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Reasons for Gender Differences in Subject Choice - Coggle Diagram
Reasons for Gender Differences in Subject Choice
GCSEs and Subject Choice
Gender differences in subject choice are smaller at GCSE than at A Level because English, Mathematics, and Science are compulsory GCSE subjects.
Where there is choice, boys and girls tend to choose different subjects.
Stables and Wikeley (1996) found that where there is a choice, such as with Technology subjects, girls will opt for Food Technology, while boys will tend to choose Graphics/Resistant Materials.
The Joint Qualifications Council (JCQ) provides complete coverage of all examination entries in all subjects classified by gender.
GCE A Levels and Subject Choice
Statistics show that boys prefer to take more practical subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Computing, ICT, or Business Studies and are more likely than girls to choose two or more science/maths subjects.
Girls prefer to take subjects involving languages or the Humanities such as English, Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Art and Design and were more likely than boys to have chosen at least one Modern Foreign Language, although uptake of Modern Foreign Languages was relatively low for both males and females.
Boys opt for maths and physics whereas girls opt for literature, languages and the social sciences (3/4 or more A Level Sociology students tend to be girls).
These differences could have implications for further employment as there is evidence to suggest that taking A2 subjects such as Maths and Physics, or those that lead to Medicine, tends to lead to higher earning power (Dolton & Vignoles, 2002).
The pattern of AS and A2 level choices of subjects tend to follow gender stereotypes.
Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Further Mathematics
There is much debate about gender differences in choice of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Further Mathematics and so it is appropriate to provide a little more information on these subjects.
Degree Level and Subject Choice
Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency also suggest that women are falling back into more 'feminine subjects than their predecessors.
The proportion of female students has risen in subjects related to education, where they now make up 76% of students, and the creative arts, where they make up 60%.
In 2013, a Guardian article identifies that women are still following traditional degree courses and women are starting to disappear from subjects already dominated by men.
The biggest gender split comes in “subjects allied to medicine' - which include qualifications in nursing and nutrition and exclude straight medical degrees - where women now make up 82% of students.
The patterns of A level subject choice are reflected also at University level where males are also especially likely to study science-based engineering degree courses and females are especially likely to opt for 'courses allied to medicine and education e.g. health care courses or teaching qualifications.
Explanations for the Differences
There are still gender differences in subject choices at all levels within school and university.
Gender differences in subject choice may be explained by the following interconnected factors:
Hidden Curriculum
These are the informal things you learn in school. This can include textbook images, how the school is organised, teachers attitudes and some of the interactions in classrooms. Processes and teaching styles operative in schools may encourage females toward Arts and Humanities and discouraged them from choosing Maths, Science and Computing while encouraging boys to opt for Maths, science and Computing in preference to Arts and Humanities subjects.
Lobban (1976) looked at reading schemes and out of 225 stories she found that only 2 showed women in roles other than domestic Tasks.
Kelly (1987) attempted to analyse why female students were less likely to opt for sciences other than Biology. She argued that girls often felt at a disadvantage in Science lessons because textbooks and teaching examples tended to reflect male rather than female interests, because science teachers tended to be male and to relate more easily to boys, and because boys tended to monopolise equipment and class discussion. These factors could combine to cause an ongoing decline in girls' enrolments in Sciences other than Biology but they did not apply to Biology which was seen by girls as more relevant to their preferred career options, for example as nurses, and to their likely future as housewives and mothers,
Gendered Career Opportunities
Work is highly gendered. Jobs tend to be 'men's' work or 'women's' work. Women tend to be concentrated in a narrow range of occupations, whereas men occupy a wider range of occupations.
This affects girls and boys ideas about what kind of job they will be able to get and which ones are acceptable thus influencing their subject choice. For example if boys get the message that nursery nurses are women, then they may opt out of taking childcare. An article in The Guardian in June 2013 revealed that only 20% of A-level physics students are girls and women represent just 12% of the field of astronomy - compared with 37% in Argentina.
Innate Ability
It has been argued that there are subject choice differences between the sexes because of natural differences. Boys are supposed to have better 'visual-spatial' ability (attracting them to sports, technology etc), Girls are supposed to have better 'verbal' ability (attracting them to language based subjects). However, some sociologists don't believe these differences are natural but due to nurture processes like socialisation.
Overall Perceptions of Particular Subjects as Primarily 'Male' or 'Female' Subjects
More girls should be inspired to take up computer science. One of the world's leading computer scientists, Professor Dame Wendy Hall, has warned that girls are increasingly shunning computer science at school and university.
Hall, the dean of the faculty of physical and applied sciences at the University of Southampton, believes that girls still perceive computing to be ‘for geeks' and that this has proved to be a ‘cultural obstacle, so far impossible to overcome.
"Geek' perception of computer science putting off girls, expert warns.
Some subjects e.g. physics, are still perceived as male subjects whereas some subjects are perceived more of a female subject e.g. English. An article in The Guardian in January 2012 supports this view.
“We have never broken out of the 'toys for the boys' perception of computer science."
Separate statistics reveal that just 148 girls took the AQA exam board's computing A-level last summer, compared to 2,123 boys. Five years earlier, 3,628 boys and 297 girls took the exam.
Peer Pressure
Paetcher (1998) found that sport was seen as part of the male gender domain, so girls who participate in it have to cope with the assumption that it is a male subject. This will lead some girls to opt out of it.
Subject choice can be influenced by peer groups (the people young people hang around with). Other people may put pressure on students as to what subject to take. For example boys tend to opt out of subjects like dance for fear of ridicule.
Primary Socialisation
Murphy and Elwood (1998) show how the different socialisation of boys and girls can lead to different subject choices. Boys read hobby books and information texts, while girls are more likely to read stories about people. This helps to explain why boys prefer science subjects and why girls prefer subjects such as English.
In February 2014, Mary Creagh, the Shadow Transport Secretary said that the absence of female characters from the Thomas the Tank Engine books had deterred women from becoming train drivers!
Children are treated differently, engage in different activities and wear different clothes. This may influence their later attitudes towards subject choice.
Browne and Ross (1991) argue that 'gender domains' (the tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male and female territory) are shaped by their early experiences and the expectations of adults. Children are more confident when engaging in tasks that they see as part of their own gender domain.
Gender differences in socialisation operating via the family, shapes children's gender identity.
Structure of Schools
The existence of some single sex schools and the introduction of some single sex classes in co-educational schools may have some bearing on subject choice.