Gender diffences - topic 4 Flashcards
The impact of feminism
-the movement has encouraged education rather than the importance of marriage and domestics.
changes in family - external factors
-an increase in divorce rate, may suggest its unwise to rely on their husband and to look out for themselves and get their own qaulification
-increase in lone parent families, encourage young girls as they have a strong female lead
-smaller families
changes in womens employment - external factors
-eqaul pay act makes it illegal for women to get payed less than men for same value work
-gender pay gap dropped from 30% to 15% since 1975
-some women breaking through the invisble barrier that keeps them from high paying proffesional and managerial jobs
girls changing ambitions - external factors
-sharpe saw that in the 90s girls ambitions changed from love, marriage, husbands and children to careers and being able to support themselves
class, gender and ambition - external factors
-WC girls continue to have gendered stereotypes for marriage and children and expect to go into low paid womens work
-Reay argues this reflects the reality of girls’ class position.
-their limited aspirations reflect their limited job opportunities
-by contrast the traditional gender identity is obtainable and gives them a source of status
eqaul opportunities policies - internal factors
-the belief that boys and girls are now entitled to the same opportunities is now part of mainstream thinking and it influences educational policies
-For example, GIST (girls into science and technology) and WISE (women in science and engineering) encourages girls to pursue careers in these non traditonal areas.
positive role models in school
-been an increase in proportion of female teachers and heads. These women on senior positions may act as role models for girls, showing them women can achieve roles with importance.
GCSE and Coursework
-Godard believes that the gender gap in achievement is due to the changed system of assesment rather than the failing of boys
-Mitsos and Browne support this view and conclude that its due to girls being more conscientious than boys
>spend more time on work
>take more care with the way its presented
>are better at meeting deadlines
>bring the right equipment and materials to lessons
-However Elwood argues course work has some influence but not enough as exams have a greater influence over the grade.
teacher attention
-the way teachers interact with boys and girls differ
-boys recieve more attention than girls because of reprimands
-swann found that boys often dominated class discusions where as girls prefered group work and had better listening and cooperating skills
-this is why teachers may respond more positively to girls resulting in sfp and positive labelling
challenging stereotypes in thwe curriculum
-argues since the 1980s teachers have challenfed stereotypes, also in general sexist images have been removed from material and encourages achievement by presenting positive images.
selection and leauge tables
-marketisation has made a competitive climate in which girls are seem as more desirable due to better exam results.
radical feminist view of achievement
-takes a more critical view and emphasise that the system remains patriachal and conveys the message that its still a mans world.
feminisation of education - Sewell
-reported to claim that boys fall behind because education has become more feminised. that is that schools do not nurture masculone traits such as competivness and leaderships instead they praise methodical working and class atentiveness
laddish subcultures
-Epstein examined the way masculinity is constructed in school. he found that WC boys were subjected to harrasement and bullying if they didnt reject schoolwork and believed real men undertook jobs with manual labour.
