GENDER

Question 1

gender and underachievement

Answer 1

• Girls do better than boys every stage in English, science, language and literacy
• Girls are more successful in most GCSE’s
• more girls on in education
• more girls get 1st class degrees

Question 2

Why females do better

Answer 2

• Women’s movement and feminism
• Equal opportunities has raised aspirations
• Growing ambitions and role models (Sue Sharpe)

Question 3

Sue Sharpe- 1975 sex discrimination Act

Answer 3

• girls work harder, better motivated by peer group
• evidence of better concentration
• More conciliator with peers and teacher
• girls mature earlier
• more confident
• more assertive
• more ambitious
• Girls saw education as being the main route to a career, financial independence

Question 4

Boys Underachievement

Answer 4

• lower expectations
• Boys are more disruptive
• masculinity and anti learning sub culture
• Declining traditional male employment opportunities
• Mac An Ghail (1994) crisis of masculinity, decline in traditional jobs, leads to identity crisis, made it easier for males to question need for qualifications when jobs they’d have traditionally gone into no longer need them
• Forde et al (2006) peer pressure encourages boys to adopt a dominant masculine identity, rejecting academic work (seen as feminine), working class boys get ‘street cred’ and peer status by not working
• Willis counter school subculture

Question 5

Feeling and behaving differently

Answer 5

• Michael Barber showed that boys overestimate their ability whereas girls underestimate theirs
• this tends to lead to girls staring to revise earlier for exams, and boys tend to cram the night before
• Francis (2000) research in 3 London schools, found that some boys thought it would be easy to do well in exams without having to put much effort in, when they fail they tend to blame the teacher or their own lack of effort, not ability and feel undervalued
• different leisure
• boys don’t like reading

Question 6

Why do Males and females study different subjects and why

Answer 6

• Gender socialisation
• subject counselling and careers advisors
• Shelton et al (2007) young males pursue technical and orientated subjects while young woman pursue caring, arts, humanity subjects: Males and females are drawn to subjects based on their own ideas of what is appropriate for their gender identity

Question 7

School and gender identity

Answer 7

Francis - Gender is an important part of our social identity and fitting in at schools means that adopting behaviour which conforms to stereotypes or they could be bullied or marginalized
KEY FEATURES
- Gendered verbal behaviour 
- Gendered physical behaviour
- Gendered pursuits
- Gendered classroom behaviour and power
- role of teachers.