Sociology Education: Gender

Question 1

Education: Gender (external)
Girls change in ambitions

Answer 1

Sharpe
-in 1974 the girls had low aspirations they’re priorities were love,marriage,husband,
children
-in 1990s the girls now wanted to be an independent woman with a career

Question 2

Education: Gender (external)
Changes in women’s employment

Answer 2

-1970 equal pay act men and women payed the same for same value of work
-the proportion of women in employment has risen by 14% since 1971
-this is due to qualification,opportunity’s and role models

Question 3

Education: Gender (external)
Changes in the family

Answer 3

-increase in divorce rate
-increase in lone-parent families
-these change girls attitude towards education as women need to take a breadwinner role due to family type changes and to achieve this they need to get good qualifications

Question 4

Education: Gender (Internal)
Equal opportunities polices

Answer 4

-Feminist ideas have now impacted the education system
-teachers more aware of stereotyping
-E.g. WISE(women into science and engineering)
-encourages girls to go into non-traditional areas
-female scientists visiting schools as role models

Question 5

Education: Gender (internal)
GCSE and coursework

Answer 5

-some sociologists argue the changes to assessments favor girls over boys
-the year GCSEs where introduced the achievement gap sharply increases
-the GCSEs benefit girls due to early socialisation in the family
-E.g girls are taught to be neat and tidy which contribute to course work

Question 6

Education: Gender (internal)
Challenging stereotypes

Answer 6

-some sociologists argue that the removal of gender stereotypes from learning materials has removed a barrier to girls learning
-these portrayed women as mainly housewives and mothers

Question 7

Education: Gender (class)
Symbolic capital

Answer 7

Archer
-by performing their WC feminine identity’s the girls gained symbolic capital from peers
-this brought them in conflict of the school preventing them from acquiring educational capital

Question 8

Education: Gender (class)
Hyper-heterosexual identities

Answer 8

Archer
-many WC girls invested, time and money into being glamorous hyper-heterosexual
-E.g one girls spent all of her £40 a week from babysitting on her appearance
-this symbolic capital but conflicts with the school for having the wrong appearance
-this leads to the school punishing the girls which can be called symbolic violence

Question 9

Education: Gender (class)
Boyfriends

Answer 9

-having a boyfriend brought symbolic capital it got in the way of school work and lowered girls aspirations
-e.g studying ‘masculine’ subjects or aspiring to go to uni
-this lead to them wanting to settle down

Question 10

Education: Gender (class)
Successful WC girls

Answer 10

Evans
-girls wanted to go to uni to increase earring power
-not for themselves but family
-this is why the girls chose to say home due to cost and fear of debt

Question 11

Education: Gender (boys)
Literacy

Answer 11

DCSF
-the gender gap is due to boys poor literacy and language skills
-parents spend less time reading to sons
-boys pursuit activity’s such as football that do not help language and communication
-but girls tend to stay in a talk
- this all affects boys performance at school

Question 12

Education: Gender (boys)
Feminisation of education

Answer 12

Sewell
-claims education has been feminised
-schools do not nurture ‘masculine’ traits like competitiveness and leadership but quality’s associated with girls like attractiveness in class
-also the coursework as a major cause
-should be replaced with final exams and a outdoor curriculum

Question 13

Education: Gender (boys)
Shortage of male primary teachers

Answer 13

-lack of male role models at school only 14% of teachers are male
-yet boys 42% said the presence of a male teacher made them work harder and behave better
-claims the primary school culture has been feminised as a result of female teachers who can’t control boys
-suggesting boys need male discipline

Question 14

Education: Gender (boys)
Critique of male primary teachers

Answer 14

-2/3 of 7-8 year old didn’t belive the gender matted
-notes men and women teachers both used disciplinarian discourse
-this disproves that primary schools have been feminised

Question 15

Education: Gender
Gender domain

Answer 15

-‘gender domains’ are shaped by their early socialisation
-it means what boys and girls see as they’re genders territory
-children are more confident when engaging in tasks in their gender domain
-E.g girls are more confident in calculation nutrition over cars

Question 16

Education: Gender
Single sex schooling

Answer 16

-pupils who attend single sex schools tend to hold less stereotyped subject images
-leading to less traditional choices
-e.g girls where more likely to take maths and science and boys where more likely to take English

Question 17

Education: Gender
Peer pressure

Answer 17

-apply pressure if individuals disapprove of choice
-E.g boys tend to opt out of dance due to negative responses from peers
-or girls doing sport would be labelled ‘Butch’
- this contrasts single sex schools as they do not fee pressure from the other gender

Question 18

Education: Gender
The male gaze

Answer 18

-male peer groups use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity
-e.g anti school subcultures would accuse boys who do well at school as gay
- but labels like this were only said to reinforce gender norms and identities as it had nothing to do with they’re sexual behavior