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GENDER + EDUCATION, KS2 - Girls consistently outperform boys, the gender…
GENDER + EDUCATION
INTERNAL FACTORS:
Equal Opportunities Policies:
Feminist ideas have had a major impact on the education system. Policymakers are now much more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive to the need to avoid stereotyping. The belief that boys and girls are entitled to the same opportunities is now part of mainstream thinking and it influences educational policies.
Positive Role Models In Schools: There has been an increase in the proportion of female teachers and heads. These women in senior positions may act as a positive role model for girls, showing them women can achieve positions of importance and giving them non-traditional goals to aim for.
GCSE Coursework:Some sociologists argue that changes in the way pupils are assessed have favoured girls and disadvantaged boys.
- Gorard (2005) found that the gender gap in achievement was fairly constant from 1975 until 1989, when it increased sharply. This was the year in which GCSEs were introduced, bringing with it coursework as a major part of nearly all subjects.Sociologists argue that these female characteristics and skills of organisation benefit girls at GCSE and are a result of early gender role socialisation (e.g. girls are encouraged from a young age to be more tidy and patient).
Teacher Attention: teachers respond more positively to girls, who they see as cooperative, than to boys, who they see as potentially disruptive.
This may lead to a self fulfilling prophecy in which teachers promote girls’ self-esteem and raise their achievement levels.
Challenging Curriculum Stereotypes: Some sociologists argue that the removal of gender stereotypes from textbooks, reading schemes and other learning materials in recent years has removed a barrier to girls’ achievement. Research in the 1970s and 80s found that reading schemes had portrayed women mainly as housewives and mothers, that physics books showed them as frightened by science, and that maths books depicted boys as more inventive.
Marketisation and League Tables: Marketisation policies have created a more competitive climate in which schools see girls as desirable recruits because they achieve better exam results (Jackson, 1998). As a result, boys may be seen as ‘liability students’ - obstacles to schools improving their league tables.
EXTERNAL FACTORS:
CHANGES IN FAMILY DYNAMIC: There have been major changes in the 'norm' for families since the 1970s:
- Divorce rate has increased
- Increase in cohabitation and decrease in marriages
- Increase in lone parent families and smaller families
CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT: Due to the 1970 Equal Pay Act and the 1975 Sex Discrimination act, since 1975 the gender pay gap has halved from 30% to 15%. The proportion of women in employment has risen from 51% in 1973 to 67% in 2013.
IMPACT OF FEMINISM: Since the 1960s Feminism has challenged the traditional stereotype of women as a housewife and mother and inferior to men in work education and the law.
CHANGES TO GIRLS' ATTITUDES: There is evidence to suggest that girls' attitudes towards learning have changed significantly sinced the 1970s.
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KS2 - Girls consistently outperform boys, the gender gap in percentage points remains much the same from 2012 – however the percentage meeting the expected standard in 2016 was much lower due to a new and harder test.
GCSE - It shows the gender gap steadily widened from 7.6 in 1990 to 10.6 in 2002, after this it narrowed in 2010 to 7.2 and then rose again to 8.9 in 2016.
A Level - It shows the gender gap steadily widened from 7.6 in 1990 to 10.6 in 2002, after this it narrowed in 2010 to 7.2 and then rose again to 8.9 in 2016.
Higher Education - It shows the gender gap steadily widened from 7.6 in 1990 to 10.6 in 2002, after this it narrowed in 2010 to 7.2 and then rose again to 8.9 in 2016.
These changes have affected girls' attitudes towards education, lone parent households have increased female breadwinners which creates new role models for girls – financially independent women.
- Mitsos & Browne (1998) The growing Service Sector/economy has created more ‘feminised’ career opportunities for women, e.g. Health Care, Hospitality, Teaching, Childcare etc.
- Angela McRobbie studied girls magazines; in the 70s they emphasised the importance of getting married, now they contain images of assertive independent women.
This has helped improve girls' self image and ambitions and can explain improvement in educational achievement.
- Sue Sharp (1994)interviewed girls in the 1970s and the 90s and showed a major shift in the way girls see their future:
70s - low aspirations, educational success is unfeminine, priorities given to love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs, careers.
90s - careers and being able to support themselves now was the top priority, girls saw their future as an independent woman with a career.