External gender factors

• Impact of feminism


  Since the 1960s, the feminist movement has challenged the traditional stereotype of a woman’s role as solely that of mother and housewife. These changes are partly reflected in media images and messages. A good illustration comes from Angela McRobbie’s (1994) study of girls’ magazines. In the 1970’s they emphasised the importance of getting married and not being left on the shelf, whereas nowadays they contain images of assertive independent women.
• Girls' changing ambitions


  Sharpe interviewed girls in the 1970s and 1990s to show a major shift in how they see their future. In 1974 girls had low aspirations believing that educational success was unfeminine and appearing ambitious would be unattractive. But in the 1990s girls placed importance on a career and supporting themselves.

  Francis (2001) found that girls now had higher career aspirations and so needed educational qualifications. The changes encouraged by feminism may affect girls’ self-image and ambitions. This may explain improvement in their educational achievement.
• Changes in the family


  Changes in the family such as an increase in the divorce rate, cohabitation and lone parent families have all affected girls’ and boys’ attitudes towards education. For example, increasing numbers of female-headed lone-parent families may mean more women need to take on a breadwinner role. This in turn creates a new adult role model for girls, the financially independent woman. Furthermore this may explain underachievement in boys through lack of a male role model in the family unit to aspire to.
• Changes in labour market

  1970 Equal Pay Act = illegal to pay women less than men for work of equal value. 1975 Sex Discrimination Act outlaws discrimination at work. These changes have encouraged women to see their future in terms of paid work. Greater career opportunities and better pay for women provide an incentive to gain qualifications. Also, there's been a decline in heavy industries. Mitsos & Browne claim this decline in male employment has led to ‘identity crisis for men’. Many boys now are demotivate and have low self-esteem due to 'lack of chance for proper job' so give up.
• Impact of feminism criticism


  McRobbie’s research 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 decade. However we are unsure whether this has had a much greater influence on young girls’ attitudes.
• Girls' Changing ambitions


  There are class differences in how far girls’ ambitions have changed. Diane Reay (1998) found that some working class girls continue to have gender-stereotyped aspirations for marriage and children and expect to go into traditional low paid women’s work.

  Methodological Evaluation: How can we evaluate Sharp’s use of interviews to investigate girls changing attitudes
• Changes in the family

  The sociological explanation of changes in the family has gained theoretical support from New Right sociologists. 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.
• Changes in the labour market

  Sociologists have criticised Mitsos and Browne by pointing out that the decline has been in manual working class jobs that require few if any qualifications. This it seems unlikely the disappearance of such jobs would have much impact on boy’s motivation to obtain qualifications