TOPIC 4 - GENDER DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION

• 1. THE IMPACT OF FEMINISM = challenging the traditional stereotype of a womans role of a mother and housewife. These changes are reflected in the media
• • 2) CHANGES IN THE FAMILY = increase in divorce rate, increase in the number of lone parents, smaller families. Impact e.g woman need to take on breadwinner roles, need well paid jobs and therefore good qualifications.
• 3) changes in womens employment =

  1. 1970 equal pay act
  2. women are breaking through the glass ceiling
• 4) Girls changing ambitions - SHARPES interviews with girls in the 1970s vs the 1990s shows a shift in the way girls see their future, from low expectations and prioritising love and marriage vs now careers to support themselves
• 2) positive role models in schools - increase in the number of female heads
• 3) GCSE and coursework = Mitsos and Brown support Gorard's view that girls are more successful in coursework because they are better organised than boys, they argue these factors have helped

  • spend more time on their work
  • better at meeting deadlines
• 4) Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum = reading schemes in the 1970s portrayed women as housewives and mothers
• 6) selection and league tables = Jackson - introduction of exam league tables has improved opportunities for girls creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
• RADICAL FEMINISTS: While girls are achieving more, the system remains patriarchal

  • sexual harassment of girls at school continues
  • education limits girls subject choices and career options
  • male teachers are more likely to become the heads of secondary schools
• SYMBOLIC CAPITAL:

  ARCHER - Uses symbolic capital to understand conflict, by performing working class feminine identities, girls gained symbolic capital but brought them into conflict with school preventing them from gaining qualifications and economic capital (middle class careers)
• ARCHER - Hyper-heterosexual feminine identities: