sociology - gender and subject choice

Question 1

gender domains and gender role socialisation

Answer 1

Murphy and Elwood argue that differences in gender socialisation leads to different taste in reading - can lead to differences in subject choice ( gender domains seen as territory)
•boys tend to read hobby books
•girls tend to read stories about people

EVAL:
•male and female gender domains are blending together
•male and female aren’t the only gender options

Question 2

gendered subject image

Answer 2

pupils who attend single sex schools tend to make less stereotypical subject choices
e.g. Leonard found that girls in girls’ schools are more likely to take maths and science a levels

subjects still gendered e.g. computer science - seen as masculine, not a lot of group work

EVAL:
• equal opportunities policies - GIST & WISE encourages girls however still such a huge difference in numbers between boys and girls

Question 3

gender identity and peer pressure

Answer 3

boys usually opt out of ‘girly’ subjects such as dance and health&social as they fear they will be labelled as ‘gay’ - outside the gender domain

EVAL:
•too deterministic - there has been a shift in students picking subjects outside of their typical gender domain e.g girls picking PE and boys picking health&social

Question 4

gendered career opportunities

Answer 4

half of women’s employment falls into four categories: clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupations such as cleaning
•vocational courses are much more gender specific

EVAL:
•not only gender - class plays a greater role as WC may choose vocational courses due to their WC habitus
•Fullers study (2011) - the girls had ambitions to go into childcare, reflecting their sense of what is realistic for ‘people like us’