Gender and subject choice

• Although girls have overtaken boys in achievement, there continue to be major gender differences in subject choice
• Girls and boys follow different gender routes in their subject choices
• In the National Curriculum, most subjects are compulsory, but where choice is provided, girls and boys choose differently
• In post-16 education, there is more choice available and big gender differences emerge
• In vocational subjects, gender segregation is at its greatest; only 11% of construction apprentices are female
• Factors responsible for gender differences in subject choice

  • Early socialisation and gender domains
  • Gendered subject images
  • Gender identity and peer pressure
  • Gendered career opportunities
• Early socialisation


  Gender role socialisation involves learning the behaviour expected of males and females
• Gender domains


  Tasks and activities seen as either male or female territory
• Gendered subject images


  Subjects have a 'gender image' and are seen as either male or female
• Gender identity and peer pressure

  Other boys and girls pressurise individuals to conform to gender norms
• Gendered careers


  Many jobs are seen as either 'men's' or 'women's and tend to be dominated by one gender
• Working-class pupils may make decisions about courses based on a traditional gender identity
• There's still a trend of gendered subjects in education, with boys choosing maths/physics, and girls choosing languages
• Vocational courses also have clear gender segregation
• Gender segregation in vocational courses


  • Children's care being 99% female
  • Engineering being 37% male
• Gender role socialisation


  The process of learning what behaviour is expected of males/females in society
• Gender role socialisation


  • From early ages, boys/girls are encouraged to dress differently, play with different toys and do different activities
  • Teachers encourage boys to be tough and show initiative, and girls are expected to be clean, quiet and helpful
  • This means boys/girls develop different reading tastes, with boys preferring factual texts and girls preferring fiction
• Gender domains


  The tasks/activities that boys and girls feel most comfortable and in their territory with
• Gender domains


  • Boys focus on how things work, girls focus on feelings
  • This explains why boys pick science/maths and girls choose humanities
• Though the National Curriculum makes most subjects compulsory, gendered subject choices can still come through, e.g. in design technology, girls will choose the food tech option and boys will choose the graphics option
• Gendered subject choices are more noticeable at AS/A-level because pupils have more choice, with boys opting for maths/physics and girls opting for sociology/English/languages
• For over 20 years, girls in A-level physics has been at 20%, which questions the effectiveness of policies to encourage girls in STEM
• Gendered subjects


  The gender image of a subject affects who will choose it
• Gendered subjects


  • Science is seen as a boys' subject because most teachers are men, textbook examples and resources draw on boys' interests, and boys monopolise on lab equipment
  • Computer studies is seen as a male subject because it works with machines (part of the male gender domain) and tasks are abstract, while girls prefer group work
• Single-sex schooling


  Students at these schools make less traditional subject choices
• Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure, and pupils will make it clear if they disapprove of a subject choice, e.g. boys dropping out of music as it's out of their gender domain and attract negative peer reports
• Female students have been called 'lesbian butch' for having an interest in sports, as it's a masculine subject
• Single-sex school pupils pick non-traditional subjects as there's less peer pressure
• Gendered career opportunities


  Differences in subject choices come from employment being sex-typed as male/female
• Gendered career opportunities


  • Women's jobs fall into 4 narrow categories - clerical, secretarial, personal services and occupations like cleaning
  • This sex-typing of jobs affects subject choices - boys won't pick a course in childcare if they see that childcare jobs are for women
• Vocational course subject choices are also affected by social class, with working-class students picking courses like beauty as it's part of their working-class habitus and what they can expect of 'people like us'