Topic 2- Gender Gap In Acheivement Flashcards
What are the 4 explanations for the gender in education
External factors
- the impact of feminism
- changes in employment
- changing ambitions
- changes in the family
External factors
The impact of feminism
Give the 3 reasons as to why this has led to a gender gap in A
- F has provided more equal rights for females; it has helped bring about legal changes and has promoted equal opportunities in society
- as a result it has helped to raise girls expectations and ambitions
- F has encouraged girls to rethink their self-image and to become more aspirational, rather than only seeing their future in the stereotypical traditional way as a wife/mother
External factors
Changes in employment
Give the 3 reasons
- as a consequence of changes in legislation (Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) and the changes in social attitudes, females see their future in terms of paid work
- this reflects greater and more equal career opportunities
- girls have benefitted from being exposed ti more successful career women who act as positive role models
External factors
Changing ambitions
Talk about Sue Sharpe’s research (2)
- she conducted research in 1974 with a sample of wc girls in a London comprehensive school. They viewed educational success as unfeminine and had low aspirations. Marriage was the main goal
- she repeated her research in 1994 with a similar sample and found that there was a great change in priorities and the girls were far more aspirational. Her findings show a major change in the way girls see themselves and their future
External factors
Changing ambitions
Talk about Francis’ research
-he found that increasingly today, girls are rejecting the traditional female role and understanding the importance of education
External factors
Changing ambitions
What did Fuller find out
That educational success was a central aspect of girls identity , they saw themselves as creators of their own future and had an individualised notion of self and aimed for a professional career that would enable them to support themselves
External factors
Changes in the family
Give the 2 reasons
- an increase in divorce, cohabitation, SPFs, smaller families and a decrease in marriages has impacted on girl’s attitudes towards education
- they recognise that they need to take on more of a breadwinner role and this may encourage girls to look to themsleves and their own qualifications to make a living and be financially independent
Internal factors for the gender gap
Give the 6 reasons
- equal opportunity policies
- positive role models in schools
- GCSE and coursework
- teacher attention
- challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
- selection and league tables
Internal factors- teacher attention
What does research show
That the way teachers interact with girls and boys differs.
Internal factors- teacher attention
What did Spender find out
That teachers spend more time with boys and that they Re able to demand more of the teacher’s time and gain more attention
Internal factors- teacher attention
What do French and French argue
That the amount of attention given to girls and boys is quite similar and on occasions where boys are given more attention it is usually because they attract more reprimands
Internal factors- teacher attention
What do Swann and Graddol find out(2)
- That boys are generally more boisterous and attract the teacher’s gaze more than girls, resulting in them gaining more opportunities to speak in class
- they found that boys dominated whole-class discussion, whereas girls preferred pair and group work and were better at listening snd cooperating
Internal factors- teacher attention
What did Swann and Graddol find out in the main
That they way teachers interacted with girls was more positive and focused around schoolwork, rather than behaviour in boys which attracts negative attention from teachers. This could lead to a positive self-fulfilling prophecy with girls and a negative one in boys
Internal factors- challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
Explain
Many sociologists point to the removal of gender stereotypes and sexist images from textbooks, reading schemes and other learning materials as a factor which has removed a barrier to girls’ achievement
Boys achievement- External factors
Give the 2 external factors
(A) boys and literacy
(B) globalisation and the decline of traditional male jobs
Boys achievement- external factors
Boys and literacy- explain and give 2 reasons why
- According to the DCSF the gender gap is mainly the result of boys’s poorer literacy skills and the language skills which is likely to affect boys’ performance across a wide range of subjects
- one reason for this may reflect the reality that parents spend less time reading to their sons.
- another reason could be that because it is mothers who do most of the reading, it is therefore viewed as a feminine activity
Boys achievement- external factors
globalisation and the decline of traditional male jobs
Explain
-since the 1980s there has been a significant decline in heavy industries, engineering and manufacturing partly as a consequence of the globalisation of the economy, which has led to much manufacturing relocating to developing countries to take advantage of cheap labour
Boys achievement- external factors
globalisation and the decline of traditional male jobs
What do Mitsos and Browne claim about the decline in male employment
-that the decline in male employment opportunities has led to an ‘identity crisis’ for men and has had a negative impact on boys motivation within schools
Boys achievement- Internal factors
State all the internal factors
- feminisation of education
- shortage of male primary school teachers
- laddish subculture
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Feminisation of education- what does Sewell argue
-that education has become ‘feminised’ and schools do not nature ‘masculine’ traits such as competitiveness and leadership and instead celebrate qualities more closely associated with girls, such as methodical working and attentiveness in class
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Feminisation of education
What does Sewell see coursework as
As a major cause of gender differences in achievement
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Shortage of male primary school teachers
What is said to cause boys underachievement
The increasing lack of strong positive role models both at home (growth in SPFs) and school is said to be the cause as well
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Shortage of male primary school teachers
According to a Yougov poll, how many 8-11 year olds do not have lessons with a male teacher
39% of 8-11 tear olds do not have any lessons with a male teacher
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Shortage of male primary school teachers
What did most boys that were surveyed say
They said that the presence of a male teacher made them behave better and 42% said it made them work harder
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Shortage of male primary school teachers
What did research by Francis and Read challenge
It challenged the claims that the culture of primary schools is becoming feminised and that only male teachers can exert the firm discipline that boys need to achieve
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Shortage of male primary school teachers
What did Haase claim
That it is better to think of primary schools as ‘masculine educational structure that is numerically dominated by women’
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Laddish subculture
What has the growth of laddish subculture believed to have contributed to
Boy’s underachievement
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Laddish subculture
What did Epstein examine
Epstein examined the way in which masculinity is constructed within school. WC boys are more likely to be harassed and labelled and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear as ‘swots’
Boys achievement- Internal factors
Laddish subculture
What does Epstein’s argument support
It supports Francis’ finding that boys viewed being called a ‘swot’ as a threat to their masculinity. She argued that laddish culture is becoming increasingly widespread- as girls move into traditional masculine careers, many become increasingly ‘laddish’ in their effort to construct themselves as non-feminine
Gender differences
What des McVeigh observe
That the similarities in girl’s and boys’ achievement is far greater than the differences, especially when compared with social class or ethnic differences
(The ethnic and class gap is significant than the gender gap)
Gender diff
What is social class the strongest predictor of
It is the strongest predictor of educational achievement: the class gap at GCSE is 3 times greater than the gender gap. As a result, girls and boys of the the same class achieve similar results
What did research by Francis and Skelton find out
That girls on FSM continue underperform in relation to girls and boys not on FSM- drawing attention to the fact that whilst gender clearly does influence achievement, the extent of this influence itself depends on pupil’s class and ethnic group
What does Connolly suggest
That there may be an ‘interactions effect’- so that certain combinations of gender, class and ethnicity have more effect than others
Give the 4 explanations to gendered subject choices
- early socialisation
- gendered subject choices
- peer pressure
- gendered career opportunities
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
According to Oakley …
Gender role socialisation contributes to towards gendered subject choice
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
What does Norman observe
That from an early age girls and boys are treated very differently, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities and this can channel their development and interest in different subjects and careers
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
What does Bryne state (3)
That schools reinforce the idea that boys and girls are encouraged to take part in different activities etc.
- Teachers expectations are gendered and they encourage girls to be quiet, passive, helpful, clean and tidy and
- boys are expected to be tough, rough and noisy
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
What do Murphy and Elwood argue
That the way teacher’s expectations are gendered, this influences different subject choices
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
Murphy and Elwood- give and example of the different activities that boys and girls may participate in
-boys prefer hobby books and information texts while girls are more likely to read stories about people and this helps to explain why boys prefer sciences and girls prefer subjects such as English and Humanities
Gendered subject choices
Early socialisation
What do Browne and Ross argue
That children’s beliefs about ‘gender domains’ (tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male or female ‘territory’ and therefore as relevant to themselves) are shaped by their early experiences- children are more confident when engaging in tasks they see as part of their gender domain and this influences what subjects they see as ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ subjects
Gendered subject choices
Gendered subject IMAGES
What does Kelly argue
That science is seen as a boy’s subject as science teachers tend to be male; the examples that they use and those found in textbooks often drawn boys’ experiences; bigs monopolise the lab and equipment acting as if it is ‘theirs’
Gendered subject choices
Gendered subject IMAGES
What did Leonard find
Found that pupils who attended single-sex schools tend to hold less stereotypical subject images which results in them making less traditional subject choices
Gendered subject choices
Gendered subject IMAGES
What did Leonard find in her data that she analysed
She found that compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in girls’ schools were much more likely to take maths and science A-levels (particularly physics) and boys in boys’ schools were much more likely to take English and modern languages
Gendered subject choices
Peer pressure
What did Paetcher find out
That because pupils see sport ad mainly falling within the male gender domain, girls who are ‘sporty’ have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional stereotype. This may explain why girls are more likely than boys to opt out of sport
Gendered subject choices
Peer pressure
What does the absence of peer pressure from the opposite sex explain
Why girls on single-sex schools are more likely to choose traditional boys’ subjects. The absence of boys may mean there is less pressure on the girls to conform to restrictive stereotypes of what subjects they can or cannot study
Gendered subject choices
Gendered career OPPORTUNITIES
Explain how employment is highly gendered
Women are concentrated in a narrow range of occupations and ‘women’s jobs’ often involve similar work to that performed by housewives
Gendered subject choices
Gendered career OPPORTUNITIES
Over half of all women’s employment falls within 4 categories: …
- clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupations such as cleaning.
- By contrast, only a sixth of males work in these jobs
Gendered subject choices
Gendered career OPPORTUNITIES
How does sex-typing of occupations affect what boys and girls want to do as a career (vocational subjects)
-it affects wha subjects and courses they will choose. This also helps to explain why vocational courses are much more gender-specific than academic ones, since vocational studies are by definition more closely linked to student’s career plans
