Identities and gendered achievement

• In 2013 only 40.6% of girls from poorer families achieved 5 A*-C at GCSE, whereas over two-thirds 67.5% of those not on free school meals did so
• Symbolic capital


  The status recognition and sense of worth that were able to obtain from others
• Archer et al suggests that one reason for these differences is the conflict between working-class girls' feminine identities and the values and ethos of the school
• Strategies used by girls to create self-value


  • Investing considerable time and effort on their appearance
  • Having a boyfriend
  • Being loud and assertive
• Girls' performance of hyper-heterosexual feminine identity


  Brought status from their female peer group but also brought them into conflict with school
• Teachers saw girls' preoccupation with appearance as a distraction that prevented them from engaging with education
• Having a boyfriend brought symbolic capital but got in the way of schoolwork and lowered girls' aspirations
• Some working-class girls adopted loud feminine identities that often led them to be outspoken and independent and assertive, which brought conflict with teachers
• Working-class girls' dilemma


  Either gaining symbolic capital from their peers by conforming to a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity or gaining educational capital by rejecting their working-class identity and conforming to the school's middle-class notions of a respectable ideal female pupil
• Archer argues that working-class feminine identities and educational success conflict with one another, and working-class girls' investments in their feminine identities are a major cause of their underachievement
• Successful working-class girls


  • They wanted to go to university to increase their earning power, but not for themselves, rather to help their families
  • Economic necessity was a further reason for living at home, as cost and fear of getting into debt are major issues
  • They showed a strong preference for the local and familiar over the distant
• The gender gap is mainly the result of boys' poorer literacy and language skills, as boys read less and their leisure pursuits do little to help develop their communication skills
• The globalisation of the economy has led to a decline in traditional male jobs, which has led to an identity crisis for men and undermined their motivation and self-esteem
• Feminisation of education


  Schools are seen as lacking traits such as competitiveness and leadership, and instead celebrating traits associated with girls such as methodical working and attentiveness in class
• Only 14% of primary school teachers are males, and some boys said the presence of a male teacher made them be better and work harder
• Government policies to improve boys' achievement


  • The Raising Boys Achievement project
  • The National Literacy Strategy
  • The Reading Champions scheme
  • Playing for Success
  • The Dads and Sons campaign
• Francis found that 2/3 of 7 to 8-year-olds believe the gender of teachers did not matter
• Read found that most teachers used a supposedly masculine discourse of control in the classroom, which proves the claim that the culture of primary schools has not become feminised
• Laddish subculture


  Working-class masculine culture equated with being tough and doing manual work, while non-manual work is seen as feminine
• Ringrose argues that the moral panic about 'failing boys' has caused a major shift in educational policy, which has had negative effects such as ignoring the problems of disadvantaged working-class and minority ethnic pupils, and ignoring other problems faced by girls in school
• The class gap in achievement at GCSE is three times wider than the gender gap, and girls and boys of the same social class tend to achieve fairly similar results
• The gender gap among black Caribbean pupils is greater than among other ethnic groups, as many black girls are successful at school because they define their femininity in terms of educational achievement and independence, while some black boys fail at school because they define their masculinity in opposition to education
• Certain combinations of gender, class and ethnicity have more effect than others, for example, being female raises performance more when 'added to' being black Caribbean than it does when 'added to' being white