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Gender differences in achievement - Coggle Diagram
Gender differences in achievement
External factors
The impact of feminism
Challenged the traditional stereotype of womens role as solely mothers and housewives
Led to improvements of women's rights and opportunities through changes in the law
Media influences by using images of women as independent and assertive rather than mothers and homemakers
Affecting girls' self image and ambitions
Changes in the family
Increase in divorce leading to lone parent families
Increase number of female breadwinners
Reduction in the number of children women are having as contraception is free
This effects girls' attitudes as :
They want to focus on education because they want a good career
Having a partner is less important
Kids can come later as there is contraception, letting girls focus on their career first
Less traditional values as women are becoming breadwinners
Changes in women's employment
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
- pay gap between men and women reduced from 30% to 17% meaning girls see their role in terms of paid work rather than housewives
Greater career opportunities for women and better pay
Girls' changing ambitions
Sue Sharpe
Interviewed young white girls and asked about their ambitions
In 1970 they were to
get married & to have a family
In 1990 they were to
get a career & have a family later on
Carol Fuller
Participant observations, structured & unstructured interviews at a girls state school
3 groups
Low , middle and high aspirers
Concluded that the amount of emotional support provided by families and girls perceptions of themselves affected their self confidence in school
Internal factors
Equal opportunities
The Education Reform Act
1988 embodied the idea of equal opportunities by making girls and boys study the same subject and making science compulsory.
Got rid of gendered subjects
Equality act 2010
Allowed dress for religions such as headscarfs etc
Positive female role models
Can be argued that primary schools have become feminised as they mostly have female staff. They act as role models for girls showing they can achieve high positions if they continue through higher education
This may affect boys' achievement as
They lack male role models
There is a lack of male primary school teachers
They are more disruptive and female teachers can't discipline 'properly'
GCSE and coursework
Gorard
found that the gender gap in achievement was fairly consistent between 1975 and 1989 but then quickly increased. This was the year GCSE and coursework was introduced meaning the steep increased was a 'product of the change system of assessment rather than nay more general failing of boys'
Mitsos and Brown
supports this as the introduction of coursework benefited girls as they -
Spend more time on their work
Take more care in how it is presented
Are better at meeting deadlines
Bring the right equipment and materials to lessons
Mature earlier than boys and have a longer attention span
Teacher attention
French and French
Analysed classroom interactions and found that boys receive more negative attention
Francis
Boys were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers who had lower expectations from them
Swann
observed differences inc ommunication styles.
Boys dominated whole class discussion and often interrupt others
Girls prefer group work, display better listening skills and turn taking
Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
Weiner
argues that since 1980's, teachers have challenged stereotypes as a result of sexist images have been removed from learning materials. This may have helped raise girls' achievement by presenting them with more positive images of what women could do, thus raising aspirations
Selection and league tables
Jackson
argues that the introduction of league tables makes girls more attractive to schools as they achieve better results which can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy as girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools and are more likely to do well
Boys and achievement
External factors
Boys and Literacy
Parents spend less time reading to their sons
Boys' leisure activities do little to help develop their language and communication skills
The national literacy reading strategy
- literacy hour
The dad's and son's campaign
- strong bonds can increase results
Globalisation and the decline of traditional men's jobs
Mitsos and Brown
claim the decline in male employment opportunities has led to identity crisis in men and many boys now believe that there is little prospect of them getting a proper job
:red_cross: Sociologists argue that this is unlikely to have an effect on boys' motivation to achieve qualifications in school
Internal factors
Feminisation of Education
Sewell
claims that boys fall behind because education has become feminised and schools do not nurture masculine traits
Shortage of male primary school teachers
The lack of male role models at home and school could be the reasons for boys' underachievement
Francis
found that two thirds of 7-8 year olds believed that teachers' gender doesn't matter so absence of male teachers may not be a major factor in explaining boys underachievement
Redd
studied 51 primary school teachers, male and female, and found that most teachers use disciplinarian approach to controlling pupils' behaviour, associated with masculine behaviour so gender of the teacher doesn't matter
Haase
although most teachers are females, education is largely 'masculined structure that is numerically dominated by women'
"Laddish" subcultures
Francis
found that boys were more concerned than girls about being labelled a swot because the label is more of a threat to their masculinity than it is to a girl's feminity. As a result, working class boys reject schoolwork to avoid being called 'gay' and being bullied
The moral panic about boys
The moral panic has caused a major shift in educational policy, with 2 negative effects -
narrowing equal opportunities policy only to 'failing boys' and ignoring disadvantaged working class and ethnic minority pupils
narrowing gender policy to the issue of achievement gaps and ignoring other problems girls face at school
Two views of girls' achievement
Liberal feminists
Celebrate progress in improving girls' achievement so far
Further progress possible through equal opportunity policies, positive role models and challenging sexist attitudes and stereotyping
Believe in meritocracy
Radical feminists
Critical of patriarchal education system which still remains largely men's domain because -
sexual harassment of girls still exists in schools
choice of subject is still limited for girls
senior positions in schools are still occupied by males
Gender and subject choice
Gender routes
National curriculum options
Technology is compulsory but girls take food technology and boys choose graphics
AS and A levels
Boys tend to choose natural sciences (maths & physics) girls tend to choose English and Sociology
Vocational courses
Boys choose courses with masculine careers (engineering) and girls choose career courses such as childcare
Researching -
:red_cross: Schools don't record reasons for different subject choices by gender so data may not be useful
:red_cross: Teachers may not be aware or want to acknowledge that they are giving boys and girls different advice about subject choices so data may not be valid
:check: Data is easy to record and difficult for schools to falsify so data is likely to be reliable
:check: Access to data is easy as subject choices and gender is not a sensitive issue so schools are more likely to provide it
Explanations of gender differences & subject choices
Gender role socialisation
Norman
From an early age, boys & girls are dressed differently and encouraged to play with different toys
Byrne
Schools encourage boys to be tough and show initiative and girls are expected to be quite, helpful and tidy
Gendered subject images
Kelly
Science is seen as a boys subject as
teachers are more likely to be male
Teachers examples and textbooks often draw on boys interest rather than girls
Colley
Computer science is a male dominant subject as it involves machines- part of the male gender domain
Gender identity and peer pressure
Dewar
Male students call girls 'lesbian' and 'butch' if they participated in sports (also in science too)
As a result, single sex schools are more likely to choose subjects that go against gender stereotypes
Gendered career opportunities
Over 50% of women's employment is 4 categories (clerical, secretarial, personal services, cleaning)
This affects boys as they do not believe that certain jobs are acceptable for men, eg there are very few nursery nurses as 'this is a job for women' which could explain why vocational courses see a greater gender divide than academic courses
Gender, vocational choice and class
Fuller
found that majority of the girls in her study had ambitions for jobs such as childcare or health and beauty which reflects working class habitus
She argued that this was connected to school work experience placements as they steer girls towards certain types of jobs