Topic 5 : Gender And Educational Achievement

Question 1

Gender and educational achievement: external factors

Answer 1

Impact of feminism
Changes in the family (incl socialisation)
Changes in women’s employment
Changing social attitudes

Question 2

Gender and educational achievement: internal factors

Answer 2

Equal opportunities policies
Positive role models in school
GCSE and coursework
Teacher attention, stereotyping and labelling
Selection and league tables

Question 3

Gender and educational achievement: external factors - family changes

Answer 3

Early socialisation :
Gendered toys and games - dolls reinforce traditional gender roles
Verbal appellations - ‘brave soldier’ vs ‘sweet princess’

McRobbie - magazines in the 1970s emphasised the importance of getting married whereas now priorities have changed and women are faced with more positive role models in media

Changes in the family:
Increased divorce, decline in marriage and birth rates, increase in lone parent families, decreasing family size
The changing shape of the family means more women are focusing on careers and education rather than family/marriage

Question 4

Gender and educational achievement: external factors - rise of feminism

Answer 4

How has second wave feminism influenced girls achievement?

• changing attitudes towards women in the workplace
• legal equality in the workplace between men and women (equal pay act and sex discrimination act)
• changing aspirations of women towards work
• change to traditional gender roles and gender socialisation - role models for girls

Impact of feminism on girls’ education - application of social policies:
- equal pay act
- sex discrimination act
- equality act
- in-school initiatives such as GIST and WISE

Evaluation:
Did second wave feminism tackle inequality for all women?
Despite progress, gender pay gap still exists
Glass ceiling in employment

Question 5

Gender and educational achievement: external factors - changes in economy

Answer 5

Mitsos and Brown - highlight how the growing service sector has created more feminised career opportunities for women - healthcare, hospitality, teaching etc.

Male dominated industry declined and was taken over by more service based industry - gave women more opportunity in the workplace

Question 6

Gender and educational achievement: external factors - changing attitudes

Answer 6

All the previous arguments gather to say that attitudes towards women are changing

Wilkinson = genderquake

1. Feminist movement + 2. Changes in the family + 3. Employment opportunities for women + 4. Changing social attitudes
   = increased educational success of girls

Question 7

Gender and educational achievement: internal factors - equal opportunities policies

Answer 7

Due to feminist movement - education system has become more ‘gender aware’

Policies that are based on gender equality aim to fight stereotypes
= they have encouraged females to enter male dominated subject areas - this has opened up employment opportunities in male-stream careers

Question 8

Gender and educational achievement: internal factors - GCSEs and coursework

Answer 8

Coursework helps girls achieve - better organisation / time management

2015 - Gove’s changes to reduce CW looked like it helped boys to catch up (boys favour external exams)

Question 9

Gender and educational achievement: internal factors - socialisation in school

Answer 9

Reading gender bias - heroes are predominantly men

Stanworth (teacher expectations) - she found that teachers attitudes impeded the progress of girls. Gave less attention to girls so they underestimated themselves

Question 10

Gender and educational achievement: internal factors - teacher attention, stereotyping and labelling

Answer 10

Spender - boys received more attention in the classroom than girls
Francis - this ^ was because boys were more likely to be told off than girls

Groddal - boys are more likely to attract the teacher’s attention as they are more disruptive

Swann - boys dominate discussions whereas girls work quietly

Question 11

Explaining male underachievement

Answer 11

Poor male literacy:
‘Gender gap’ is the result of poor literacy amongst males:
Reading is feminised
Boys are socialised to be active

Decline in manufacturing:
Manufacturing ‘masculine’ jobs have moved abroad so male employment opportunities have been hampered
Mac and Ghaill - this has created a ‘crisis of masculinity’

Feminisation of education
Sewell - argues that education has become feminised and do not nurture masculine traits

Shortage of male primary school teachers:
2021 - 15% of primary school teachers are male

Question 12

Laddish subculture

Answer 12

WC Boys are likely to be name called or be subject to homophobic harassment if they are seen to be doing their work

Masculinity is viewed negatively within education - link to Paul Willis

Question 13

AO3 of male underachievement

Answer 13

Policies have been implemented to tackle these problems:
‘Raising boys achievement project’
‘National literacy strategy’

DfE - social class gap in education is 3x wider than the gender gap. Therefore males and females from the same social group tend to achieve the same

Question 14

AO3 of girls and educational achievement

Answer 14

Radical feminists - still see education system as patriarchal:
Sexual harassment of girls still continues
Female subject choice is still restricted
Male teachers are still more likely to be headteachers of secondary schools

Question 15

Why do boys and girls tend to choose different subjects?

Answer 15

1. Gender socialisation
2. Subject images, gender identity and peer pressure
3. Identity and peer pressure
4. Subject counselling

Question 16

Why do boys and girls tend to choose different subjects? - gender socialisation

Answer 16

Children’s books often found traditional roles for men and women
Boys books encourage them to experiment, be outside etc.
girls books prepare girls for monastic roles, appearance

Question 17

Why do boys and girls tend to choose different subjects? - subject images, gender identity and peer pressure

Answer 17

Male dominated subjects - machines and apparatus. Boys monopolised (dominated)

English seen as feminine and rejected by many boys - from primary school?

PE - girls doing PE had to express femininity more to compensate

Question 18

Why do boys and girls tend to choose different subjects? - identity and peer pressure

Answer 18

If a subject is out of the gender domain, peers may discourage

Girls discouraged from doing PE - often harassed and subject to homophobic abuse
AO3: less so in single sex schools

Question 19

Why do boys and girls tend to choose different subjects? - subject counselling

Answer 19

Career advice at school may be carried out by teachers who have their own stereotypes and steer children into various pathways

The differences are more pronounced in vocational courses - EG Health and Beauty for girls