Gender Differences in Education - Gender and Subject Choice Flashcards
What is gender role socialisation?
The process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society
What does early socialisation shape according to Norman?
It shapes children’s gender identity as boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities
What do teachers encourage boys to be according to Byrne?
Tough and to show initiative
What do teachers encourage girls to be according to Byrne?
Quiet, calm and helpful
Why do boys and girls develop different tastes in reading?
Due to differences in socialisation
What do Murphy and Elwood believe boys and girls’ different tastes in reading leads to?
Them having different subjects choices
How does Murphy help explain why girls are more likely to choose humanities and why boys are more likely to choose sciences?
Because they pay attention to different aspects of the same task: girls focus on how people feel whereas boys focus on how things are made/how they work
Why is science seen as a boys subject according to Kelly?
Science teachers are more likely to be men
Examples used by teachers or in textbooks are more catered to boys’ interests
Men dominate the laboratory in science lessons
Why is computer science seen as a boys subject according to Kelly?
It involves working with machines
Teaching methods aren’t appealing to females
What did Leonard find about the effects of what school pupils go to on subject choice after an analysis of 13,000 individuals?
Compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in all girls’ schools are more likely to pick maths and science A-levels
Compared to pupils in mixed schools, boys are more likely to take English and languages
How may boys and girls treat individuals if they disapprove of their subject choices?
They may apply pressure to them
What would male students call girls if they showed interest in sports according to a study of American college students carried out by Dewar?
‘Lesbian’ or ‘butch’
What do peers do in mixed schools to encourage girls and boys adopt an appropriate gender identity?
They police one another’s subject choices
What do ‘women type jobs’ involve?
Work similar to housewife work such as child care and nursing
What did the Gender Reform Act remove?
The ability for schools to place restrictions on student subject choices
