Gender Differences In Education Flashcards
What are some gender patterns of achievement?
In primary school, girls now outperform boys at GCSE they are around 10% ahead and at A level they are more likely to pass but the gap is smaller and more girls go on to higher education than boys, This is a remarkable turnaround as boys used to outperform girls in all levels of education until around the 1980/90s
How has the influence of feminism had an external impact on girls achievement?
Since the 60s, feminists have challenged patriarchy in all areas of social life and rejected the traditional stereotypes of women, they have had an impact on women’s rights through campaigns to change legislation e.g equal pay, outlawing rape in marriage etc.
More broadly feminist ideas are likely to have affected girls self-image and aspirations. As a result they are more motivated to do well in education.
How has Girls changing perceptions and ambitions had an external impact on girls education?
Linking to feminism, lots of studies have shown that there has been a major shift in how girls see themselves, education and their future, Sharpe (1994) completed a longitudinal study from the 1970s to the 1990s and found that girls priorities changed from marriage, love and children in the 70s to careers, success and independence in the 90s however notably in her report she found that the majority of WC girls retained traditional aspiration in comparison to MC girls
How have changes in the family had an external impact on girls achievement in school?
+An increase in divorce, about 40% of all marriages now end this way
+More Lone Parents, over 90% of which are female headed
+More cohabitation and a decrease in first marriages
+ smaller families and more women staying single
All meaning that girls now have to be better economically dependent - more motivation to do well in school
How have changes in women’s employment had an external impact on girls achievement?
There are now more employment opportunities for women than ever before as a direct result of an expanding services sector in the U.K which is an inviting traditionally women’s area of work. Women’s employment has risen from around 45% of married women in the 1950s to well over 75% today.
Changes in the law, The 1970 equal pay act and 1975 sex discrimination act have given women more employment rights
Since 1975 the gender pay gap has almost halved
As a result there is clearly more incentive for women to take part in paid work
How have equal opportunities policies had an impact on internal factors in girls achievement?
As the education system now fully believes that males and females are equally able it has introduced programs such as GIST And WISE programs to encourage girls in to science and technology and the national curriculum was introduced in 1988 that has meant that girls and boys know mainly study the exact same subject and compulsory science etc. Has helped to equalise opportunities
Some argue that policies like this have made the education system more meritocratic.
How have role models had an impact on internal factors in female achievement ?
As there are now more female teachers and head teachers than in the past they provide a positive, successful and pro-education role model for girls although critics argue that the so called ‘feminisation of education’ has actually done much more to deter boys in education that empowering girls, they go as far as to say that education is now a female gender domain where boys feel alienated
How has the introduction of coursework helped internal Factor in girls achievement?
According to Mitsos and Brown (1998), girls do better than boys in coursework because they are better at concentration and better organised than boys as girls often mature much faster than boys meaning they can better concentrate, this can be proven as in 1988 when coursework was introduced girls results shot ups down boys stabilised but Elwood argues that actually coursework has very little impact on the final grade in comparison to the exams
How has teacher attention had an impact on internal girls achievement?
Early studies from spender in 1983 show that boys got more attention in a classroom but more recent reports from people such as French and French show that now it is girls that get more attention however Swann argues that boys dominate classroom discussions and get most discipline but girls prefer to work in small groups as they are better at listening and cooperating , teachers like this leading to labels
How has selection and league tables lead to an internal improvement in girls achievement?
Marketisation policies such as the publication of league tables have lead to more competition between schools hence schools have an incentive to recruit more able students in order to boost their results, girls are now generally now more successful than boys so more appealing to better schools so they get a better education and better results and contrastingly boys are seen as disruptive and embarrassing and are less appealing to good schools and hence go to sink schools where they get poor results
What do feminists say about this progress?
Liberal feminists are very positive and welcome the progress but radical feminists are still critical that patriarchy still exists in education as heads are more likely to be male, sexual harassment against women is still high and education remains gendered subjects
What are the facts about identity, class and girls achievement?
That WC girls still underachieve, Archer 2010 claims this is because their feminine identities clash with the schools habits, they often face 2 choices gain symbolic capital by conforming to a WC identity or gain education capital by educational qualifications. This limits the ambition of WC girls
Which types of behaviour do WC part take in that causes conflict between them and the schools MC habits?
+ They have hyper-heterosexual feminine identities, Many girls construct glamourus identities that the school commits symbolic violence when they define their culture as worthless
+ They have boyfriends that gain symbolic capital amongst peers but distract from education
+ They have Loud typically WC Identities that are outspoken and assertive that teachers see as aggressive which leads to labelling
+ Tomboys, many have laddish identities or Nike identities that result in truanting and getting excluded
What are some characteristics of successful WC girls?
Evans (2009) found that even successful WC girls are disadvantaged as they want to go to university to support their families, they choose to live at home, reflecting their WC feminine habits which can mean that their choice of university, Market value of degree and likely employment is affected.
Fear of debt also massively limits ambition amongst WC girls
How has bad literacy skills had an impact on boys underachievement?
As parents spend less time reading to their sons and it is mainly mothers who read to kids it’s seen as a feminine activity which can deter them from developing appropriate literacy skills and boys leisure activities such as sports and computer games don’t encourage language and communication skills whereas the girls ‘bedroom culture’ does
As literacy and language are so important in education in almost all subjects poorer literacy skills have a far reaching impact on their achievement
