Gender and Education

• Gender and Education: Key statistics - Starting school

  • 2013 teacher assessments show girls ahead of boys in all 7 areas of literacy, math, personal, social and emotional development by 7-17% points
  • 2013 DFE study found boys in state primary schools were 2.5x more likely than girls to have statements of SEN
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - KS1 to KS3

  • Girls do consistently better than boys, especially in English where the gender gap widens with age
  • Girls do better in mathematics and science even though the gap is smaller
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - GCSEs

  • The gender gap is at approximately 10% points
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - AS/A level

  • Girls are more likely to sit/pass/get higher grades than boys even though the gap is smaller than it was at GCSEs
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - AS/A level

  • Girls are more likely to sit/pass/get higher grades than boys even though the gap is smaller than it was at GCSEs
  • For example, 46.8% of girls got A-C at A Level and 42.2% of boys
  • Girls do better in math's/physics even though they are 'boy subjects' girls were more likely to get A-C grades
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - Vocational courses

  • More girls get distinctions in every subject, even in female minority subjects such as engineering or constructing
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - Gender, class and ethnicity (Boys and achievement)

  • Boys aren't a loss cause; they are doing better in education than they were before despite lagging behind girls
  • McVeigh - there are more similarities in girls/boys achievement than there are differences
  • EG - Class gap at GCSE is 3x bigger than the gender gap
• Gender and Education: Key statistics - General trends

  • Both sexes have improved levels over the years, but girls improvement have been more rapid - making a gender gap in achievement especially at GCSE level
• Gender and Education: External factors - The impact of feminism

  • Feminist movement increased women's rights and challenges their traditional role in education
  • McRobbie - media supports this, study of magazines found women are now encouraged to be assertive and independent
  • Changes encouraged by feminism positively help girls life/career ambitions and self esteem which leads to improved achievement at school
• Gender and Education: External factors - Changes in women's employment

  • 1970 - Equal pay act - men and women have to be paid on equal values
  • 1975 - sex discrimination act - outlaws discrimination at work
  • Pay gap has been cut in half since 1975 (now 15%)
  • Growth of part time jobs and jobs in service sectors means more opportunities for women
  • Women are breaking through the class celling - invisible barrier stopping them from reaching high level professional or managerial roles
  • These leads to girls aiming for paid work not housework meaning they work harder at school
• Gender and Education: External factors - Changes in the family

  • Since 1970 there has been higher divorce and higher cohabitation rates, increased lone parent families etc. - these changes affected girls attitudes to education
  • Female lone parent headed families created independent and financially stable role model for girls. Girls need well paid jobs and qualifications to achieve this
  • Increased divorce suggests to girls that relying on their husband in unwise so they should look at getting good qualification and working hard achieve well in education
• Gender and Education: External factors - Girls changing ambitions

  • Sharpe - Girls ambitions have changed overtime, in 1970 love, marriage, husbands and children were the priority whereas in 1990 girls prioritized careers and financial independence
  • O'Connor - study of 14-17 year old girls found marriage and children not too be a major part of their life plans
  • Beck and Beck-Gernsheim - link this to individualization in modern society, where independent is much more valued than it was in the past and a career become important to women as it means recognition and financial independence
• Gender and Education: External factors - Girls changing ambitions (2)

  • Fuller - girls make education a central part of their identity, they see themselves as in charge of their own future - They also believed in meritocracy and aimed for professional carrers that can support them.
  • These aspirations need qualifications whereas 1970s ambitions didn't need them so girls would not aim to achieve high
• Gender and Education: External factors - Class, Gender and Ambition

  • There are class differences in how much girls ambitions have changed
  • WC girls still have stereotypically female aspirations like marriage and children and expect to do traditional low paid women's work
  • Reay - this shows the reality of WC girls positions - their aspirations reflect the limited job opportunities they see as available to them - A traditional gender identity is like being part of a couple is attainable and is a source of status
• Gender and Education: External factors - Class, Gender and Ambition (2)

  • Biggart - found WC girls are more likely to have a precarious position in the labour market and motherhood is seen as the only viable option for the future.
  • This means they see less point in education ,like the WC girls in Fullers study that weren't interested in staying on at school as they desired low level jobs
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - Equal opportunities policy

  • GIST ( girls into science and technology) and WISE (women in science and engineering) both encourage girls to pursue careers that are non-traditional
  • Female scientists are role models, teachers are made more aware of gender issues and non-sexist career advice in school and science resources reflect girls interests
  • National Curriculum (1988) removed gender inequality by making boys and girls study the same subject
  • Boaler - barriers are removed so school is based more on meritocracy - girls work harder so achieve more
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - Teachers attention

  • French - classroom study found boys got more attention - they attracted more reprimands
  • Francis - found boys get more attention, they are discipline harsher and felt picked on
  • Swan- found gender differences in communication styles, saying boys dominate class discussion and girls prefer group work - they are better at listening and co-operation. Girls speech in group work has taking turns not like the boys hostile interruption
  • Teachers act more positively towards girls as they are seen as cooperative and see boys as disruptive
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - Positive role models in school

  • There's been an increase in female teachers/headteachers who act as role models and show that girls can aim for important positions
  • Female teachers are more likely to be in important role models for girls educational achievement as they had a long and successful education to get the role
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - Selection and League tables

  • Marketisation policies have made education a competitive environment - where schools see girls as desirable recruits because they get better exam results
  • Jackson - argues that league tables have improved opportunities for girls - high achieving girls attractive to schools and low achieving boys are not
  • Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy as girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools meaning they are more likely to do well
• Gender and education: Internal factors - Selection and league tables (2)

  • Slee - argues boys are less attractive to schools as they are more likely to have behavioural problems and are 4x more likely to be excluded
  • This means schools may see boys as ‘liability students’ that prevent them form improving its league table score - They give schools a ‘rough, tough’ image that high achieving girls don't want to apply
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - GCSEs and Coursework

  • Gorard - found the gender gap widened in 1989 - when GCSEs and coursework were introduced. He concludes the achievement gap isn't generally because of failing boys it is the changed system of assessment
  • Mitsos and Browne - girls succeed in coursework as they spend more time on it, meet deadline better and are better organised than boys. They argue these factors means girls have benefited form coursework.
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - GCSEs and Coursework (2)

  • GCSEs have also caused more oral exams, and because girls have better developed language skills they benefit more form them than boys
  • Girls have characteristics from early gender roles and socialisation where the family may encourage them to be tidy and patient
  • Elwood - argues that coursework is unlikely to be the cause of the gender achievement gap, as exams have more influence on final grades than coursework does
• Gender and Education: Internal factors - Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

  • Sociologists argue that removing gender stereotypes from textbooks, reading schemes and other learning materials over the years has removed a barrier to girls achievement
  • 70s/80s research found reading schemes portrayed women as housewives and mothers, with physics showing females as frightened by science and maths books as showing boys as an inventive
  • Weiner - argues that teachers have challenged these stereotypes and sexist images have been taken out of learning materials - more positive image of women
• Identity, class and Girls achievement: key points

  • Even though girls achieve better than before, it doesn't mean all girls are successful there is a social class difference in girls achievement
  • For example, in 2013 only 40.6% of girls are eligible for FSM achieved 5 A*-C grades, compared to 67.5% of girls who did and weren't on FSM
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Successful working class girls

  • Some WC still do succeed, but Evan’s study shows they are still disadvantaged by their gender and class identity
  • She found girls wanted to go to University increasing earning power, but to give back to their family not themselves - this motive reflects their WC feminine identity as caring is a huge part of it and many girls in the study wanted to stay with their family and do just that
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Successful working class girls (2)

  • Economic necessity was another reason for staying at home, as cost/fear of debt were worries of WC pupils when applying to university, however study from home limited their choice of universities and market values of their degrees
  • Archer - shows that it wasn’t just an economic choice, but one that reflects their WC feminine identity and WC habitus by remaining local
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Symbolic capital

  • Archer - a reason for these differences is conflict between WC girls female identities and the values/ethos of the school.
  • Symbolic capital (recognition and sense of worth get from others) was used in her study to understand the conflict
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Symbolic capital (2)

  • Archers study found that the girls gained symbolic capital from their peers by performing their WC feminine identities
  • However, this cause conflict with the school stopping them from getting educational capital and economic capital
  • Archer found strategies girls followed to create values sense of self-adapting, hyper-heterosexual female identity being loud and having a boyfriend
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Working class girl dilemmas

  • Either gain symbolic capital - from peers by conforming to hyper heterosexual identity
  • Or gain education capital - by rejecting their WC identity and conforming to the school MC ideal female pupil
  • Therefore, Archer argues that WC female identities and education success conflict with each other and WC girls investment in their female identity and this is the cause if their underachievement
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Hyper-heterosexual feminine identities

  • The girls put a lot of time into constructing desirable identities like this. EG - a girl spent £40 a week on her appearance
  • The performance of this identity got them status from their peers, and avoided being ridiculed for wearing the wrong brand - this causes conflict with the school, like being in trouble for too much makeup, jewellery, etc
  • This caused schools to 'other' the girls and define them as not one of us - incapable of educational success - archer says the school ideal pupil is de-sexualised and MC
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Boyfriends

  • Through boyfriends got girls symbolic capital, it got in the way of education and lowered their aspirations such as higher education and masculine subjects like science
  • Instead these girls aspire to settle down and have children, whilst working local jobs like childcare
• Identity, class, and girls achievement - Being loud

  • Some WC girls adopted loud identities - being outspoken and independent
  • EG - questioning a teachers authority. This fails to conform to the schools ideal girl pupils who is passive and submissive - causing conflict with teachers and seeing their behaviour as aggressive instead of assertive
• Liberal feminist view of girls educational achievement

  • Believe more equal opportunities policies being developed will make further progress
  • Celebrate the progress made so far in improving achievement
  • However, they argue that more progress can be made by equal opportunity policies, encouraging role models and overcoming sexist attitudes
  • Similar to functionalism where education is meritocratic
• Radical feminists view of girls achievement

  • Take a more critical approach, saying that despite girls achieving more the education system is still patriarchal/male dominated
  • Sexual harassment of girls still continues in schools
  • Girls subject choices/career intuits are still limited by education
  • Despite more female head teachers, male teachers are more likely to become heads of secondary schools
  • Women are under-represented in areas of the curriculum
  • Winer says the school history curriculum is a ‘women free zone’ as their contributions are ignore
• Boys and achievement: External factors - Boys and literacy

  • DCSF (department for children, schools and families) - achievement gap is caused by boys poorer literacy/language skills
  • This could be because parents don not read to sons as often or because mothers read to their children more so it has become more feminine
  • Boys leisure activities like sports, do little to help their language development whereas girls have a bedroom culture of staying in and talking with friends
• Boys and Achievement: External - Globalisation and the decline of traditional male jobs

  • Due to globalisation, much of the manufacturing industry has moved overseas, leaving the UK with a decline in manual labour jobs
  • Mitsos and Browne - this decline in male employment opportunities causes boys to underachieve in education
  • However, the decline has mainly been in WC labour jobs that didn’t need qualifications, so it is unlikely that this has affected boys motivation and achievement
• Boys and Achievement: Internal - Feminisation of Education

  • Sewell - argues boys are falling behind because education is feminised, schools don’t nurture masculine traits like competitiveness and leadership
  • The school celebrates traits more aligned with girls, like methodical working and attentiveness in class
  • Sewell sees coursework as a reason for the gender gap and that it should be replaced with final exams and an emphasis on outdoor adventure in the curriculum
• Boys and Achievement: Internal - Shortage of male primary school teachers

  • Underachievement is because of a lack of male role models boys have in schools and at home.
  • For example, many boys are being brought up in the UK‘s 1.5 million matriarchal lone parent families
  • YouGov - 39% of boys aged 8-11 have no lessons whatsoever with a male teacher, 42% of the boys surveyed said a male teacher makes them work harder
  • This could be due to the culture of primary schools becoming feminised by being staffed by women, who can’t control boys behaviour - suggesting more male teachers are needed
• Boys and Achievement: Internal - Laddish subculture

  • Epstein - looked at how masculinity is constructed in schools and found WC boys are more likely to be labelled gay/sissies if they appear to be swots
  • This supports Francis findings that boys are nice cub breeds about being labelled than girls as it is a threat to their masculinity - therefore WC boys become more laddish, rejecting schoolwork as its feminine
• Boys and Achievement: Are more male teachers really needed?

  • Francis - 2/3 of 7-8 year olds believed the gender of teachers doesn’t matter
  • Read - Eval of primary schools being feminised, so she studied the type of language teachers use when discipling pupil:
  • Disciplinarian - teachers makes authority explicit, shouting, sarcasm- masculine
  • Liberal - teachers’ authority is implicit - teacher speaks to children like and adult - feminine
  • Read found teachers mostly used masculine discourse to control pupils behaviour by both male and female teachers - proves not just men can control boys