Gender and Education

Question 1

What did Perry and Francis argue?

Answer 1

Despite gender those on free school meals still perform worse then those who are not.

Question 2

How has the gap in achievement between girls and boys changed through time?

Answer 2

1980s girls were the concern as they did not achieve the grades needed to get them beyond gsce level. In 1990s girls started to outperform boys. By 2011 the boys had started to catch up

Question 3

What happend in 2021 surrounding girls achievements vs boys?

Answer 3

Girls overtook boys in maths meaning that they peform ahead of boys across every level and age group from the early years all the way upto degree classifications.

Question 4

What is univeristy like for males vs females?

Answer 4

At university, females outnumber males in almost 2/3ds of degree subjects in the UK. Men stay overrepresented in most STEM subjects.

Question 5

What did Mitos and Browne argue are the 3 external reasons behind the huge improvement in performance of girls?

Answer 5

1. The women’s movement, femenism and equality in the family. 2. Changes in women’s employment. 3. Girls changing ambitions.

Question 6

What was the equality act of 2010?

Answer 6

A law that protects you from discrimination if you have certain characteristics such as being a woman or being gay.

Question 7

What is the idea of a symmetrical family?

Answer 7

Young and Wimott claim that there is now equality within the family with joint conjugal roles. To achieve this women need well paid jobs and good qualifications.

Question 8

How has women employment changed?

Answer 8

The equal pay act. The sex discrimination act. The pay gap between men and women has halved and the proportion of women in payed employment has risen. Some women are now breaking through the glass ceiling.

Question 9

What did Sharpe find?

Answer 9

In 1976 a girls priorities were love, marriage, husband, jobs and career. In 1994 she found that they had changed to be job, career and supporting themselves.

Question 10

What did Mitos and Brown find were the 3 internal reasons for improvement in women’s achievement?

Answer 10

1. Equal opportunity’s policy. 2. Positive role models within schools such as female teachers .3 Selection and league tables

Question 11

What’s WISE?

Answer 11

A campaign to get women into science and engineering. This is to help challenge gender bias in subjects.

Question 12

What does Jackson argue?

Answer 12

The introduction of league tables has improved opportunities for girls as high achieving girls are attractive to schools. Low achieving boys are not therefore girls are recruited to good schools and more likely to do well.

Question 13

What do Perry and Francis argue?

Answer 13

As we focus on girls as high achievers we often neglect those who under achieve, overlooking things like social class differences.

Question 14

What sort of subjects do girls tend to chose?

Answer 14

Ones which are considered to be feminine, arts subjects which then shapes gendered career paths.

Question 15

How do men and women with similar qualifications do?

Answer 15

Women with similar qualifications as men are less likely to reach the same levels of success in employment .

Question 16

What do liberal femenists argue about the changes in the education system?

Answer 16

They are good and give women much greater opportunities to succeed.

Question 17

What do radical femenists argue about the changes in education system?

Answer 17

The patriarchy still is more important and much more still needs to be done to give women equal opportunity’s in education.

Question 18

Why does Archer say there’s a difference in achievement between girls on free school meals and those not on?

Answer 18

There is a conflict between working class feminine identities and the valued and ethos of the school.

Question 19

What’s symbolic capital?

Answer 19

Archer suggested that we get status and self worth from others. Found that by performing working class female identities girls gained symbolic capital from their peers but this prevented them from getting educational capital.

Question 20

What 3 things did Archer suggest girls did to give themselves a sense of self?

Answer 20

1. Hyper sexual feminine identities. This includes things like makeup and styling their hair. This leads to other girls being punished due to their different appearance . Bourideu described this as symbolic violence. 2. Boyfriends. This lowered a girls aspirations for academic sucess. Girls may also drop out of school after becoming pregnant 3. Being loud. This doesn’t fit in with the teachers ideal submissive pupil.

Question 21

What does Archer argue working class feminine identities clash with?

Answer 21

Main stream school values.

Question 22

What did Renold and Allan find?

Answer 22

Some girls lacked confidence in their academic ability. They felt undervalued in the classroom. Looking at high achieving girls in two primary schools in South Wales, they found that they often downplayed their academic abilities to appear more attractive to boys.

Question 23

What did Mac and Ghail argue about boys and the decline of heavy manuel jobs?

Answer 23

It’s lead to an identity crisis for men as they believe there is little prospect of them getting a proper job. This undermines their self esteem and motivation to work.

Question 24

Why can it be said that lower expectations and discipline effects boys educational achievement?

Answer 24

Teachers aren’t as strict with boys which allows boys to get away with being disruptive which results in a self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 25

What does Mac and Ghail argue about masculinity and the anti school sub culture?

Answer 25

Peer pressure encourages boys to maintain a masculine identity which is partly developed through a resistance to school as they see hard work as feminine

Question 26

What did Barber find?

Answer 26

Boys don’t try as they feel bright and capable. If they do not achieve sucess they blame the teacher.

Question 27

What are the differences in leisure activities between boys and girls?

Answer 27

Boys run around and play football and playing computer games. Girls are more likely to socialise with friends and read. Reading is feminised by our culture women are bigger consumers of books and women are more likely to read to children.

Question 28

In 2021 what percentage of primary school teachers were male?

Answer 28

15%.

Question 29

How can lack of male teachers effect education for boys?

Answer 29

42% of boys studied that having a male teacher made them work harder and behave better. It can be said This has caused primary school teaching to be feminised.

Question 30

What did Francis find?

Answer 30

After studying 7-8 year old, 2/3 said that the gender of their teacher didn’t matter

Question 31

What did Jones find?

Answer 31

Women only have a 1 in 4 chance of getting a headship. Although there may be more women in teaching they are not in managemental roles.

Question 32

What did Read find?

Answer 32

She challenged the idea that teaching had been feminised. Both males and females can chose to apply a authoritarian or Liberal discourse and as many chose authoritan which is the more masculine approach.

Question 33

What did Ringrose find?

Answer 33

There is now a moral panic surrounding the underachievement of boys This has lead to policy shifts which have narrowed equal opportunitity policy focusing solely on gender rather than class or ethnicity.

Question 34

What did Osler argue ?

Answer 34

By focusing on boys we are overlooking girls as most are doing better.

Question 35

What was reading champions 2007?

Answer 35

Using peer influence it was aimed at getting reluctant readers, especially boys to get into reading. They selected a boy with a high status within the group to get other children into reading by running activities and promotions. They gave them rewards like gold silver and blond to keep them motivated.

Question 36

What was the engaging fathers initiative of 2004?

Answer 36

In order to improve boys educational achievement, there was a detailed database in fathers that identifies information and interests in ways to help fathers to help their child to make sure not just mothers are updated.

Question 37

How has the national Curriculum changed gender divides?

Answer 37

It reduced students freedom to chose and drop subjects. However when they can chose there are clear gender divides at gsce and a level.

Question 38

What did Colley suggest?

Answer 38

Gender perceptions of subjects influence how that subject is seen. He found that ICT is seen as a male subject as it requires more independent learning which males prefer.

Question 39

What did Skelton suggest about subject choice?

Answer 39

Males and females are drawn to different subjects based on their gender identity. For example females are more likely to chose English as it reaffirms their feminine identity and boys may find that it challenges their masculine identity.

Question 40

What does Connell argue?

Answer 40

Schools help construct individuals gender and sexual identity. Schools contribute to hegemonic masculinity, the dominance of heterosexual masculine identity and the subordination of female and homosexual identities.

Question 41

What did Lees argue?

Answer 41

There are double standards when it comes to males and females sexual exploits. If a girl dresses provocatively they are labelled as a slag and if they don’t they are labelled as a drag. if a boy has many “sexual conquests” he is labeled as a hero.

Question 42

What did Connell argue about verbal abuse?

Answer 42

There is a rich vocabulary of abuse that reinforces gender identities.

Question 43

What is the male gaze?

Answer 43

Mac and Ghail argued that there is a way that male pupils and teachers look at girl’s as sexual objects which devalues femininity and promises masculinity through male surveillance.

Question 44

What did Mac and Ghail find about male teachers?

Answer 44

Teachers play a role in shaping gender identity. Male teachers tell of boys for behaving like girls and teased them if they got lower marks then a girl in a test. This can also be seen when male teachers come to the rescue of female ones when a class is being disruptive.