Education: Gender and educational achievement – external and internal factors for girls success

Question 1

Who does better in education boys or girls?

Answer 1

Girls

Question 2

Reasons for girls success in education (6)

Answer 2

• Better literacy and communication skills.
• ncreased education and employment opportunities.
• Positive female role models.
• High teacher expectations.
• Feminist movement – increased girls’ ambitions (Sharpe).

Question 3

Reasons for boys underachievement

Answer 3

• Peer group pressure.
• Laddish subcultures.
• Feminisation of education – makes them feel emasculated.
• Tend not to work as hard as girls, e.g. on re-drafting coursework

Question 4

Trends in achievement for boys and girls

Answer 4

Girls have been doing better at school than boys at all Key Stages since the late 1980s – year 6 SATs, GCSEs, A Levels, there are more female university students than male and they are getting higher degrees.

Question 5

External Factor: Impact of feminism

Answer 5

• The Feminist movement has improved the position of women in society by leading to changes in the law which have established legal equality between men and women through such laws as the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act.
• The Feminist movement has raised women’s ambitions and expectations beyond being a wife and mother.
• McRobbie studied girls’ magazines from the 1970s and 1990s. She found that in the 1970s, magazines emphasised the importance of getting married, while in the 1990s they contained images of strong, independent women. This is an example of the social changes brought about by Feminism.

Question 6

External Factor: Changes in the family

Answer 6

The increase in divorce and in lone parent families has created a new type of positive role model for girls – a financially independent woman. To achieve this independence, women need well paid jobs which need high qualifications. This encourages girls to remain in education.

Question 7

External Factor: Increase in opportunities for women

Answer 7

• New employment laws have been introduced to establish equality between men and women at work - Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
• There has been an increase in the number of working women due to the growth of the service sector which tends to employ women. This gives girls an incentive to get qualification as there are employment opportunities for them in the job market.

Question 8

External Factors: change in ambitions

Answer 8

Sue Sharpe carried out two sets of interviews with school girls. The first set she carried out in the 1970s. Sharpe found that girls’ priorities included marriage, love, husbands and children. They saw educational success as unfeminine. The second set of interviews Sharpe carried out in the 1990s. Her findings were exactly the opposite.

Question 9

Internal factors in education

Answer 9

Equal opportunities policies

Positive role models at school

The introduction of compulsory subjects at GCSE and examination through coursework

Teacher attention and classroom interaction

Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

Selection and league tables

Question 10

Internal factors: equal opportunities policy

Answer 10

There is now greater awareness of the fact that girls and boys are equally capable and teachers try to avoid stereotypes. There are initiatives such as GIST (Girls into science and technology) which aim to encourage girls to choose science related education and careers.
Prior to the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 girls tended to choose subjects such as English and Art, while boys tended to choose Maths and Sciences. The NC makes both girls and boys study the same subjects thus establishing gender equality.

Question 11

Internal Factor: Positive role model at school

Answer 11

In recent years there has been an increase in female teachers and head teachers. These women in positions of authority can act as positive female role models to girls.

Question 12

internal factor: GCSE and coursework

Answer 12

In 1988 the NC introduced testing through coursework. Since then girls’ outperformance over boys has sharply risen. Some argue that this is due to the fact that girls are better organised and tend to spend more time and greater care over their work. This in turn is the result of gender socialisation.

Question 13

Internal factor: Teacher attention and classroom interaction

Answer 13

Teachers respond more positively to girls than to boys giving them more praise. This may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy thus increasing the girls’ self-esteem.

Question 14

Internal factor: Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

Answer 14

Research in the 1970s and 1980s found that textbooks portrayed men and women in traditional, stereotypical roles. Since then these sexist images have been removed from textbooks and teachers tend to challenge prejudice. This presents girls with positive images of women can do.

Question 15

Internal Factors: Selection and league tables

Answer 15

Marketisation of education has increased competition between schools. Girls are seen as more desirable candidates as their exams results are better so they tend to be offered places at high performing schools.

Question 16

Criticism of internal factors

Answer 16

Impact of Feminism –
not affected all girls, e.g. e/m still more likely to be traditional.

Changes in the family –
New Right would say that lone mothers are negative role models as they are dependent on benefits.

Increase in women’s employment opportunities -
quaternary sector prefers to employ men (google’s employees are 70% male) so there are jobs out there for boys.

Girls’ changing ambitions –
not affected all girls, e.g. e/m still more likely to be traditional and want to get married.

Question 17

Criticism on internal factors

Answer 17

• Equal opportunities policies – despite GIST girls are still choosing more ‘feminine’ subject such as Social Sciences.
• Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum – Feminists would say education is still patriarchal, e.g. History lessons focus on men.
• GCSE and coursework – CW has been replaced with controlled assessment which can’t be re-drafted, but girls are still doing better.
• Positive role models – most senior teachers such as Head Teachers are male so boys do have positive male role models.
• Teacher attention and interaction – Stanworth – research shows both male and female teachers pay more attention to boys.
• Selection policies – this only benefits middle class girls as working class girls get rejected by good schools