Gender Differences In Education

Question 1

What are the patterns in achievement?

Answer 1

Starting school- 2013 teacher assessments of pupils at the end of the year show that girls are ahead of boys in all learning assessed subjects. Girls were also more better at concentrating.

Key stage 1-3: girls do consistently better than boys and the gap widens with age. (English)

GCSE: gender gap stands around 10% points (females do better)

A-Level: girls are more likely to pass and get higher grades than boys , gap is much narrower e.g. 46% of girls achieved A/B compared to 42.2% of boys. Girls still achieved higher in STEM subjects.

Vocational courses: large proportion of girl achieve distinctions in every subject, even in engineering where they are a tiny minority. - due to COURSEOWRK.
OVERALL, significant gender gap in education has occurred. GIRLS AT THE TOP.

Question 2

What are 4 external factors for gender differences?

Answer 2

1. The impact of feminism
2. Changes in the family
3. Changes in women’s employment
4. Girls changing attitudes/ambitions

Question 3

What has happened as a result of the impact of feminism?

Answer 3

Since 1960s, feminist movement has challenged TRADITIONAL stereotypes that women should be the housewife and remain in the expressive role. This has led to greater aspirations for girls in society as a whole and risen their self-esteem.
NOW, they are no longer expected to settle in the expressive role as housewife.

Question 4

McRobbie

Answer 4

A 1970s girls magazines saw an emphasis on marriage and encouraged women not to be ‘left on the shelf’, NOW it focuses on independence of women.
HOWEVER this does not excuse the gender pay gap as it still exists.

Question 5

What are 4 changes that have happened in families?

Answer 5

• Increase in divorce rate
• Increased cohabitation
• increase in lone-parent families
• smaller familes

Question 6

Lone-parent families

Answer 6

Normally headed by females meaning that they have to take on the breadwinner role to support their family, they aren’t expected to follow the traditional expressive role (duties of a housewife).

Question 7

Divorce

Answer 7

Women can be independent and the increase in divorce encourages them to do better in schools to gain higher qualifications to create a higher standard of living.

Question 8

What is the equal pay act (1970)?

Answer 8

illegal to pay women less than men for work of equal value and 1975 sex discrimination act outlaws discrimination at work.
In 1975 - pay gap halved from 30% to 15%

Question 9

Women employment

Answer 9

53% to 67% over 30yr span. Service-based industry created more opportunities for women’s jobs.

Breaking the glass ceiling - the invisible barrier withholding them from gaining promotions as they are more career focused and not family-focused.

There are now greater career opportunities, better pay has created an incentive for girls to work harder to gain qualifications.

Question 10

Girls changing attitudes - Sue Sharpe

Answer 10

conducted interviews with girls in 1970’s and 1990’s and found a major shift in ways they viewed their future.
In 1970’s: main goal for women was to settle down and start a family.
In 1990’s : ambition changed as their main priority was in education and building a career- shared ideal was that they would be independent and have a successful career.

Question 11

What are 6 internal factors for gender differences?

Answer 11

1. equal opportunities policy
2. positive role models
3. GCSE and coursework
4. Teacher attention and classroom interaction
5. challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
6. selection and league tables

Question 12

How have feminist ideas impacted the education system?

Answer 12

policymakers are more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive in avoiding gender stereotyping. The belief of ‘equal opportunities’ has delved deep into education system.

Question 13

GIST and WISE

Answer 13

Girls Into Science and Technology and Women in Science and Engineering. - encourages girls to pursue career in what had once been part of the male gender domain.

Question 14

National Curriculum

Answer 14

Levelled the playing field as girls and boys have to study the same subjects.

Question 15

Boaler - new policies

Answer 15

new policies has led to changes in ambitions for girls due to the removal of barriers faced by girls. Education has also been made more meritocratic as girls work harder than boys, so achieve more.

Question 16

Impact of positive role models

Answer 16

Increase in proportion of female teachers and also those in SLT. This acts as a positive role model for girls as it shows they can achieve positions of importance and power - this tackles the idea of ‘glass ceiling’ as this is breaking the barriers.

Question 17

Consequence of positive role models for females.

Answer 17

However, even though women may be in senior positions, it doesn’t change the fact that more males are in headteachers positions which is at the top of the educational hierarchy. This means we still live in a patriarchal society and our education system is affected by this as well.

Question 18

Gorard - coursework

Answer 18

Once coursework was introduced girls began to out perform boys which widened the gender gap in achievement.

Question 19

Browne et al

Answer 19

Girls are more successful in coursework as they are better organised than boys e.g. girls spend more time on their work, presentation is better, meet deadlines and are well-equipped for lessons.

-They argued that these factors helped them benefit and do better in GCSE

Question 20

Limitation of coursework? Elwood

Answer 20

Coursework only accounts for a small percentage of the students final grade.

Question 21

French - teacher attention

Answer 21

boys attract more teacher attention due to misbehaviour.

Question 22

Swann - gender communications

Answer 22

boys dominate whole-class discussions and girls prefer pair work and are better at active listening. This explains why teachers respond more positively to girls, as they cooperate more rather than boys who mess around more. This leads to SFP where successful interactions with teachers promotes girls self - esteem leading to higher achievement.

Question 23

Weiner - challenging stereotypes

Answer 23

In 1970’s there were stereotypes from textbooks and magazines which used to depict women as housewives and mothers. Now these stereotypes have been challenged as sexist images have been removed from such learning materials. This raises girls achievement as they are presented with more positive images of what women are capable of now.

Question 24

League tables - girls benefit

Answer 24

The introduction of league tables and marketisation policies have made
girls more desirable for schools as they are likely to achieve better grades.

Question 25

Jackson

Answer 25

Introduction of league tables has improved opportunities for girls (schools more selective towards girls, and not underachieving boys). This leads to SFP where girls do better overall.

Question 26

Slee - boys and exclusion

Answer 26

points out that boys are more likely to have behavioural issues and four times more likely to be excluded which reflects badly on a school in the competitive nature of education today.

Question 27

symbolic capital?

Answer 27

status and how we obtain it from others, ‘How much are you worth?’.

Question 28

Archer - w/c feminine identities

Answer 28

Looked at conflict between w/c girls feminine identities and values of school. He found that performing w/c feminine identities gained symbolic capital from peers but not at schools as it prevented them from gaining educational capital (qualifications) and economic capital (M/c career). Girls created a valued sense by adopting a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity.

Question 29

Evans - successful w/c girls

Answer 29

studied 21 W/c sixth form girls in south London comprehensive school. Girls want to go university to increase earning power (money) to help their family not themselves.

Question 30

Boys and literacy

Answer 30

Gender gap is a result of boys poor literacy and language skills. Reading is seen as a feminine activity as it is generally mothers who read with their children. Leisure activity for boys e.g. football does little to help their language and communication skills.

-Bedroom culture – Girls are socialised to talk and
discuss which increases their vocab.

Question 31

Globalisation and the decline of manual jobs

Answer 31

• we have moved from a pre-industrial society to a service-based industry, so jobs have changed. This led to a crisis of masculinity as they believe they cannot get a good job and undermine their own self-esteem - ultimately leading them to give up on school.
  BUT Decline is mainly in manual working class jobs, which didn’t need qualifications. Unlikely that disappearance of such jobs would impact on boys motivation to obtain qualifications.

Question 32

Sewell - feminisation of education

Answer 32

thinks coursework is the main cause of gender difference in achievement and should be replaced with exams and emphasis in outdoor education within the curriculum. Claims we have moved from a patriarchal society but men have been shunned and no longer included in society.

Question 33

Shortage of primary school teachers

Answer 33

Teaching is a feminine profession, and schools lack many ‘real’ men role models. This is especially critical at primary schools where women
dominate. This could help explain why learning is seen as ‘girlie’ by many boys and not worth their time.

Question 34

Laddish subculture - Epstein

Answer 34

Masculinity revolves around the idea of being tough and doing manual work. Schoolwork is seen as a waste of time and reduces masculinity and leads to bullying. They avoid school work to avoid being called ‘gay’.

Question 35

Laddish subcultures

Answer 35

Boys gain symbolic capital amongst peers by joining anti-school subcultures. More disruptive – boys tend to get excluded more and seek status
from exclusion. Doing well in school or asking for help leads to bullying and belief that they are weak.
- Exclusion from school leads to underachievement.

Question 36

Negative effects of educational policies

Answer 36

educational policies now focus on raising boys achievement to avoid making the moral panic a reality.
Negative effects of these policies:
- narrowing gender policy to the issue of achievement gaps, it ignores problems girls face in schools like sexual harassment (which is the effect of the male gaze).

Question 37

Ringrose - moral panic

Answer 37

talks about boys moral panic: which is that underachieving boys will grow up and become a dangerous unemployable underclass which threatens social stability .

Question 38

Osler - neglection of girls

Answer 38

focus on underachieving boys has led to a neglect of girls, as girls
disengage quietly, but boys disengage loudly, which attracts the attention of teachers more- making them the bigger focus.
Also mentions, boys that are excluded are offered mentoring programmes and placed in PRU’s whereas girls that are excluded aren’t given these opportunities (neglection).

Question 39

Summary of Moral panic

Answer 39

The moral panic of underachieving boys becoming a future disruption in society which threatens to tear society apart has meant that educational policies are aimed to tackle the underachievement and give boys extra support in order to help them do well. Thus, this extra focus on boys has led to the neglect of girls who are not given as much attention, which impacts their attention.

Question 40

What is gender role socialisation?

Answer 40

Learning the behaviour expected of your gender in society

Question 41

Norman

Answer 41

From an early age, boys and girls dress different, have different toys and take part in different activities.

Question 42

Bryne

Answer 42

in school, teachers encourage boys to be tough e.g. carry textbooks, and girls are expected to be quiet, clean, and helpful e.g. ask to clear up mess on floor.

Question 43

Murphy and Elwood - gender role socialisation

Answer 43

They link this to the bedroom culture and that girls tend to read more fiction which lead to more expressive subjects, Boys read more hobby books which leads to more technical subjects.

Question 44

Kelly - gendered subject image

Answer 44

argues that science is seen as a boys subject due to there being more male teachers, textbook illustrations focus on boys interests such as sport.

Question 45

Colley - gendered subject images

Answer 45

computer studies is seen as masculine: involves working with machines - which is part of the ,ale gender domain.
The ways it is taught is off-putting to females as there is less opportunity for group work (which girls enjoy).

Question 46

Leonard - single-sex schools

Answer 46

pupils that are in single-sex schools make less traditional subject choices. Compared to pupil in mixed schools, girls in single-sex schools were more likely to choose subjects like science and maths at A-level and boys were more likely to take English and languages. These girls also studied male-dominate subjects at uni.

Question 47

Institute of physics study

Answer 47

girls in single sex-schools- girls in single schools 2.4X more likely to study physics at A-Level than girls from mixed schools.

Question 48

Peer pressure

Answer 48

Influences subject choices eg. boys opt out of music and dance as it falls out of their gender domain, attracts a negative response from peers.

Question 49

Paechter

Answer 49

sport is seen as male gender domain and females in who are ‘sporty’ contradict the female stereotype, so their more likely to opt out. The absence of peer pressure explains why girls are more likely to pick traditional boys subjects as there is less pressure from boys on girls to conform to their stereotypes.

Question 50

Careers

Answer 50

Jobs are sex-typed as ‘mens’ and ‘womens’, women seen as housewives = more nurturing job roles. Over half of all women’s employment categories fall within four categories: clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupational eg. cleaning.
This has influence in education system as jobs as nurses are seen as ‘women’ jobs so boys opt out for courses in childcare.

Question 51

Fuller - vocational courses

Answer 51

Found that jobs in hair and beauty reflected w/c habitus - ‘for ppl like us’.

Question 52

Double standards

Answer 52

when we apply one set of moral standards to one group but another set to another group.

Question 53

Lees - double standards

Answer 53

looked at the DS in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits, call girls ‘slags’ if they dress in certain styles. This is overlooked by male teachers and gives male peer status but it attracts negative labels to girls.

Question 54

Feminists - double standards

Answer 54

DS justifies male power and reinforces patriarchal society as it is a form of social control to ‘keep women in line’.

Question 55

Connell- verbal abuse

Answer 55

boys use name-calling to put girls down in the way they behave or dress in certain way eg. calling girls ‘slags’ with no reasoning.

Question 56

Paechter - verbal abuse

Answer 56

name-calling shapes gender identity and maintains male power. Use of labels such as ‘queer’, are ways in which pupils police each others sexual identities.

Question 57

Mac an Ghaill - male gaze

Answer 57

Way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, sexually objectify them and make judgements about their appearance.

Question 58

Mulvey - male gaze

Answer 58

A form of surveillance where hetero-sexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity is devalued. Eg. boys tell their friends about sexual experiences they’ve had with girls to increase status. Boys that do not conform to this are labelled as ‘gay’.

Question 59

Ringrose - female peer groups

Answer 59

being popular is crucial to girls identity and when transitioning from a girls friendship culture to a heterosexual dating culture, they faced tension between:
- Idealised feminine identity - showing loyalty to females in the group.
- a sexualised identity - competing for boys on the dating scene

Question 60

Why can girls face identity crisis’s?

Answer 60

• Girls who are too competitive, risk being ‘slut-shamed’.
• Girls who don’t compete may face ‘frigid shaming’ by other girls.
  so shaming is used as a form of social-control, the idea of policing identity.

Question 61

Globalisation and education.

Answer 61

• Multi-culturalism : greater diversity in society has led to learning about different cultures in school. This counters the ethnocentric curriculum.
• increased choice for parents- due to private schools being globalised.
• create new jobs due to changes to the economy.
• educational policies have been influenced by globalisation - GCSE allows you to study Arabic as an extra language.