Gender and achievement Flashcards
Why is it easier to collect the data for gender and achievement than social class?
Who is likely to get more A* and As at GCSE?
Who out performs at A level?
What gender achieved more As and A* 2017?
What gender is the more significant populace at higher education?
What did Save the Children find about boys at pre-school age?
When did girls start outperforming boys?
-This is because the data is readily available and directly collected by gov’t.
-Girls are more likely to get As and As.
-Girls outperform boys at A level too.
-Boys achieved more As and As in 2017 for the first time in 17 years.
-There are more girls than boys in higher education.
-Save the Children discovered boys are twice as likely as girls to fall behind at pre-school age.
-Girls only started outperforming boys in the 1960s, and even in the 70s boys were much more likely to stay in education post 16.
Why has educational achievement become much more relevant and attractive to women?
-The feminist movement changing attitudes to women’s social role.
-The change in the nature of work for women.
-Changes in family life and family structure.
-Change in media representations of women and girls and social expectations.
Why did Sue Sharpe revisit her study she conducted in 1976? (1994)How did she conduct her research?
Despite the Equal Pay Act 1970s and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was their much change in female ambition?
What happened by 1994?
-To see the change in attitudes, life goals and expectations of school girls in that period.
-The research was interviews and questionnaires with working class girls in London.
-In 1976 after the Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 she found girls attached relatively little importance to education: their priorities were marriage and children.
-By 1994 this had reveresed: girls put careers first. They were confident, ambitious and committed to gender equality.
-This was part down to the legislative changes in the 1970s.
What inschool factors explain why girls used to underperform?
Why girls used to underperform:
-Teachers’ low expectations of girls.
-Textbooks and reading schemes reinforcing gender stereotypes.
-Boys dominating the classroom and teachers’ attention.
-Schools encouraging passivity and deference from girls.
-Girls worrying that intelligence was unattractive to boys.
-The influence of careers advice.
What in school factors explain why girls now outperform boys?
-Initiatives such as Gist and Wise.
-The ‘feminisation of education’.
-Teachers’ interactions with girls focus on education whereas their interactions with boys focus on discipline.
-Labelling girls as ‘ideal pupils’
-National curriculum: need for all pupils to succeed to do well in league tables.
What did Sewell argue education has become? How?
According to Mitsos and Browne what do girls have?
Despite reduction of coursework what have girls continued to do?
-Sewell argued that education has become ‘feminised’.
-Teachers are overwhelmingly female.
-Boys then associate school, reading, writing, etc. with females, while girls have good role models.
-According to Mitsos and Browne girls have better organisational skills, are perfectionist. Benefited from increased coursework.
-However, despite the reduction of coursework in GCSE and A level girls are still excelling.
What sociologist argues that gov’t welfare policies give boys the option of leaving school with qualifications?
What theory explains girls achievement through the decline of male achievement? What does it argue?
-Charles Murray.
-Crisis of masculinity. Through the loss of traditional working class occupations: boys lack realistic aspirations and are unsure what to do.
Why is the theory crisis of masculinity criticised?
Why is Murray’s views on the welfare contradicted in regards to education?
-If boys are given no option of leaving school without qualifications then you would expect boys to be more determined to get qualifications because there is no longer a supply of jobs that do not require them.
-Murray also argues that welfare policies give girls the option of getting pregnant and being dependent on the state, so his view cannot really explain girls’ achievement.
