Sociology-Education-Gender Flashcards
What are statistics for gender in achievement on starting school?
In 2013, teacher assessments of pupils at the end of year one showed girls ahead of boys by 7-17% points in all severn areas of learning assessed, girls were better at concentrating, and boys were 2 and 1/2 times more likely to have statements of special educational needs
What are statistics for gender in achievement at key stages 1 to 3?
Girls consistently do better than boys, especially in English where the gender gap steadily widens with age. In science and maths the gap is narrower but girls still do better
What are statistics for gender in achievement at GCSE?
Gender gap stands at around 10 percentage points
What are statistics for gender in achievement at AS and A-level?
Girls more likely to sit, pass and get higher grades than boys, though the gap is narrower than at GCSE, but even in ‘boys’ subjects, such as maths and physics, girls were more likely to get grades A-C
What are statistics for gender in achievement on vocational courses?
Preparing students for a career, results show a similar pattern. Larger proportion of girls achieve distinctions in every subject, including those such as engineering and construction where girls are a tiny minority of students
What are the external factors that cause girls to achieve more than boys?
The impact of feminism, changes in family, changes in women’s employment, and girls changing ambitions
What is feminism?
Social movement that strives for equal rights for women in all areas of life, since 1960s, they challenged traditional stereotype of a women’s role as solely that of mother and housewife
What did McRobbie 1994 find?
Magazine study, comparison from 1970s to today, which used to emphasise the importance of marriage, but today contain images of assertive, independent women
How does feminism lead to achievement in girls?
The changes encouraged by feminism can affect girls self image and ambitions wit regard to families and careers
What are some of the major changes in the family since the 1970s?
Increased divorce rate, increase in cohabitation/decrease in first marriages, increased lone parent families, and smaller families
How do changes in the family lead to achievement in girls?
Affect girls attitudes to education, eg female lone parent families mean mother may be the breadwinner, giving girls higher aspirations and sense of independence which would come with higher education and careers, and increase in divorces, shows girls you don’t have to rely on husbands
What are some important changes in women’s employment?
Equal pay act 1970, sex discrimination act 1975, since 1975 the pay gap halved from 30-15%, proportion of women in employment rose from 53-67% from 1971 to 2013, and some women are breaking through ‘glass ceiling’-invisible barrier keeping them out of higher level professional jobs
How do changes in employment lead to achievement in girls?
Encourages girls to see their future in terms of paid work, rather than as housewives, because they have greater career opportunities and better pay, plus they have role models of successful career women now giving incentive to gain qualifications
What did Sharpe 1994 find?
Girls changing priorities from 1970s to 1990s, 1970s = love, marriage, husbands, children jobs, careers. 1990s=prefer a career over relying on husbands income
What did O’Connor 2006 find?
Study of 14-17 year olds showed marriage and children weren’t major parts of their life plans
What did Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2001 say?
Link the trend towards individualisation in modern society where independence is valued and so careers become part of a woman’s life project as it promises recognition and self-sufficiency
How do girls changing ambitions lead to achievement in girls?
They recognise that in order to achieve independence and self sufficiency, they need a good education
How does class link to gender and ambition?
There are class differences in how far girls ambitions have changed. Some working class girls continue to have gender stereotyped aspirations for marriage and children, and expect to go into traditional low paid women’s work
What does Reay 1998 argue?
Girls ambitions reflect the reality of the girls class position. Limited aspirations reflect limited opportunities they perceive as being available to them, and the traditional gendered identity is both attainable and offers a source of status
What did Biggart 2002 find?
Working class girls more likely to see motherhood and marriage as only viable future option, have low aspirations, and so see less point in achieving in education
What are the internal factors of gender differences in achievement?
Equal opportunities policies, positive role models in schools, GCSE and coursework, teacher attention, challenging stereotypes in the curriculum, and selection and league tables
How have feminists had internal effects on education?
Policymakers are much more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive to the need to avoid stereotyping, and the belief that boys and girls are entitled to the same opportunities, is now mainstream thinking and influences educational policies
What are examples of educational policies?
GIST (girls into science and technology) and WISE (women into science and engineering) that encourage girls to pursue careers in these non traditional fields, where female scientists visited schools to act as role models, efforts raised to raise science teachers’ awareness of gender issues, and no sexist career advice and learning materials
What did the introduction of the national curriculum 1988 do?
Removed one source of gender inequality by making girls and boys study mostly the same subjects, which often wasn’t the case before this
What does Boaler 1998 say?
Impact of equal opportunities policies are a key reason for change in girls’ achievement-barriers are removed and schooling has become more meritocratic, so girls who work harder than boys, achieve more
How has there been an increase in positive role models in schools for girls?
Increase in proportion of female teachers and head teachers, who act as role models as they have senior positions, and show women can too achieve positions of importance, and gives girls non traditional goals to aim for, as you have to be highly educated to be a teacher
What did Gorard 2005 find?
Gender divide was consistent until 1989 when GCSEs were used, with coursework in most subjects, and claims the gender gap in achievement is a “product of the changed systems of assessment rather than any more general failing of boys”
What do Mitsos and Browne 1998 conclude?
Girls are more successful in coursework as they are more conscientious and better organised, take care with presentation and are better at meeting deadlines, which helps girls benefit more from the introduction of coursework
Apart from coursework, why else did GCSEs create higher achievement in girls?
GCSEs brought greater use of oral exams, which benefit girls as they generally have better developed language skills
What do sociologists argue that these characteristics and skills are the result of?
Early gender role socialisation where girls are more likely to be taught to be neat, tidy and patient, which helps girls in the assessment system
What does Elwood 2005 argue?
Coursework is unlikely to be the whole cause for the gender gap as written exams have more influence than coursework on final grades
What did French 1993 find?
Boys got more teacher attention because they needed to be reprimanded
What did Francis 2001 also find?
Boys attracted more teacher attention but where also disciplined harsher and felt picked on by teachers and their low expectations of them
What did Swann 1998 find?
Found gender differences in communication styles (boys dominate class discussion whereas girls prefer group work and turn taking) which may be why teachers respond more positively to girls as they seem more cooperative to boys who are seen as potentially disruptive
How can teacher attention lead to achievement in girls?
Positive attention can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy due to interactions that promote their self esteem, and so raise their achievement levels
What did research in the 1970s and 80s find about stereotypes in curriculum?
Reading schemes portrayed women mainly as housewives and mothers, physics books showed them as frightened by science, and maths books depicted boys as more inventive
What did Weiner 1995 find?
Since 1980s, teachers have challenged stereotypes and sexist learning material has been removed
How does changing stereotypes in the curriculum lead to achievement in girls?
Helps raise girls achievement by presenting them with more positive images of what women can do
What did Jackson 1998 find?
Introduction of exam league tables improves opportunities for girls as the high achievers are selected to better schools and low achieving boys aren’t (self fulfilling prophecy)
What did Slee 1998 argue?
Boys are less attractive to schools as they are likely to have more behavioural difficulties and are four times more likely to be excluded, so are seen as ‘liability students’ that are obstacles to the school improving league table scores
What are the two different views of girls’ achievement?
The liberal feminists view, and the radical feminists view
What is the liberal feminists view of girls’ achievement?
Celebrate progress made and believe further progress will be made by continuing development of equal opportunities policies, encouraging positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotypes. Similar to functionalist view of education as a meritocracy
What is the radical feminists view of girls’ achievement?
More critical view, that recognise girls are achieving more, but emphasise that the system remains patriarchal with a clear message that it’s a mans world
What evidence do radical feminists give to show education is still patriarchal?
Sexual harassment of girls at school, limitation of girls subject and career choices, more female head teachers but males are more likely to become head teachers, women are underrepresented in many areas of curriculum eg Weiner 1933 said secondary school history curriculum was a ‘woman free zone’
What does Archer et al 2010 say?
Conflict between working class girls feminine identities and the values of the school cause class differences in girls-symbolic capital which is gained from performing their working class feminine identities but bought conflict with school, preventing educational and economic capital
What strategies does Archer identify the girls use to create a valued sense of self?
Adopting a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity, having a boyfriend and being ‘loud’
What do the hyper-heterosexual female identities lead to for working class girls?
Although they avoid negativity from peers, they are punished and labelled by school, which leads to ‘othering’ the girls , as the ideal female pupil is de-sexualised and middle class (symbolic violence)
How do boyfriends affect working class girls achievement?
Brings symbolic capital, but gets in the way of schoolwork and lowers girls’ aspirations, including losing interest in university, studying ‘masculine’ subjects or gaining a professional career, instead the girls aspire to ‘settle down’
How did being ‘loud’ affect working class girls at school?
Lead them to be outspoken, independent and assertive, eg questioning a teachers authority, so fail to conform to schools stereotype of the ideal female pupil, that is passive and submissive to authority, so brings conflict with teachers who see them as aggressive, rather than assertive
What dilemma are working class girls faced with?
Either gaining symbolic capital from peers by conforming to a hyper heterosexual feminine identity, or gaining educational capital by rejecting their working class identity and conforming to the schools middle class notions of a respectable, ideal female pupil
How did some girls cope with this dilemma?
By defining themselves as ‘good underneath’, reflecting the girls struggle to achieve a sense of self worth within an education system that devalues their working class feminine identities, though teachers still have negative views of them
How are some successful working class girls that go on to higher education, put at a disadvantage?
They may be disadvantaged by their gender and class identities
What does Evans 2009 show?
Study of working class girls who aspired to go to university to earn more money later on, but usually to help their families rather than themselves…this motivation reflects their working class female identities
What does Skeggs 1997 note?
Being caring is an important part of the feminine working class identity, and the girls in Evans study wanted to remain at home and contribute to their families
What is a further reason for these working class girls to remain at home whilst at university?
Economic necessity, as there is a fear of getting into debt, but living at home made it more affordable, however it did limit their choice of university
What did Archer 2010 show?
A preference for locality /local universities is a key feature of working class habitus
What are factors that affect boys achievement levels?
Boys and literacy, globalisation and decline of traditional men’s jobs, feminisation of education, shortage of male primary school teachers and laddish subcultures
What does the DCSF 2007 say about boys and achievement?
The gender gap is mainly the result of boys’ poorer literacy and language skills
What are reasons for why boys have lower literacy and language skills?
Parents spend less time reading to sons, mothers usually read to younger children so it’s seen as a feminine activity, and boys leisure pursuits such as football don’t really develop those skills, whereas girls have a ‘bedroom culture’ centred on staying in and talking with friends
How does literacy and language affect lead to underachievement in boys?
Affects their performance across many subjects, and in exams which involve reading, understanding and writing in almost all subjects
What has happened since the 1980s?
There has been a significant decline in heavy industries such as iron and steel, shipbuilding, mining and engineering, which is partly due to globalisation of the economy, leading to much manufacturing industry relocating to developing countries for cheap labour
What do Mitsos and Browne claim?
Decline in male employment opportunities leads to identity crises, undermining self esteem. Many boys believe they have little prospect of getting a proper job so they give up
What counteracts Mitsos and Browne?
The fact that the decline was largely in manual working class jobs that require few or no qualifications, so it is unlikely that it caused such an impact on all boys motivation to get qualifications
What reason does Sewell give for underachievement in boys?
Boys now fall behind because education has been feminised and some coursework should be changed back to exams because schools don’t nurture masculine traits such as competitiveness and leadership, instead celebrate ‘girls’ qualities such as methodical working and attentiveness in class
What did Yougov 2007 find?
39% of 8-11 year old boys have no lessons at all with a male teacher, and only 14% of primary school teachers are male, but most boys say they behave better and 42% said they work harder, with a male teacher
Why may a lack of male teachers lead to underachievement in boys?
Because primary schools have become feminised as a result of being staffed by female teachers, who are unable to control boys behaviour, whereas males are better at imposing strict discipline that boys need to concentrate
What did Francis 2006 find?
Two thirds of 7-8 year olds believed the gender of teachers didn’t matter
What did Read 2008 argue?
Critical on claims that education culture has been feminised in primary schools, and that only males can discipline boys
How did Read test these claims?
She studied the type of language teachers used to express criticism or disapproval of pupils work and behaviour, and identified two types of language/discourse
What are the two discourses?
Disciplinarian discourse and a liberal discourse
What is a disciplinarian discourse?
Teachers authority is made explicit and visible eg through shouting, and an exasperated tone of voice or sarcasm (usually associated with masculinity)
What is a liberal discourse?
Teachers authority is implicit and invisible. The cild centred discourse involves ‘pseudo-adultification’ where the teacher speaks to the child as if they were an adult and expects them to be kind, sensible and respectful (usually associated with femininity)
What did Read find?
In a study of 51 primary school teachers (25 male, 26 female), most teachers, male and female, used a supposedly ‘masculine’ disciplinarian discourse to control pupils behaviour
What two conclusions does Read draw from her findings?
The fact that most teachers favoured the masculine discourse disproves claims that primary school has been feminised, and the fact that female teachers were just as likely to use the masculine discourse disproves claims that only male teachers can provide the strict classroom culture in which boys are said to thrive
What does Haase 2006 say?
Women make up the majority of teachers but education system is a masculinised educational structure that is numerically dominated by women
What does Jones 2006 note?
Male teachers in the UK have a 1 in 4 chance of gaining headship, whereas women have a 1 in 13 chance
What did Epstein 1998 find (laddish subcultures)?
Examined how masculinity is constructed within school and found working class boys are likely to be harassed, labelled and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appeared to be ‘swots’
What did Francis 2001 find?
Boys are more scared to be labeled as it is more of a threat to their masculinity than a threat to girls femininity as working class culture masculinity is equated with being tough and doing manual work, other things are effeminate and inferior, so boys reject schoolwork to avoid being called ‘gay’
What does Francis conclude?
Laddish culture is becoming increasingly widespread because, as girls move into traditional masculine areas such as careers, boys respond by “becoming increasingly laddish in their effort to construct themselves as non-feminine”
What do critics of feminism argue?
Policies to promote girls education are no longer needed, and speak of ‘girl power’, that girls today ‘have it all’, and women take over mens jobs. They believe girls succeed at the expense of boys, who are the new disadvantaged
What does feminist Ringrose 2013 say?
These views have created a moral panic about the failure of boys, reflecting a fear that underachieving working class boys will grow up to be dangerous, unemployable and an underclass that threatens social stability
What does Ringrose say the moral panic has caused?
A major shift in educational policy, that is now preoccupied with raising boys achievements
What two negative effects has the policy shift had?
Narrowing equal opportunities policy to ‘failing boys’ ignores problems of disadvantaged working class and ethnic minority pupils, and narrowing gender policy to the issue of achievement gaps ignores other problems faced by girls in school such as sexual harassment, bullying and stereotyped subject choices
What does Osler 2006 note?
Focus on underachieving boys has led to the neglect of girls, partly because girls disengage from school quietly, whereas boys disengage through public displays of laddish masculinity which attracts attention
What example does Osler give?
Mentoring schemes aimed at reducing school exclusions among black boys. Ignore problems of exclusions among girls, which is becoming more of a problem, and excluded girls are less likely to get a place in pupil referral units. Official exclusion rates mask a wider, hidden problem of exclusion among girls, including self exclusion (truancy) and internal exclusion (removal from classes)
Why is it wrong to assume boys are a ‘lost cause’ on education?
Because although they achieve less than girls, their achievement has still increased and they achieve more than in the past
What does McVeigh 2001 note?
Similarities in girls and boys achievement are far greater than the differences especially when compared with class and ethnic differences, eg class gap in achievement at GCSE is 3 times wider than gender gap (gender differences within same class = less than 12% points but girls differences from highest to lowest class can be up to 44% points) and gender gap among black Caribbean pupils is greater than in other ethnic groups
What does Fuller show?
Many black girls are successful at school as they define their femininity in terms of educational achievement and independence
What does Sewell show, that links to what Fuller shows?
Some black boys fail at schools as they define their masculinity is opposition to effeminate education
What does Connolly 2006 suggest?
Certain combinations of gender, class and ethnicity have more effect than others
How is subject choice affected by the national curriculum?
Where there is a choice, girls and boys choose differently, eg although design and technology is compulsory, girls tend to opt for food tech whereas boys choose resistant materials
Where does gendered subject choice become more noticeable?
After 16 where there is more choice, eg differences in entries for A level subjects, eg boys maths and physics, and girls with sociology and English. These differences are then mirrored in subject choice at university
How does a level subject choice question the effectiveness of policies such as WISE and GIST?
Institute of physics 2012 found the proportion of A-level physics students who are girls has been “stubbornly inconsistent” at around 20% for over 20 years
What is the gendered subject choice in vocational courses?
Gender segregation is very noticeable, eg only 1 in 100 childcare apprentices is a boy
What are the different explanations of gender differences in subject choice?
Gender role socialisation, gendered subject images, gender identity and peer pressure, and gendered career opportunities
What is gendered role socialisation?
The process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society, and early socialisation can shape children’s gender identity
What does Norman 1988 note?
From an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities. Some sociologists also say that school plays an important part in this
What does Byrne 1979 show?
Teachers encourage boys to be tough/show initiative and girls to be quiet, helpful and tidy
What does Murphy and Elwood 1998 show?
How socialisation differences can lead to development of different reading tastes, and how these lead to different subject choices. (Boys read hobby and information books leading to science preferences, and girls read stories about people leading to preferences in subjects like English)
What does Browne and Ross 1991 argue?
Children’s beliefs about gender domains are shaped by their early experiences and expectations of adults
What does the term ‘gender domains’ mean?
The tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male or female ‘territory’ and therefore as relevant to themselves eg mending a car is in the male gender domain whereas caring for a sick child isn’t. Children are also more confident when engaging in tasks that they see as part of their own gender domain
What did Murphy 1991 find?
Boys and girls pay attention to different details, even when looking at the same task (girls focus on feelings, boys focus on how things work or are made) which explains why girls choose humanities and arts, while boys choose science
How does Kelly explain why science has a male gendered subject image?
Science teachers are more likely to be men, examples used by teachers and textbooks often draw on boys interests rather than girls interests, and in lessons the boys tend to monopolise the apparatus and dominate the laboratory as if it is ‘theirs’
Why does Colley 1998 note that computer studies is seen as a male gendered subject image?
It involves working with machines (male gender domain) and the way it is taught is off-putting to females as tasks tend to be abstract and teaching styles offer fewer opportunities for group work
What are gendered subject images like in single sex schools?
Pupils tend to hold less stereotypes subject images and make less traditional subject choices
What did Leonard 2006 find?
Compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in all girls schools were more likely to take maths and science a levels, and boys in all boys schools are more likely to take English and languages-Supported by the institute of physics study where girls in all girls schools are 2.4 times more likely to take physics at A-level
What did Paechter 1998 find?
Because pupils see sport as mainly within male gender domain, girls who are sporty have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype (peer pressure)
What did Dewar 1990 find?
Male students call female students names if they are interested in sports
How can peer pressure explain gendered subject choices?
Pupils feel pressure from their gender and the other gender to choose subjects that are typical for their gender, which is why this happens less in single sex schools because there is less comparison and pressure to conform
What is another important reason for differences in subject choice?
Employment is highly gendered and jobs are sex types as male or female, eg women’s jobs often involve work similar to that of a housewife, eg childcare and nursing, leading to a narrow range of occupations with over 1/2 of all women’s employment falling within only four categories (clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupations such as cleaning)
What do gendered career opportunities help to explain about vocational courses?
Why they are much more gender specific than academic courses, as they are by definition more closely linked to students’ career plans
What did Fuller find about work experience?
Placements in feminine, working class jobs such as nursery nursing and retail work were overwhelmingly the norm for girls in her study
What does Connell 1995 talk about?
‘Hegemonic masculinity’ the dominance of heterosexual masculine identity and the subordination of female and gay identities
What are the different ways that pupils experiences in school help to construct and reinforce their gender and sexual identities?
Double standards, verbal abuse, the male gaze, male peer groups, female peer groups (policing identity) and teachers and discipline
What are double standards?
They occur when we apply one set of moral standards to one group but a different set to another group
What does Lees 1993 identify?
Identifies a double standard of sexual morality in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits, but call a girl a ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend or if she dresses and speaks in a certain way
What do feminists say about double standards?
Where boys sexual conquests are approved of and given status, ‘promiscuity’ among girls attracts negative labels, an example of a patriarchal ideology that justifies male power and devalues women. It is a form of social control that reinforces gender inequality by keeping females subordinate to males
What does Connel say about verbal abuse?
A “rich vocabulary of abuse” is one of the ways in which dominant gender and sexual identities are reinforced eg boys use name calling to put girls down if they dress or behave in a certain way
What dis Lees 1986 find?
Found that boys called girls ‘slags’ if they appeared to be sexually available, and ‘drags’ if they didn’t
How does Paechter see name calling?
as helping to shape gender identity and maintain male power, and the use of negative labels are ways in which pupils police each others sexual identities
What did Parker 1996 find?
Found boys were labelled gay simply for being friendly with girls or female teachers, though these labels bear no reflation to pupils’ actual sexual behaviour, they simply reinforce gender norms and identities
What do Mac and Ghaill refer to when talking about pupils controlling each other’s identities?
‘The male gaze’ the way pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearance
What do Mac and Ghaill say about the male gaze?
It is a form of surveillance through which the hegemonic masculinity is reinforced and femininity is devalued. One of the ways that boys prove their masculinity and without it they risk being labelled as gay
What did Epstein and Willis show about male peer groups?
Studies show, boys in anti-school subcultures often accuse boys who want to do well at school of being gay or effeminate
What did Mac an Ghaill’s 1994 study show?
examines how peer groups reproduce a range of different class-based masculine gender identities eg the working class ‘macho lads’ were dismissive of other working class boys who worked hard and aspired to middle class careers, by contrast middle class ‘real Englishmen’ projected an image of ‘effortless achievement’-succeeding without trying though in some cases they were trying
What did Redman and Mac Ghaill find?
Found that the dominant definition of masculine identity changes from that of mach lads in the lower school to that of the real Englishmen in the sixth form
What did Ringrose 2013 find about female peer groups?
Small scale study of 13-14 year old working-class girls’ peer groups in a South Wales school found that being popular was crucial to the girls’ identity, and felt tension between two identities as they transitioned from a girl’s friendship culture into a heterosexual dating culture
What two identities did Ringrose identify?
An idealised feminine identity and a sexualised identity
What is an idealised feminine identity?
Sows loyalty to the female peer group, being non competitive and getting along with everyone in the friendship culture
What is a sexualised identity?
Involved in competing for boys in the dating culture
What does Currie et al 2007 argue?
While relationships with boys can confer symbolic capital, this is a high risk game because girls are forced to perform a balancing act between these two identities (too competitive leads to slut shaming and exclusion from friendship culture, but too little competition can lead to frigid shaming by other girls)
How is shaming explained in female peer groups?
As a social control device by which schoolgirls police, regulate and discipline each other’s identities
What did Reay 2001 find?
A ‘boffin’ identity involved the girls having to perform an asexual identity, presenting themselves as lacking any interest in boyfriends or popular fashion and can lead to social exclusion
What did Francis 2010 find?
middle-class female ‘boffins’ may respond in kind by defining other, working-class girls as ‘chavs
What did Haywood and Mac an Ghaill 1996 find?
Found that male teachers told boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ and teased them when they gained lower marks in tests than girls-teachers tended to ignore boys’ verbal abuse of girls and even blamed girls for attracting it
What do Askew and Ross 1988 show?
Show how male teachers’ behaviour can subtly reinforce messages about gender eg male teachers often have a protective attitude towards female colleagues and come into their classes to ‘rescue’ them by threatening disruptive pupils, but this reinforces the idea that women can’t cope on their own
