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Gender differences in achievement - Coggle Diagram
Gender differences in achievement
External Factors
Changes in the Family
Increase in lone parents. Usually female, create a role model for girls and suggests they need qualifications for independence and a well-paid job.
Increase in divorce rate.Suggestsits unwise to reply on husband so encourage girls to be more independent and get qualifications
Increase in cohabitation and decrease in first marriages.
The changes are affecting girls attitudes towards education.
Girls changing ambitions.
Girls in 1970s had low aspirations and saw no future in education as it wasn't seen as feminine.
Sharpe
interviewed girls in the 1970s and 1990s to compare how girls see themselves and their future.
girls magazines in the 1970s and 1990s. In 1970s these emphasised the importance of getting married. In 1990s they focused on self-esteem and being independent. This and personal choice is also represented now for young women.
1990s girls saw their future as more independent with a career rather than a husband.
Impact of Feminism.
Changes in society due to feminism are shown in media images and messages.
These changes can affect girls self-esteem and self-image and their ambitions. It could explain reasons for educational achievement
Changes in women's employment
Employment changed from 47% in 1959 to over 70% in 2007.
1970s equal pay act. 1975 sex discrimination act.
Pay gap between genders gone from 30% to 17%.
Changes have encouraged girls to see greater career opportunities and want to gain qualifications for it. More incentive.
Internal Factors
Teacher Attention
French observed the classroom and found teachers had similar amounts of attention to both genders for achievement. But found boys received more attention due to negative behaviour.
Teachers can often respond more positively to girls as they're seen as cooperative. Boys are seen as potentially disruptive. The interaction with girls can boost their self esteem and achievement levels
Spender. Found teachers spend more attention on boys.
Positive Role Models
Theres been an icrease in female teachers. This provides a role model as they have a position of authority. However, some say the rise in female teachers highly feminises schools which can impact boys.
Selection and League tables
Schools are more competitive now for league tables. Girls are seen as more desirable to recruit as they are seen to achieve more in exams.
Jackson. League tables have increased the opportunities for girls. Higher achieving girls are attracted to higher achieving schools, where low achieving boys aren't. Girls are more likely to be recruited to schools.
Boys are more likely to be seen as liable students, that can affect their rise in league tables.
GCSE and Coursework
GCSEs involve more oral skills. This is seen to benefit girls as hey have more developed language skills.
Mitsos and Browne say how coursework has benefitted girls. It allows girls to spend more time on work, take more presentation care, deadlines, materials and equipment prepared.
These have helped with GCSEs and Alevels for introduction.
GIST (Girls Ito Science and Technology) and WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) are policies to encourage girls to work in these
Barriers in education have been removed so boys and girls can achieve the same. It is based more on meritocracy so someone who works hard will achieve more.
Gender identities
Subject choice
Gendered careers,e.g boys as builders and girls as nurses
Boys and girls have similar amount of attention but boys get more attention for being naughty
Boys more likely to choose maths and science, girls choose english and social sciences. Only 1% of construction apprentices are female
Gender domains -
taught in socialisation (boys/girls toys)
Identity, class and girls' achievements.
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
refers to the status, recognition and sense of worth we are able to obtain from others.
HYPER-HETROSEXUAL FEMINIE IDENTITIES-
huge efforts goes into constructing desirables and glamourous hyper-heterosexual identities to achieve status from their peers; thisbrings them into conflict with the school culture
BOYFRIENDS
- these brought symbolic capital but became a distraction from schoolwork and lowered aspirations.(drop out of school and have kids).
BEING 'LOUD
'- Some w/c female indentities were to be outspoken. independent and assertive. This is opposite to the school ls image of the ideal pupil which brought conflict with the school.
WORKING CLASS DILEMA- Gain symbolic capital=
from their peers by conforming to hyper-heterosexual feminine
Educational capital=
By rejecting their w/c identities and conforming to the schools m/c notions of a respectable ideal female pupil
Boys Achievements
.
BOYS AND LITERACY
According to DCSF (2007) the gender gaps is a result of boys poorer literacy skills. Parents spend less time reading to boys than girls. Boys leisure pursuits e.g. football doesn't help them develop their language skills. This will affect them in a wider range of subjects.
GLOILISATION AND THE DECLINE IN TRADIONAL MALE JOBS
Since the 1980s iron and steal, shipbuilding and engineering had declined, a result of the globalisation of the economy.
MITSOS and BROWNE
claimed that the decline in male job opportunities has lead to a
'identity crisis for males'
. They therefore end up lacking motivation to finish school and drop out.
FEMINISATION OF EDUCATION
SWELL(2006)
- skls do not nurture 'masculine' traits such as competitiveness and leadership. They celebrate traits more closely associated with girls such a s methodical working and attentiveness. (courseworks).
SHORTAGE OF MALE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.
With increasing number of boys brought up in female headed lone-parent families the lack of a male role model in primary skl is a factor in boys underachievement.
In
2007
only
14%
of primary school teachers where males and according to the
DfSE( department for schools and education) 42%
of boys surveyed said they would work harder for a male teacher and that they behaved better.
LADDISH SUBCULTURE
EPSTEIN(1998)=
w/c boys are likely to be harassed, labelled as sisses and subjected to homophobic(anti-gay) verbal abuse if they appeared to be
'swots'
FRANCIS(2001)
= boys were more likely to be more concerned being called 'swots' than girls. This is due to the labelling being more a threat to their masculinity.
Gender and subject choices
EARLY SOCIALISATION=ELWOOD(1998)-
the way boys and girl are socialised into different gender roles is reflected in their different tastes in reading.
GENDER DOMAINS= CAROL ROSS(1991)-
Task or activities that boys and girls see as male or female territory, e.g. mending cars, looking after sick child
GENDERED SUBJECT IMAGES=KELLY-
science is seen as boys subject as it often taught by male teachers, e.g. used in books often appeal to boys' gender domains & boys often monopolise apparatus.
COLLEY(1998)-
computer science appeals to boy because it is working with machines which puts of girls.
PEER PRESSURE=
Friend may apply peer pressure o an individual if they don't approve of the subject choice. Many boys opt out of drama and music as it is seen outside the males gender domain
PAETCHER(1998)
found that girls opt out of sports as it contradicts the conventional female stereotype.
Pupils sexual & gender identity
DOUBLE STANDARDS=SUE LEES (1993) -
boys boast about their
sexual exploits
but call girls a
'slag'
for behaving the same way. Sexual conquests given status by male peers but 'promiscuity' amongst girls attracts negative labels.
Feminists
argue that this is an example of a
patriarchal ideology
that justifies male power - these standards are a form of
'social control'
VERBAL ABUSE=
Another way in which
dominant sexual & gender identities
are reinforced - boys use name calling to put girls down for acting a certain way. The use of
negative labels
are ways in which pupils police each other's identities.
THE MALE GAZE= MAC & GHAILL-
The ways
male pupils and teachers
see
girls
as
sexual objects
and make
judgements
about
their appearance.
A form of
surveillance
through which
dominant masculinity
is reinforced and
femininity devalued.
MALE PEER GROUPS
=Use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity.EG.
Paul Willis' 'lads'
accused boys who wanted to do well of being
'gay
'. In sixth form,
masculine identity
shifts to wanting to succeed in education
('real Englishmen')