Gender achievement and subject choice

Question 1

What is gender role socialisation?

Answer 1

• The process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society.

Question 2

What does Browne and Ross say in regards to gender role socialisation?

Answer 2

BROWNE AND ROSS:
- Socialisation shapes children’s beliefs about gender domains. By gender domains, they mean the tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male or female ‘territory’ and therefore relevant to themselves.
- Children are more confident when engaging in tasks that they see as part of their own gender domain.

Question 3

What is gendered subject images?

Answer 3

• The gender image of a subject affects who will want to study it.

Question 4

What does Kelly say in regards to gendered subject images?

Answer 4

KELLY:
- Argues science is seen as a boys’ subject for several reasons.
- Science teachers are more likely to be men.
- The examples teachers use and those in textbooks, often draw on boys’ rather than girls interests.
- In science lessons, boys monopolise the apparatus and dominate the laboratory.

Question 5

How does gender identity affect peer pressure?

Answer 5

• Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure. Boys and girls may opt out of a subject if their peers disapprove.

Question 6

What does Paetcher say in regards to how gender identity affects peer pressure?

Answer 6

PAETCHER:
- Found that because pupils see sport as mainly within the male gender domain, girls who are ‘sporty’ have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype. This might explain why girls are more likely than boys to opt out of sport.

Question 7

How does gendered career opportunities affect subject choice?

Answer 7

• Employment is gendered: jobs tend to be sex typed as mens or womens.
• Womens jobs involve work similar to housewives jobs. Over half the women’s employment falls within only four categories: clerical, secretaial, personal services and occupations such as cleaning.
• This affects boys’ and girls’ ideas about what kinds of jobs are possible or acceptable, affecting their subject choices.
• On vocational courses, working class pupils in particular may choose courses based on a traditional gender identity.

Question 8

What does Fuller say in regards to how gendered career opportunities affects subject choice?

Answer 8

FULLER:
- Most of the working class girls studied had ambitions to go into jobs such as childcare or hair and beauty. This reflected their w/c habitus.
- This was also influenced by their work experience placements.
- Fuller found that placements in feminine, working class jobs such as nurseries, were overwhelmingly the norm for girls in her study.