Topic 3 - Gender Differences in Achievement

• 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
• In 2019, around three quarters of girls' grades were at pass level 4 or above, as against only two thirds of boys' grades
• At 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
• Possible reasons for improvements in girls' educational 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
• 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
• Feminism's impact


  More broadly, feminist ideas are likely to have affected girls' self-image and aspirations. As a result, they are more motivated to do well in education
• Girls' changing perceptions and ambitions


  In the 1970s, girls' priorities were 'love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order'. They saw their future in terms of a domestic role, not paid work. In the 1990s, priorities had switched to careers and being able to be independent
• Girls now had high career aspirations and so needed educational qualifications
• Independence is valued more than in the past and a career has become part of women's life project
• Some 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


  • Increase in the divorce rate - about 40% of marriages now end this way
  • More lone parent families, about 90% of which are female headed
  • More cohabitation and a decrease in first marriages
  • Smaller families and more women staying single
• Changes in the family


  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


  There are now more employment opportunities for women than previously as a result of the expansion of the service sector - traditionally an area of women's work. Married women's employment has risen from 53% in 1971 to 72% in 2022
• Changes in the law have improved the position of working women: 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
• Changes in women's employment


  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
• Equal opportunities policies


  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
• This has led to policies aimed at giving girls and boys equal opportunities, such as GIST and WISE programmes to encourage girls into science and technology, and the National Curriculum, introduced in 1988, means that girls and boys now largely study the same subjects
• Meritocracy


  As a result of such policies, 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


  There are now more female teachers and head teachers than in the past and these provide positive, pro-educational role models for girls. The presence of more female teachers also 'feminises' the learning environment and encourages girls to see school as part of a female 'gender domain'
• Coursework


  Girls do better than boys in coursework, because they are more conscientious and better organised. Girls mature earlier and can concentrate for longer. As a result, its introduction into the curriculum boosted girls' exam results more than boys'
• Exams have more influence on final grades than coursework, so the introduction of coursework had only limited effect on gender differences in achievement
• Stereotypes in learning materials


  In the past, females were both under-represented and were portrayed as subordinate to males, in domestic roles or unsuited to certain subjects (e.g. science). However, since the 1980s, many of these sexist images have been removed and replaced with more positive images of females
• Teacher attention


  Earlier studies found that teachers spent more time interacting with boys than with girls. However, more recent studies suggest girls may benefit more than boys as they are disciplined less harshly and teachers respond more positively to them and give them more encouragement
• Selection and league tables


  Marketisation policies such as publication of exam 'league tables' have led to competition between schools. Schools have an incentive to try to recruit more able students in order to boost their results and league table position. Girls are generally more successful than boys, so they are more attractive to schools
• Boys are lower-achieving and more badly-behaved. Roger See (1998) found that boys are 4 times more likely than girls to be excluded. Schools see them as 'liability students' who will give them a bad image and produce poor results
• As a result, girls are more likely to get places in successful schools. In turn, girls get a better education and achieve more
• Identity, class and girls' achievement


  Working-class girls underachieve because of a conflict between their feminine identities and the school's habitus. They face a choice: gain symbolic capital from peers by conforming to a working-class feminine identity, or gain educational capital (qualifications) by conforming to the school's middle-class notions of the ideal female pupil
• Hyper-heterosexual feminine identities


  Many girls construct glamorous identities that earn symbolic capital from their female peers but cause conflict with school over their appearance. The school commits symbolic violence, defining the girls' culture as worthless
• 'Successful' working-class girls


  Some working-class girls do succeed, but they may still be disadvantaged by their gender and class identities. Girls wanted to go to university to increase their earning power and help their families, but chose to live at home, reflecting their working-class feminine habitus, and this limited their choices and future earning power
• Boys' underachievement


  One reason for boys lagging behind is their poorer literacy skills. Parents spend less time reading to sons and it is mainly mothers who read to young children and so reading is seen as a feminine activity. Boys' leisure interests (e.g. sport and computer games) don't encourage language and communication skills, whereas girls' 'bedroom culture' does
• Because language and literacy are important in most subjects, boys' poorer skills have a wide ranging effect on their achievement
• Globalisation and decline of traditional 'men's jobs'


  Since the 1980s, globalisation has led to much manufacturing industry relocating to developing countries. This has resulted in the decline of traditional 'men's jobs' in the UK
• Boys' underachievement


  • Sociologists have identified several factors that may be responsible
  • Some of these are the 'opposite' of the factors that have led to girls' performance improving
• Literacy


  One reason for boys lagging behind is their poorer literacy skills
• Parents spend less time reading to sons


  Reading is seen as a feminine activity
• Boys' leisure interests (e.g. sport and computer games)


  Don't encourage language and communication skills, whereas girls' 'bedroom culture' does