Gender differences in achievement Flashcards
Gender differences in education
Girls used to underperform compared to boys but in modern times girls outperform boys at all levels of education, however boys education is increasing in recent times
-girls and boys are still more likely to study different subjects
Why do girls now outperform boys-changing ambitions
-Sharpe found young women now prioritise getting a high status career and going to university and achieving highly in education over love, getting married etc which they aspired in the past-girls now have higher ambitions centered around academics resulting in them trying harder in education
-May be due to the influence of feminism which means girls are no longer socialised into the passive housewife role and begin to reject it-has also created changes to the law=higher ambition
C: The ambitions of all girls haven’t changed-working class girls often still have lower ambitions and underachieve-not true to say all girls now achieve higher.
Why do girls now outperform boys-rise of feminism
-Led to women challenging the housewife role instead of conforming to it and aspiring to have a career and position outside of the home as they see themselves as equal and the housewife position as patriachal-women are no longer socialised to the housewife role-leads to women trying harder in education as they now aspire and want careers not to be a housewife
-led to education and the workplace becoming more equal and providing equal opportunity for women-e.g equal pay act-more incentive for women to work
Differences in achievement-differential attitudes, means of asserting identity between genders
Forde et al suggests that boys gain peer status through non conformity to academics-by not doing work, being deviant and non conformist/acting up in classes they get accepted and peer status by their friends-boys who dont conform get ridiculed and called gay-boys feel pressure to not try hard in their schoolwork or take school seriously for fear of bullying and to maintain masculine identity-leads to them under-performing-tony sewell-working class boys joined anti school subcultures gaining status through rejecting the system
-Francis-Girls maintain their identity and feminity through conformity and high achievement-girls support each other to achieve highly and have pro school attitudes, leads to them achieving higher
C: Some working class girls also have anti school values and ladette cultures-may only be generaliseable to working class girls
Differences in achievement-Motivation and organisation
Research shows girls are more likely to put more effort into homework and revision and try harder, their work is more organised-they are more organised and motivated and try harder in education and thus achieve more than boys who are unmotivated
C: May be a reason why they are unmotivated-e.g to maintain masculine identity-simplistic.
Differences in achievement-teacher stereotyping
-Boys are more likely to be stereotyped as underachieving or deviant than girls-results in boys internalising and conforming to the label creating a self fulfilling prophecy-boys get put in lower bands and have less access to good quality education-more prone to joining anti school subculture to gain status
-internal factors lead to boys underachieving.(Becker, Keddie)
Differences in achievement-changes to the law
-Equal employment act, quality act prevents sex based discrimination of women in school and the workplace-means women have equal employment opportunity to men-now have more incentive to work and get qualifications
Differences in achievement-teacher expectations
-Teachers have lower expectations of boys, they are less strict with them and let them get away with more resulting in boys achieving less.
Why do boys and girls still study different subjects
-Skelton-they still hold ideas about what subjects are masculine and feminine-may feel chosing a subject like english would be percieved as unfeminine-subjects affirm gender identity-feel peer pressure to conform due to fear of ridicule
-Teacher counselling-differential subjects
-Teachers may still hold gender stereotypes and encourage girls to study more feminine subjects as they see them as more suitable and appropriate for their ability based on stereotypes and vice versa.
