Gender And Subject Choice

Question 1

Gender role socialisation

Answer 1

Norman notes from an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys etc. Murphy and Elwood show how these lead to different tastes in reading and therefore subject choice. Boys read hobby books and information texts while girls more likely to read stories about people. Girls prefer English, boys prefer science

Question 2

Gender domains

Answer 2

Browne and Ross look at gender domains (tasks and activities seen as either boy or girl ‘territory’ e.g., mending a car). Children more confident doing things they see as part of their gender domain. Murphy found girls focus on how people feel when doing a task while boys focus on how things are made and work

Question 3

Gendered subject image

Answer 3

Kelley says science is seen as boys’ subject as science teachers usually men, examples draw upon boys’ interests, boys monopolise the apparatus. Colley found computer science seen as boys’ subject as it involves working with machines (male gender domain) and tasks tend to be abstract

Question 4

Single sex schooling

Answer 4

Leonard looked at data on 13K people and found that girls in girls’ schools more likely to take maths and science while boys in boys’ school English

Question 5

Gender identity and peer pressure

Answer 5

Paechter found pupils see sport as part of male gender domain so girls who are ‘sporty’ have to cope with image that contradicts stereotype

Question 6

Gendered career opportunities

Answer 6

Over half of all women’s employment falls within clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupations such as cleaning affecting boys’ and girls’ ideas about what kinds of jobs are acceptable or possible

Question 7

Gender, vocational choice and class

Answer 7

Wc girls studied by Fuller had ambitions to go into jobs like childcare or hair reflecting their wc habitus