Gender differences in achievement - EXTERNAL

Question 1

What are the 5 external factors affecting gender differences in education?

Answer 1

1. the impact of feminism
2. changes in the family
3. changes in women’s employment
4. girls’ changing ambitions
5. class, gender and ambition

Question 2

What is feminism?

Answer 2

Social movement that strives for equal rights of women in all areas of society

Question 3

How has the impact of feminisation affected education?

Answer 3

Traditional patriarchal gender roles (such as women being bound to the home) is being challenged.

• This has led to girls’ self image and ambitions to be improved, where they are more career-orientated than family orientated. This has also led to increased opportunities through the law.

Question 4

A study displaying the impact of feminisation on girls’ educational achievement

Answer 4

McRobbie - comparison of girls; magazines from the 70’s versus the 90’s. It was previously emphasising the importance of marriage and not getting left on the shelf, to now assertive independent women

Question 5

What has happened in terms of family diversity since the 70’s?

Answer 5

Increase in divorce, Increase in cohabitation, Decline in the number of nuclear families/first marriages, Increase in lone parent, smaller families - lower fertility and birth rate

Question 6

How has changes in the family, in terms of diversity, affected girls’ education?

Answer 6

They are changing their perspective on education.
- The increase in matrifocal lone parent families has meant that women are now also expected to take a breadwinner role model. To do this, they must be employed into highly skilled jobs.

• Alternatively the increase in divorce suggests girls should no longer depend on men as a provider

Question 7

What is an additional change in the family?

Answer 7

Still the persistence of gendered socialisation (Oakley), where females are suited to the bedroom culture rather than the dominant male culture = ideal pupil for education

Question 8

How does primary socialisation impact the Bedroom Culture?

Answer 8

McRobbie - the are the ideal pupil

Question 9

What is meant by changes in women’s employment?

Answer 9

There have been legislation enforced to give women new opportunities in the workplace.

Question 10

Example of legislation which improved women’s chances in employment

Answer 10

• 1970 equal pay act: same wages no matter what gender
• 1975 sex discrimination act

Question 11

What has the equal pay act and sex discrimination act caused?

Answer 11

The pay gap between the sexes to narrow by 50%, the proportion of women working increased by 14% and the glass ceiling is breaking (senior positions)

Question 12

How has the legislation changes impacted gendered educational achievement?

Answer 12

Girls are more motivated to do well because they see their future in terms of paid work rather than as housewives - it acts as an incentive for them to do well

Question 13

How has employment for women improved in the past 50 years? (3)

Answer 13

1. Since 1975, the pay gap has halved from 30% → 15%.
2. For full-time employees under 40, the gap is close to zero.
3. The proportion of women in employment has grown since 1971 from 53% → 72%
4. Some women are now breaking the glass ceiling.

Question 14

What has the changes in the employment of women led to for men?

Answer 14

The workplace is now feminised with less opportunity for men.
- The traditional industry of manufacturing is in decline where men now experience a ‘crisis of masculinity’ (Mac An Ghaill) like those mentioned in Willis’ study of learning to labour with the lads

Question 15

What is meant by girls’ changing ambitions?

Answer 15

There has been a generational shift in the way girls perceive their future.

Question 16

Who conducted a study of girls’ changing ambitions?

Answer 16

Sue Sharpe

Question 17

Sue Sharpe’s study

Answer 17

Interview with girls in the 70’s vs the 90’s

Question 18

How did girls view education and the workplace in the 70’s?

Answer 18

They has low aspirations as they believed educational success and working was unfeminine.
- If they were ambitious, they would be considered unattractive. Their main priorities was love, marriage, husbands, Children, jobs and careers in that other

Question 19

What was girls view of education and the workplace in the 90’s?

Answer 19

Main priorities was their career and themselves. They are more likely to see their future as an independent woman rather than a dependent housewife

Question 20

Who also supported Sue Sharpe’s findings?

Answer 20

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim where a career has become a part of a woman’s life due to increased individualisation where lifestyles and society should meet the individual needs of society.

• It acts as a life project as it promises recognitions and self-sufficiency

Question 21

What did Fuller (2011) find about girls’ new aspirations?

Answer 21

1. Found that educational success was a central aspect of girls’ identity.
2. They believed in meritocracy and that they could shape their own future through education.
3. They aspired to have professional jobs, which obviously required academic qualifications.

Question 22

Who found that girls made educational success a huge part of their identity and used education and meritocracy to shape their future?

Answer 22

Fuller (2011)

Question 23

(C) What is entailed under class, gender and ambition?

Answer 23

Class differences in how far girl’s ambitions have changed. working class continue to have gender stereotyped aspirations

Question 24

What Does Reay suggest?

Answer 24

• Working class affects the reality of the girls’ position
• Their limited aspiration impacts their job opportunities

= traditional gender identity as a source of status that is easily attainable

Question 25

Who said that due to the limited job opportunities for the working-class as a reason for the working-class girls’ stereotypical aspirations?

Answer 25

Reay (1998)

Question 26

According to Biggart (2002), why are working-class girls still likely to have stereotypical aspirations?

Answer 26

Some working-class girls are more likely to have an uncertain position in the labour market so see motherhood as the only possible option for their futures, therefore they see less point in getting an education.

Question 27

(C) Feminisation of the workplace?

Answer 27

Difficult to measure as changes in the job market can also be due to technological and cultural changes

Question 28

(C) The decline of manufacturing?

Answer 28

Only affects male working class boys but middle class girls still achieve higher than their male counterparts who are less likely to associate with the manufacturing industry