Gender differences in education

• Feminism


  The feminist movement since the 1960s has challenged the traditional stereotype of a woman's role
• Girls' magazines


  • In the 1970s, emphasised the importance of marriage and not being 'left on the shelf'
  • Today, women are seen as more assertive and independent
• McRobbie's research on girls' magazines can be criticised for being an out-dated view since it is over 20 years old
• Forms and the power of the media have changed considerably in the past two decades
• It is unclear whether these changes have had a much greater influence on young girls' attitudes
• Changes in the family since the 1970s

  • Increase in the divorce rate
  • Increase in cohabitation and a decrease in the number of first marriages
  • Increase in number of lone-parent families
  • Smaller families
• Strengths of changes in the family


  • Increased numbers of female-headed lone-parent families may mean more women need to take on a breadwinner role, creating a new adult role model for girls - an independent woman
• There have been important changes in women's employment in recent decades
• The Equal Pay Act (1970) makes it illegal to pay women less than men for work of equal value
• The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace
• The number of women in employment went up from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013
• The New Right claim that a decline in the nuclear family has resulted in many boys developing an anti-school subculture which results in poor educational achievement
• Sharpe (1994) found a major shift in how girls see their future


  • In 1974, girls had low aspirations believing that educational success was unfeminine and that appearing ambitious would be unattractive
  • Now, girls have higher career aspirations and so need educational qualifications
• The changes encouraged by feminism may affect girls' self-image and ambitions with regard to family and careers, resulting in educational achievement
• There are class differences in how far girls' ambitions have changed
• Policymakers are now much more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive to the need to avoid stereotyping
• Jo Boaler (1998) sees the impact of equal opportunities policies as a key reason for changes in girls' achievement


  Many of the barriers have been removed and schooling has become more meritocratic (based on equal opportunities) - so that girls, who generally work harder than boys, achieve more
• Initiatives to encourage girls into non-traditional workplaces

  • GIST (Girls Into Science and Technology)
  • WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering)
• The introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 removed one source of gender inequality by making girls and boys study mostly the same subjects
• There has been an increase in the proportion of female teachers and heads
• Stephen Gorard (2005) found that the gender gap in achievement increased sharply in the year when GCSE was introduced, bringing with it coursework as a major part of nearly all subjects


  He concludes that the gender gap in achievement is a "product of the changed system of assessment rather than any more general failing of boys"
• Girls in schools are encouraged to be neat, tidy and patient, and these qualities become an advantage in today's assessment system, helping girls achieve greater success than boys
• Research in the 1970s and 80s found that learning materials portrayed women in stereotypical ways
• Gaby Weiner (1995) argues that since the 1980s, teachers have challenged such stereotypes and sexist images have been removed from learning materials


  This may have helped to raise girls' achievement by presenting them with more positive images of what women can do
• Roger Slee (1998) argues that boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties and are four times more likely to be excluded


  Resulting in boys being 'liability' students
• Louise Archer uses the concept of 'symbolic capital' to understand the conflict between working-class girls' feminine identities and the values and ethos of the school


  Performing their working-class feminine identities gave the girls symbolic capital from their peers, but brought them into conflict with the school's middle-class values
• Archer found that working-class girls invested time and money in constructing 'desirable' and 'glamorous' hyper-heterosexual, feminine identities


  This brought them status among their peers but also led to them being punished by the school for having the 'wrong' appearance
• Evans found that 'successful' working-class girls wanted to go to university to increase their earning power, but also to help with their families' income


  The 'caring' aspect of their working-class feminine identity produced a desire to live at home with their families while studying, leading to their self-exclusion from elite universities further away
• External factors contributing to boys' underachievement

  • Boys' poorer literacy skills
  • Decline of traditional men's jobs
• Internal factors contributing to boys' underachievement

  • Feminisation of education
  • Shortage of male primary school teachers
  • 'Laddish subcultures'
• The government has introduced initiatives like the Raising Boys Achievement project and the Dad's and Sons campaign to help address boys' literacy issues
• Since the 1980s, there has been a significant decline in heavy industries, contributing to the decline of traditional men's jobs
• Underachievement of boys


  Lack of literary knowledge
• The gender gap is mainly the result of boys' poorer literacy and language skills
• Reason for boys' poorer literacy and language skills


  Parents spend less time reading to their sons
• Reason for boys' poorer literacy and language skills

  Mothers who do most of the reading to young children, who thus come to see reading as a feminine identity
• Reason for boys' poorer literacy and language skills

  Boys' leisure pursuits, such as football, do little to help develop their language and communication skills
• Contrast with girls


  Girls tend to have a 'bedroom culture' centred around staying in and talking to friends
• Poor literacy and language skills are likely to affect boys' performance across a wide range of subjects
• Government initiatives to help with boys' underachievement

  1. The Raising Boys Achievement project: involves a range of teaching strategies, including single-sex teaching

  2. The Dad's and Sons campaign encourages fathers to be more involved with their son's education