicculum
What is a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity?
(Archer 2010)
A way for working-class girls to gain symbolic capital from their peers
What are the attributes of the hyper-heterosexual appearance?
- Sportswear
- ‘Sexy’ clothes and makeup
- Jewellery
- Aiming to be desireable
- Conflicting with the school’s uniform
What are the pros and cons of hyper-hetero girls getting boyfriends?
Pro: They gain symbolic captial
Cons: They lose focus on schoolwork, they lose interest in going to uni, prioritise settling down and end up in w/c feminine jobs
What is the working-class girls’ dilemma? (Archer)
Gaining symbolic capital vs Gaining educational capital
Who did Evans (2009) sample?
21 working-class girls from a London comprehensive 6th form
What did Evans (2009) find out about working-class girls?
Those who wanted to attend university to increase their earning power did so to help their families and to give back to them
How did accommodation choices limit working-class students?
They prefered to stay local (for financial and preference reasons), which limited their oppurtunities
Why are boys’ literacy rates worse than girls’?
Boys’ leisure activities (such as football) dont help to develop language, whereas girls focus on talking with their friends
Reading is seen as a feminine activity as its mostly mothers that read to their children
Why is education being seen as being ‘feminised’?
- School’s don’t nurture masculine traits (competitiveness + leadership)
- Sewell sees coursework as a major cause of gender differences in education
- Sewell also argues coursework should be replaced with final exams and there soul be more emphasis on outdoor exploration in the curriculum
What is a disciplinarian discourse?
Where a teacher’s authority is made explicit and visible
(Sarcasm, tone of voice, shouting)
What is a liberal discourse?
The teacher’s authority is implicit and invisbile
(The teacher speaks to the child as if they were an adult)
What did Read (2008) find out about the ‘feminisation’ of education?
- Studied 51 primary teachers (25M 26F)
- Found that most teachers use disciplinarian discourse regardless of their gender
- Concludes that as both use the supposed masculine discourse that the education system has not become feminised after all
What did critics of feminism argue about education?
The focus on girls is no longer needed as they are now achieving better than the boys, almost at their expense
What do feminists argue about education?
They argue there is currently a moral panic aroud boys in education, which has shifted the focus to improving boys’ achievement
What areas have been overlooked because of the moral panic around boys?
- A neglect of girls and they usually disengage from school quietly, rather than boys’ public displays that attract teacher attention
- The exclusion probelm for girls is being ignored
- Girls’ sexual harrassment
What is a gender domain?
The idea that certain activities, behaviours, and attitudes are the ‘territory’ of either men or women
What did Elwood (1998) find out about reading habits?
- Boys read hobby and informstion books = interest in Science
- Girls read stories about people = interest in English
What did Lees (1993) say about double standards?
Lees identified a double standard of sexual morality, where boys boast about their sexual exploits but call a girl a ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend or dresses a certain way
What is the male gaze?
The way women are seen as sexual objects and judgements are made on their appearance
What did Mac an Ghaill (1994) find out about male peer groups?
- Examined how peer groups reproduce a range of class-based masculine identities
- Those who tried to achieve were called the ‘dickhead achievers’
- In sixth form there is a shift in the dominant identity to the ‘real Englishman’ from the ‘macho lad’
What is a ‘boffin identity’?
(Reay 2001)
Girls who wanted to succeed educationally had to attain a ‘boffin’ identity
(Being asexual, lacking interest in boyfriends and fashion, often excluded from social groups)
