Topic 4 - Gender Flashcards
What are the 6 differences in gender factors
External Internal Girls achievement Boys and achievement Subject choice Gender and identity
What are the 4 external factors of gender differences in achievement ?
Impact of feminism
Changes in the family
Changes in womens employment
Girls changing ambitions
How has feminism impacted the achievement of different genders?
Feminism strives for equal rights for women. Since 1960 they have challenged the traditional stereotype of womens role as mothers and housewives. Although they believe they have not yet achieved full equality, they have made a considerable amount of success
- Raising womens expectation and self esteem
McRobbie did a study of girls magazines and found that in 1979 they emphasised the importance of getting married, wheres now, magazines now contain images of assertive and independent women
What changes in the family have cause change in gender achievement?
Changes since 1970: Increase in divorce rate Increase in cohabitation and decrease in no of first marriages Increase in lone parent families Smaller families
- again changing girls attitudes towards education (eg, lone parent families may mean women need to take on the breadwinner role and girls will see that women can manage independently/ and to do so they will need to gain good qualifications
They dont need to rely on a husband as a provider, encouraging girls to work harder
How have changes in womens employment effected gender achievement?
1970 Equal Pay Act - makes it illegal to pay women significantly less than men for equal work
1970 Sex Discrimination Act - outlines the discrimination of women at work. Since then, the women vs men gap halved from 30% to 15%.
The amount of women in employment has risen from 50% in 1970 to 67% in 2013.
Growth of part time and the service sector has given women many opportunities. Some women are also breaking the ‘glass roof’ that prevents them from high level professional jobs.
This has encouraged girls to see their future in terms if paid work rather than house wives which pushes them to succeed and provide an incentive for girls to gain good qualifications
How has the ambition if girls changed up to now?
1974 - girls had low aspirations, believing education was unfeminine and unattractive. There priorities were ‘love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs’
1990s - girls ambitions changed and had a different order of priorities- careers and being able to provide themselves. Sharpes found that women are more likely to see their future as independent with a career rather than dependant on husband and income
Connors 2006 study of teenagers found that marriage and children were not part of their major plan
What are the 6 internal factors of gender differences in achievement?
Equal opportunity policies Selection & league tables Positive role models Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum Teacher attention GCSE and coursework
How have equal opportunity policies effected gender achievements?
Feminists have had major impacts on the education system. Policy makers are much more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive to avoid stereotyping - boys and girls entitled to same opportunities
GIST (girls into science / technology) and WISE (Women into science and engineering) encourage girls to persevere non traditional careers. Non sexist advise and role models are now present for girls in education.
National curriculum in 1998 made it so all boys & girls study mostly the same subjects. Bealer sees the equal opportunity policies as a major reason for girls success
How has selection and league tables effected gender achievement?
Marketisation policies gave created a more competitive climate in which schools see girls as desirable recruits because they see better results
David Jackson notes that league tables has improved opportunities for girls as higher achieving girls are attracted to schools while low achieving boys aren’t
Slee argues boys are less attracted to schools as they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties and are 4x more likely to be excluded
As a result, boys are seen as ‘liability students’ - obstacles to the league tables
How have positive role models in schools effected achievement?
Increase in female teachers in senior postions act as role models to girls - showing that they can achieve positions of importance and giving them non traditional goals to aim for.
Women teachers are particularly important role models as to become a teacher, the individual must undertake a lengthy and successful education herself
How has teacher attention effected gender achievement?
The way teachers interact with boys and girls differ. Jane and Peter French found boys recieve more attention as they attracted more reprimands. Frances found that whilst boys recieve more attention, they were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers, who tended to have low expectations of them Swann found boys dominate class discussion, whereas girls prefer pair work or group work and are better at listening and cooperating.
Teachers respond positively to girls as their seen as cooperative whilst boys are seen as potentially disrupt. This may lead to SFP where successful interactions with teachers promote go self esteem
How has challenging stereotypes in the curriculum changed gender achievement?
Some say removing gender stereotypes from textbooks, reading schemes and other materials has removed a barrier to girls achievement. 70s & 80s research show that textbooks portrayed women as housewives and mothers, whilst physics books showed women as frightened by science.
What are the 6 areas of girls achievement?
Symbolic capital Hyper heterosexual feminine identity Boyfriends Being loud WC girls dilemma Successful WC girls
How does symbolic capital effect girls achievement?
Feminists like Archer suggest a reason for class differences in girls achievement id the conflict between WC girls feminine identity and the values of the school.
Archers study shows how WC girls gained symbolic captial from peers as in status and recognition but this conflicted with the school, preventing their educational status and economical capital. She found several things that these girls do to gain a value of sense of self
What is hyper heterosexual identity and whats its effects?
Gaining status by spending a considerable amount of money and time on their looks.
They combined black urban american styles with unisex sportswear & ‘sexy’ clothes, make up and hairstyles.
This causes conflict with the schools rules and some are punished. Teachers see this preoccupation with appearance as a distraction from education
How do boyfriends for WC girls effect their education?
Girls would use boyfriends to gain symbolic capital but also got in the way of school work and lowers girls aspirations. Boys may deter girls interests in more ‘manly’ labeled subjects - making them aspire to ‘settle down’, work locally and have children
How has being loud as a WC girl gaining status effected their achievement?
Some girls adopted ‘loud’ feminine identities that often led them to be outspoken, assertive and independent - eg, questioning teachers authorities. This conflicted with the schools “ideal female pupil’ and brought conflict with teachers who interpreted their behavior as aggressive not assertive
What is the WC dilemma of girls achievement?
WC girls are faced with the choice of gaining symbolic capital from peers by conforming to a hyper heterosexual feminine identity OR. gaining economical capital by reflecting MC identity and conforming to the school notions of a respectable ideal feminine pupil
What problems effect successful WC girls achievement
Although some WC girls do succeed, they still may be disadvantaged by their gender and class identities. Evans study of 21 WC girls in 6th form found that the girls wanted to go uni to increase their earning power: however this was not for them but for their families.
Skegg notes ‘caring’ is part of the WC identity and so reflects why they want to stay at home and contribute to their families. They may fear the potentially ‘alien’ MC environment or fear dept. Girls are self excluding from elite universities
What are the 5 factors effecting boys and achievement ?
‘Laddish’ Subcultures Shortage of male PS teachers Boys & literacy Feminism of Education Globalisation
What is laddish subcultures and how does it effect boys achievement
Epstein examines how WC masculinity is constructed in schools. WX boys who worked at school were labelled and abused, even called gay. She says ‘real boys’ dont work, if they do they get bullied
Francis said girls are less concerned about being labelled by peers as ‘swots’.
WC masculinity is all about being tough and doing manual work, the opposite is seen as effeminate and inferior.
How has the shortage of mile primary school teachers effected boys achievement
Lack of positive role models at home and school may be causing underachievement. 16% of PS teachers are male. 42% of boys 8-11 said male teachers made them work harder and behave better. However
Francis found 2/3 of 7-8yrs olds said it doesn’t matter
How does boys and their literacy effect their achievement
Parents spend less time reading to their sons. Women do most reading to their kids so its seen as feminine.
Boys leisure pursuits such as football and computer games - which do little to improve communication skills - whilst girls have a ‘bedroom culture’ based on staying in and talking
How has the feminism of education effected boys and their achievement?
Sewell says school are feminine institutions that do not nature masculine traits like competitiveness and leadership, but celebrate skills like methodical working and attentiveness in class. Mitsos and Browne agree - it suits girls, how they work, being neat, meeting deadlines while boys seem to prefer final exams to ‘cram’ information. Coursework i s being removed from GCSE’s which they may well benefit from
