Gender differences in atchievement

• Gender patterns in achievement

  In the past, boys out-performed girls, but since the 1980s girls have improved more rapidly and now they do better than boys at all levels and in most subjects
• Key Stages 1 to 3

  • Girls do consistently better than boys, especially in English. In science and maths the gap is narrower.
• GCSE

  • Girls are around 10 percentage points ahead
• AS and A level


  • Girls are more likely to pass, and to get higher grades, though the gap is narrower than at GCSE
• Girls even do better in traditional boys' subjects like sciences
• More girls than boys go into higher education
• Reasons for improvements in girls' achievement

  • External factors - factors outside the education system, such as home and family background, the job market and wider society
  • Internal factors - factors within schools and the education system, such as the effect of schools' equal opportunities policies
• External factors

  Factors outside the education system, such as home and family background, the job market and wider society
• Internal factors

  Factors within schools and the education system, such as the effect of schools' equal opportunities policies
• The influence of feminism

  Since the 1960s, feminists have challenged patriarchy in all areas of social life and rejected the traditional stereotypes of women as inferior to men in the home, work, education and law
• Feminists have had an impact on women's rights and opportunities through campaigns to win changes in the law, e.g. on equal pay, outlawing rape in marriage etc.
• Feminist ideas are likely to have affected girls' self-image and aspirations. As a result, they are more motivated to do well in education.
• Feminism

  The influence of feminism has led to a major shift in how girls see themselves and their future
• In the 1970s, girls' priorities


  Love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order
• In the 1990s, girls' priorities


  Careers and being able to be independent
• Girls now have high career aspirations and so need educational qualifications
• Independence is valued more than in the past
• A career has become part of women's life project
• Some girls aimed for a professional career to support themselves

  Many working-class girls with poor job prospects have stereotyped aspirations for marriage and children - an attainable traditional identity that offers status
• Changes in the family since the 1970s

  • Increase in the divorce rate - about 40% of marriages now end this way
  • More lone parent families, over 90% of which are female headed
  • More cohabitation and a decrease in first marriages
  • Smaller families and more women staying single
• These changes mean women have both more need and more opportunity to be economically independent - and this gives them more motivation to do well educationally and get good qualifications
• Changes in women's employment

  • More employment opportunities for women than previously as a result of the expansion of the service sector - traditionally an area of women's work
  • Women's employment has risen from under half of married women in the 1950s to about three quarters today
• Changes in the law to improve the position of working women

  • The 1970 Equal Pay Act
  • The 1975 Sex Discrimination Act
• Since 1975, the pay gap between men and women has almost halved
• As a result of these changes, girls today have more incentive to see their future in terms of paid work and this creates an incentive for them to gain qualifications
• Changes in women's employment

  • More employment opportunities for women than previously as a result of the expansion of the service sector - traditionally an area of women's work
  • Women's employment has risen from under half of married women in the 1950s to about three quarters today
• Changes in the law

  1. 1970 Equal Pay Act

  2. 1975 Sex Discrimination Act
• The 1970 Equal Pay Act and the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act give women more employment rights
• Since 1975, the pay gap between men and women has almost halved
• As a result of these changes

  Girls today have more incentive to see their future in terms of paid work
• Girls having more incentive to see their future in terms of paid work


  Creates an incentive for them to gain qualifications
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  Internal factors and girls' achievement

  There have been major changes in the education system since the 1970s and some sociologists see these as important in explaining girls' improved performance.

  Equal opportunities policies

  Feminist ideas are now widespread in the education system. In particular, the basic belief in gender equality and that boys and girls are equally capable and should have the same opportunities is now widely accepted and has become a social norm within education.
• Equal opportunities policies

  Policies aimed at giving girls and boys equal opportunities
• Feminist ideas are now widespread in the education system
• The basic belief in gender equality and that boys and girls are equally capable and should have the same opportunities is now widely accepted and has become a social norm within education
• Equal opportunities policies

  • GIST and WISE programmes to encourage girls into science and technology
  • The National Curriculum, introduced in 1988, means that girls and boys now largely study the same subjects
• Making science compulsory has helped to equalise opportunities
• Meritocracy

  Education is now more meritocratic (based on the principle of equal opportunity)
• Now that girls have more equal opportunities than in the past, they are able to do better
• Role models

  • More female teachers and head teachers than in the past
  • Provide positive, pro-educational role models for girls
  • Feminise the learning environment and encourage girls to see school as part of a female 'gender domain'
  • Girls come to perceive educational success as a desirable feminine characteristic