4.1 Gender & Education (Internal Factors)

• What is the radical feminist view on girls' achievement? Why do they think this?

  A more critical view who recognise girls are achieving more but emphasise that the school system is still patriarchal

  1. Sexual harassment continues at school

  2. Education still limits girls' subject choice & career

  3. More female head teachers, but men still more likely to become head of a secondary school

  4. Women are underrepresented in many areas of the curriculum
• What is the liberal feminist view on girls' achievement?

  Celebrate progress made in improving achievement

  Further progress will be made by continuing development of equal opportunities policies
• How does challenging stereotypes help?

  Removal of gender stereotypes in lesson & textbooks has removed a barrier

  (Weiner) Teachers now challenging the stereotypes and sexist imagery that has generally been removed from learning materials
• How does selection & league tables help?

  Marketisation has made girls more desirable to schools because they're competing on league tables

  (Jackson) league tables have increased job opportunities for girls as they're recruited by the best schools

  Boys seen as liability students- an obstacle to the school improving in the league tables
• How does Teacher attention help?

  Peter & French found boys received more teacher attention but it was more negative

  May explain why teachers have positive labels of girls

  Girls=cooperative/boys=disruptive & could lead to SFP
• How does coursework help?

  -Girls are more successful at coursework because they're more conscientious & organised

  -This is because of early gender socialisation & taught by parents to be organised and neat
• How do equal opportunity policies help?

  Equal opportunities between boys & girls has now become mainstream thinking

  GIST & WISE encourage diverse subject choice

  National curriculum introduced in 1988

  (Boaler) equal opportunity policies are the main factors as they start on level footing
• What are the 6 Internal factors in girls' achievement?

  Equal opportunities policies

  Positive role models

  Coursework

  Teacher attention

  Selection & league tables

  Challenging stereotypes
• What are Wc girls' ambitions more likely to be?

  Some WC girls continue to have stereotyped aspirations for marriage & children as they expect traditional low paid women's work

  -Their limited aspirations reflect limited jobs perceived being available to them & the traditional gender identity is attainable & gives them status

  -WC girls more likely to face a precarious position in the labour market & see motherhood as the only viable option
• What did Sue Sharpe find about girls changing ambitions?


  -She interviewed girls in the 70s & 90s

  -In the 70s, girls had low ambitions as they say doing well in education as unfeminine, being ambitious as unattractive & priorities were love, husbands, marriage & children

  -In the 90s, their top priorities were careers and being able to support themselves & more likely to see their future as an independent women with careers
• Why do we still need feminism in education?

  15,000 girls leave school annually with no qualifications

  Post education women still rarely hold positions of power in employment

  Women are underpaid compared to men
• What are 3 statistics about gender differences in schools?

  Boys 2.5x more likely to have SEN

  Girls do better than boys in all subjects

  9% of females get 1st class degrees compared to 6% of males