Education - Gender

Question 1

What are 4 factors that can explain girls achievement?

Answer 1

1- Impact of feminism
2 - Changes in the family
3 - Changes in women’s employment
4 - Girl’s changing ambitions

Question 2

Impact of Feminism

Answer 2

• Changed laws, rights, voting, ect..
• Helped to change stereotypes of women
• Girls become more independent and motivated

Question 3

Changes in the Family

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Changes in Women’s Employment

Answer 4

• 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

Question 5

What did Sharpe (1994) find out?

Answer 5

1970s - girls had low aspirations, considered education unfeminine, and prioritised love, marriage, husbands
1990s - girls had more focus on being independent and getting careers

Question 6

What did O’Conner (2006) find out?

Answer 6

14 - 17 year olds didn’t have marriage or children in their major life plans

Question 7

What did Beck-Gernsheim (2001) find out?

Answer 7

They linked these changes in ambitions to individualisation and independence being valued more strongly than in the past

Question 8

What did Fuller (2011) find out?

Answer 8

Girls saw educational success as a central aspect of their identity, amining for a professinal career to support themselves, which requires qualifications

Question 9

What did Reay (1998) argue about class and gender?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What does Biggart (2002) argue about class and gender?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What was the purpose of introducing the national curriculum in 1988?

Answer 11

To remove one source of inequality as it made both genders study the same subjects, which wasn’t the case previously

Question 12

What do some sociologists argue about GCSEs?

Answer 12

Some argue that the coursework in GCSEs means that girls find it easier to achieve

Question 13

What did Gorard (2005) suggest?

Answer 13

Gorard discovered that the gender gap in achievement increased after 1989, when GCSEs and coursework were introduced

Question 14

What did Mitsos + Brown (1998) suggest?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What did Elwood (2005) suggest?

Answer 15

They argued that coursework is unlikely to be the only factor in gender gaps as exams have more influence on final grades

Question 16

How are boys disciplined in the classroom?

Answer 16

They are disciplined more harshly than their female peers

Question 17

How were both genders portayed in textbooks?

Answer 17

Women were majorly presented as housewives and mothers, whereas men were presnted as being more inventive

Question 18

What did Weiner (1995) suggest?

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

What does Jackson (1998) suggest about league tables?

Answer 19

Jackson suggesrs that girls have benefited from league tbales as their competitoin as they achieve higher results, therefore being attratced to the best establishments.

Question 20

What does Slee (1998) suggest about league tables?

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

How do liberal feminists view girl’s achievement?

Answer 21

• They celebrate the progress made so far
• They believe further progress will be made

Question 21

How do radical feminists view girl’s achievement?

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

What is a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity?
(Archer 2010)

Answer 22

A way for working-class girls to gain symbolic capital from their peers

Question 23

What are the attributes of the hyper-heterosexual appearance?

Answer 23

• Sportswear
• ‘Sexy’ clothes and makeup
• Jewellery
• Aiming to be desireable
• Conflicting with the school’s uniform

Question 24

What are the pros and cons of hyper-hetero girls getting boyfriends?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What is the working-class girls’ dilemma? (Archer)

Answer 25

Gaining symbolic capital vs Gaining educational capital

Question 26

Who did Evans (2009) sample?

Answer 26

21 working-class girls from a London comprehensive 6th form

Question 27

What did Evans (2009) find out about working-class girls?

Answer 27

Those who wanted to attend university to increase their earning power did so to help their families and to give back to them

Question 28

How did accommodation choices limit working-class students?

Answer 28

They prefered to stay local (for financial and preference reasons), which limited their oppurtunities

Question 29

Why are boys’ literacy rates worse than girls’?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Why is education being seen as being ‘feminised’?

Answer 30

• 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

Question 31

What is a disciplinarian discourse?

Answer 31

Where a teacher’s authority is made explicit and visible
(Sarcasm, tone of voice, shouting)

Question 32

What is a liberal discourse?

Answer 32

The teacher’s authority is implicit and invisbile
(The teacher speaks to the child as if they were an adult)

Question 33

What did Read (2008) find out about the ‘feminisation’ of education?

Answer 33

• 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

Question 34

What did critics of feminism argue about education?

Answer 34

The focus on girls is no longer needed as they are now achieving better than the boys, almost at their expense

Question 35

What do feminists argue about education?

Answer 35

They argue there is currently a moral panic aroud boys in education, which has shifted the focus to improving boys’ achievement

Question 36

What areas have been overlooked because of the moral panic around boys?

Answer 36

• 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

Question 37

What is a gender domain?

Answer 37

The idea that certain activities, behaviours, and attitudes are the ‘territory’ of either men or women

Question 38

What did Elwood (1998) find out about reading habits?

Answer 38

• Boys read hobby and informstion books = interest in Science
• Girls read stories about people = interest in English

Question 39

What did Lees (1993) say about double standards?

Answer 39

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

Question 40

What is the male gaze?

Answer 40

The way women are seen as sexual objects and judgements are made on their appearance

Question 41

What did Mac an Ghaill (1994) find out about male peer groups?

Answer 41

• 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’

Question 42

What is a ‘boffin identity’?
(Reay 2001)

Answer 42

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)