Gender

Question 1

Difference in performance

Answer 1

In recent years girls have outperformed boys at primary and secondary school education

Question 2

Girls underachievement in the past

Childhood socialisation

Answer 2

Ann Oakley 1947, parents ‘canalised’ children into different roles, giving girls domestic toys like dolls, miniature kitchen equipment

Question 3

Patriarchal attitudes to careers

Answer 3

Douglas found that families in the 1960s found that families still gave financial priority to their sons education. Girls where discouraged as they were expected to get married

Question 4

The ideology of romance

Answer 4

Sue Sharpe and Angela McRobbie found that the priorities of working-class teenage girls were early marriage and child bearing

Question 5

School curriculum

Answer 5

Girls were often directed into non-academic subjects such as cookery and sewing and often dropped science

Question 6

Teacher’s attitudes to girl

Answer 6

Michell Stanworth found that teachers gave less attention to girls in the classroom and allowed boys to dominate. Licht and Dweck 1987 found that girls had less confidence

Question 7

Girls attainment has improved

Feminism has changed attitudes

Answer 7

Girls are now more ambitious (sue sharp). Fewer parents and teachers expect girls just to be housewives. T.N. Basit 1996 found Asian Muslim girls were encouraged by there working class parents to be doctors lawyers etc

Question 8

The Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975

Answer 8

Made female careers more feasible, making longer education and training worthwhile

Question 9

Family diversity

Answer 9

Women now have children later and have smaller families leaving more time for a career

Question 10

The growth of single parenthood

Answer 10

The growth of single parenthood has made women realise that they need to be economically independent. This attitude is prevalent amongst black girls

Question 11

Subjects offered at school are now equal

Answer 11

Subjects are now the same for both sexes and there are schemes to encourage girls’ interest in science, engineering and computing

Question 12

Teaching materials

Answer 12

Teaching materials rarely present gender stereotypes in illustrations and examples

Question 13

New universities

Answer 13

The building of new universities that encourage middle-class girls into higher education

Question 14

Avoiding gender labelling

Answer 14

Teachers have been trained to avoid gender labelling, and all schools have equal opportunities and inclusion policies. Girls have gained confidence in their own potential

Question 15

Carol Jackson

Answer 15

Jackson describes how pressure to succeed in an increasingly competitive job market can lead the less confident , especially boys, to opt out of the embarrassment of possible failure

Question 16

Mitsos and Browne 1998

Answer 16

Boys are currently achieving less well than girls because it is not regarded as masculine to work hard. Boys who do so risk losing popularity.