Gender differences: Girls achievement

Question 1

Sue Sharpe (1976)
Feminism impact - EXTERNAL

Answer 1

interviewed girls in school in the 1970s and found girls priorities were love marriage and husbands - she repeated same interviews in 1990s and found girls priorities were jobs, careers and supporting themselves.
> Sue believes that due to feminism in society these changes occurred - girls are now more ambitious to get more out of their lives.
EVAL - how can she be sure that feminism influenced the girls priorities - there is no clear evidence of this - girls subject choices have not been impacted from feminism so why this

Question 2

changes in the work place
EXTERNAL

Answer 2

> 1970 equal pay act - illegal to pay women less than men for same job.
1975 sex discrimination act
proportion of women employment has increased from 47% in 1959 to over 70% in 2007
women are beginning to break through the “glass ceiling”

Question 3

positive role models in school
INTERNAL

Answer 3

increasingly positive models for girls to follow within school.
> female teachers has increased over the years.
> this shows to girls that hard work can pay off
EVAL - despite positive trends female headteachers still falls below the number of male headteachers
EVAL - females still outnumber male in cleaning staff roles etc.

Question 4

GCES AND COURSEWORK
Mitsos and Browne (1998)
INTERNAL

Answer 4

there is evidence that girls work harder than boys
> girls spend more time on work and homework than boys
> the average 14-year old girl can concentrate for 3 to 4 times as long as male students.
EVAL - course work was asked to be removed due to possible cheating etc

Question 5

Challenging stereotypes in curriculum
INTERNAL

Answer 5

thanks to feminists, there has been a lot of effort to remove stereotypes from the curriculum
> science text books tended to focus on boy’s experiences
> pre-school books used to see women as subservient roles - snow white cleaning up for seven male dwarf

Question 6

Louise Archer (2008)
INTERNAL

Answer 6

found that underachieving girls in working class backgrounds embraced a feminine identity embraced a feminine identity that was at odds with culture, values and ethos at schools.
> girls priorities focused on maximising what she calls “symbolic capital” - respect and recognition from peers.
> education was not as important to appearance and having a desirable boyfriend in these girls eyes.
> exaggeration of their femininity is referred to as “hyper-sexual feminine identity”
> conflict that existed between the girls and the school was referred to as “symbolic violence”
> these girls “persistently underachieved” as they prioritised female identities
EVAL - Archer’s research shows that girls do not always achieve in education system, contrary to impression other research gives.