Gender and subject choice

• What is gender role socialisation?

  The process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society. Early socialisation shapes children's gender identity
• Fiona Norman (1988): Gender role socialisation

  From an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given toys and encouraged to take part in different activities. School also plays an important role.
• Eileen Byrne (1979): Gender role socialisation

  Teachers encourage boys to be tough and show initiative, not to be weak or behave like 'sissies'. Girls on the other hand are expected to be quiet, clean, helpful and tidy.
• Patricia Murphy and Jannette Elwood (1998)

  Show how different tastes of reading with boys and girls lead to different subject choices. Boys read hobby books and information texts, whereas girls are more likely to read stories about people.
• Gendered subject images are the images that are associated with the gender of the subject.
• Kelly argues that science is seen as a boys subject for several reasons:

  • Science teachers are usually male.
• Kelly argues that science is seen as a boys' subject for several reasons:

  • Science teachers are more likely to be male
  • The examples teachers use and in textbooks, often draw on boys' rather than girls.
  • Boys monopolise the apparatus and dominate the laboratory acting as if it is 'theirs'.
• Anne Colley (1998) Gendered subject image

  Notes that computer studies are seen as a masculine subject:

  • Involved working with machines - part of the male gender domain
  • The way it is taught is off-putting to females. Tasks tend to be abstract and teaching styles formal, with few opportunities for group work, which girls' favour.
• Gender identity and peer pressure

  Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure. Other boys and girls may apply pressure to an individual if they disapprove of his/ her choice. Boys tend to opt out of music, dance as such activities aren't in their gender domain, likely to attract a negative response from peers.
• Carrie Paechter (1998) Gender identity and peer pressure

  Found that pupils see sport in the male gender domain. Girls who are 'sporty' must cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype. Girls are more likely to opt out of sport than boys.
• Alison Dewar (1990) Gender identity and peer pressure

  Male students would call girls 'lesbian' or 'butch' if they appeared to be interested in sports.
• Gender identity and peer pressure

  Peer pressure is a powerful influence on gender identity/ how pupils see themselves in relation to subject choices so that girls & boys adopt an appropriate gender identity.
• Gender identity and peer pressure

  Absence of peer pressure from the opposite sex may explain as to why girls in single-sex schools are more likely to choose traditional boy's subjects. The absence means there is less pressure on girls to conform to restrictive stereotypes of what subjects they can study.
• Gender vocational choice and class

  This is a social class dimension to choose of vocational course. WC pupils may make decisions about vocational courses that are based on a traditional sense of gender identity.
• Carol Fuller (2011): Gender vocational choice and class

  Had ambitions to go into jobs such as childcare, hair and beauty. Reflecting WC habitus - their sense of what a realistic expectation for 'people like us'.
• Gender vocational choice and class

  Ambitions may arise out of work experience placements, which are often gendered and classed.
• Gender vocational choice and class

  Fuller found placements in feminine, WC jobs such as nursery nursing and retail work were overwhelmingly the norm for the girls in her study. She concludes that the school was implicitly steering girls towards certain types of job.