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Gender and Subject Choice - Coggle Diagram
Gender and Subject Choice
Differences in Subject Choice
Where choice is possible, boys and girls follow different "gender routes" through the education system- evident in AS, A-level and vocational courses.
National Curriculum: makes most subjects compulsory until 16= little freedom to choose or drop subjects.
At A-level:
Boys opt for further maths (71% male), physics (79%), computing (93%)
Girls opt for sociology (75% female), English (72%) and languages. This is mirrored in subject choice at university.
Vocational courses show clear gender segregation:
children's care apprenticeships: 99% female
health and social care: 83% female
engineering: 97% male
construction: 98% male
Gender Role Socialisation
The process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society. Norman (1988): Early socialisation shapes children's gender identity as girls and boys are dressed differently, given different toys, encouraged to do different activities.
Byrne (1979):
teachers encourage boys to be tough, show initiative, and not to be weak/ behave like sissies. Girls are expected to be quiet, helpful, clean and tidy.
Murphy and Elwood (1998):
Boys and girls develop different tastes in reading as a result of gender socialisation. This leads to different subject choices. Boys read hobby books and information texts= preference for science subjects, whereas girls read fiction= prefer subjects like English.
Gender Domains
These are the tasks/ activities girls and boys see as male or female "territory" and therefore relevant to them.
Browne and Ross (1991):
children's beliefs about gender domains are shaped by their early experiences and expectations of adults. They are more confident when doing tasks considered part of their gender domain.
Murphy (1991):
boys and girls pay attention to different details even when tackling the same task. Girls focus more on how people feel, whereas boys focus on how things are made/ work. Thus girls choose subjects such as humanities/ art, boys choose science.
Gendered Subject Images
Kelly
: science is seen as a boy's subject as:
Science teachers are more likely to be men
Examples teachers use often draw on boys' interests rather than girls
In science boys monopolise the apparatus and dominate the lab, acting as if it's "theirs"
Gender image of a subject affects who will want to choose it.
Colley (1998):
computer studies is seen as a boy's subject:
Involves working with machines (male gender domain)
The way it is taught is off-putting to girls, tasks tend to be abstract, few opportunities for group work, which girls favour
Single-sex schooling
Leonard (2006)
: Compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in girls' schools were more likely to take maths and science A-levels, whilst boys in boys in boys schools more likely to take English and languages.
Institute of Physics study:
girls in single-sex state schools 2.4x more likely to take A-level physics than those in mixed schools.
Pupils at single-sex schools tend to hold less stereotyped subject images and make less traditional subject choices.
Gender identity and Peer Pressure
Paechter (1998):
pupils see sport as mainly within male gender domain= sporty girls cope with an image that contradicts conventional female stereotype. Dewar (1990) found that male students called girls lesbian/ butch if they were interested in sport.Thus, girls are more likely than boys to opt out of sport.
Girls at single-sex schools able to make less traditional subject choices due to absence of peer pressure from the opposite sex- less pressure to conform to restrictive stereotypes of what subjects they can study.
Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure as pupils fear other's disapproval. Boys tend to opt out of music and dance because they're outside their gender domain= likely to attract a negative response from peers.
Peer pressure= powerful influence on gender identity and subject choice. In mixed schools, peers police one another's subject choice so that boys and girls adopt an "appropriate" gender identity. Girls feel pressured to avoid subjects such as physics in a mixed setting.
Gendered career opportunities
Women concentrated in narrow range of jobs: over 50% of all women's employment falls in only 4 categories: clerical, secretarial, personal services and jobs such as cleaning
Sex-typing of jobs affects boys and girls ideas about what kinds of jobs are possible for them= less likely to choose a subject that leads to this occupation.
Employment is highly gendered as jobs are sex-typed into men's or women's, with women's jobs involving housewife-like work e.g. childcare, nursing.
Thus, vocational courses may be much more gender-specific than academic courses as they are very closely linked to student's careers plans
Gender, Class, Vocational Courses
Fuller's study of w/c girls: ambitions to go into jobs such as childcare, hair and beauty- reflected their w/c habitus.
Ambitions may arise due to work experience placements which are often gendered and classed. Fuller: placements in feminine, w/c jobs (nurseries, retail) were overwhelmingly the norm for the w/c girls= school implicitly steering girls towards certain jobs/ vocational courses through work experience placements.
w/c pupils may make decisions about vocational courses based on traditional sense of gender identity.